Knox Presents Alumni Achievement Awards

Knox College honors four graduates with Alumni Achievement Awards at the 2010 Founders Day Convocation, 5 p.m., Friday, February 19, in the Muelder Reading Room, Seymour Library on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois.

The award winners are Alexander Kuo, an author and photographer; James Hallock, a pioneer in the development of sustainable housing construction; Keith Maskus, an expert on international trade; and Matthew Berg, information technology coordinator for a project to improve health care in Africa and recipient of this year's Young Alumni Achievement Award.

The convocation is free and open to the public.

The convocation celebrates the 173rd anniversary of the founding of Knox College, chartered by the Illinois legislature in 1837. Each award recipient will give brief remarks, as will Knox College President Roger Taylor, Student Senate President Heather Kopec and Alumni Council Chair Jean Anderson.

A 1961 Knox graduate, Alex Kuo has published eight books, including Lipstick and Other Stories, which won the 2002 American Book Award. His 1971 collection of poems, The Window Tree, was the first volume of poetry published by an Asian American in the United States. He also has published more than 350 poems, short stories, photographs, and essays. Born in Boston, Kuo was raised in Chongqing, China, during World War II. He attended primary and secondary school in Hong Kong, then earned a bachelor's degree in English at Knox and a master of fine arts degree at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He has received numerous awards, including a Senior Fulbright Fellowship. Kuo has taught writing, literature and ethnic studies at colleges and universities in the U.S. and China, including Knox, where he was a Distinguished Writer in Residence in 2004 and 2009.

• About Alex Kuo

James Hallock is a Galesburg native who received his bachelor's degree in history at Knox College in 1969. He is founder and president of Earth Block, Inc., a Colorado firm that has pioneered the use of compressed soil to build a wide variety of structures. The firm's high-pressure hydraulic ram allows blocks to be produced on-site -- saving transportation costs and suitable for developing countries with limited transportation facilities. Hallock has served as a consultant to the United States Department of Agriculture in the reconstruction of Honduras following Hurricane Mitch, and for a project in Mexico to build 6,000 homes with earth blocks -- the largest such community in the world. He is also an executive director of the Tierra y Cal Institute, which provides training in methods of sustainable construction. Tierra y Cal is currently involved in design and construction of compressed earth buildings for communities in Mexico and Haiti. Following the recent earthquake in Haiti, Hallock is spearheading a coalition of several non-governmental organizations raising funds to help Haiti rebuild with earthquake-resistant structures.

• EarthBlock, Inc. | Tierra y Cal Institute

Keith Maskus is professor of economics and associate dean for social sciences at the University of Colorado and a renowned expert on international trade and investment, intellectual property rights, and the link between trade and technology transfer. Maskus came to Knox from Webster Groves, Missouri, earning his bachelor's degree in economics and mathematics in 1976. He received master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. Maskus has been a lead economist in the Development Research Group at the World Bank, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a fellow at the Kiel Institute for World Economics, and a visiting professor at universities in Australia, Italy, Germany and China. Maskus also serves as a consultant for the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. He is the author of Intellectual Property Rights in the Global Economy and co-editor of International Public Goods and the Transfer of Technology under a Globalized Intellectual Property Regime.

• University of Colorado: Keith Maskus

Recipient of the 2010 Young Alumni Achievement Award, Matthew Berg graduated from Knox in 2000. He was born in a village in Cameroon, grew up in Senegal in west Africa, and attended Springfield High School in Springfield, Illinois. At Knox, he participated in a study-abroad program in Africa and received his bachelor's degree in computer science and integrated international studies. After completing an MBA in international management at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Berg returned to Africa as a volunteer for Geekcorps, a non-profit organization that expands Internet use in emerging nations, and helped create the Last Mile Initiative, which brings information technology to rural African villages. Currently the information and communications technologies coordinator for the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University, Berg earned a 2006 Tech Museum Laureate Award and was featured in CNN's Business 2.0, Make magazine, and in the book WorldChanging.

• BuildAfrica Project

Knox College and the City of Galesburg were founded together in 1837 by a group of religious and social reformers from upstate New York, led by the Reverend George Washington Gale, after whom the city was named. Knox College was formally chartered by the Illinois legislature on February 15, 1837. Among the members of the General Assembly in 1837 was Abraham Lincoln, who would later rise to national prominence in the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, one of which was held at Knox's Old Main. Today, Old Main is the only original building that remains from the historic debates.

A nationally ranked liberal arts college with 1,382 students from 47 states and 48 countries, Knox also is one of the 40 colleges listed in the book Colleges That Change Lives, by former New York Times education editor Loren Pope.