Rubino and Malone receive preservation association honor

Professor of Biology Darrin Rubino and Sarah Malone ’22 received the Martin E. Weaver Award from the Association for Preservation Technology International (APT). The award was announced Nov. 14 during the organization’s annual conference in Providence, R.I.

Rubino and Malone were honored for their article, “Dating Construction with Tree Rings and Sapwood When Felling Dates Are Unavailable.” The work was printed in a 2025 issue of APT Bulletin: The Journal of Preservation Technology (Vol. 55, No. 3). The article was coauthored by Christopher Baas, an associate professor of landscape architecture at Ball State University.

Created in 2008, the Weaver Award recognizes an APT Bulletin article published during the last year that best demonstrates excellence in the history of technology, training and education in historic preservation or in the investigation and treatment of wood in historic buildings and artifacts. The award honors Weaver, an architect, historic preservation lecturer and former APT president who taught at Columbia University from 1991-2004.

Rubino, a noted dendrologist, has served as a member of Hanover’s faculty since 2002. He is a three-time recipient of the Arthur and Ilene Baynham Award for Outstanding Teaching (2007, 2012 and 2018) and a 2014 winner of the Daryl R. Karns Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity. He was presented with the Stanley Totten Award for Outstanding Service in 2016.

Malone, the College’s laboratory technician, studied specimens related to the article in 2021 as part of Hanover’s Summer Research Fellows program. In 2024, she completed her master’s degree in natural resources at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her master’s research focused on using tree-ring analysis and quantitative wood anatomy to study flood-induced stress in red oaks in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley.

APT is dedicated to promoting the best technology for protecting historic structures and their settings. Its membership hails from nearly 30 countries and includes a wide scope of professionals and students who are involved in the application of methods and materials to maintain, conserve and protect historic structures and sites.