This award was created in the spring of 2004 to honor Robert "Bill" V. Daniels, of the UVM History Department. Dr. Daniels specialized on Russia and from 1962-1965 he was the Chair of the History Department. He was also the Founder and Director of the UVM Area Studies Program from 1962-1965, which is now our Global and Regional Studies Program. In the 1970s he served in the state legislature as a State Senator for Chittenden County, and even after retirement in 1988 he published multiple seminal books on the Bolshevik Revolution, Stalin, and the end of the Communist era. Dr. Daniels passed away in 2010 but his legacy at UVM remains today in this award. This year's recipient of the award was Professor Gayle Nunely.