Regents Present Awards to 11 Faculty Members
Regents Present Awards to 11 Faculty
Members for Mentoring, Public Service, Teaching,
Research, Scholarship,
Creative Activity, Collaboration
April 11, 2003
At its April 11 meeting at Towson University, the University
System of Maryland Board of Regents will present the
Regents' Faculty Awards for Excellence. This year, the
Regents will recognize 11 faculty members from institutions
across the USM for their outstanding contributions in one of
seven areas: collaboration, mentoring, public service,
teaching, research, scholarship, and creative activity.
"These 11 educators, recommended by the Regents Faculty
Award Committee, are an example for every person in higher
education," said Clifford M. Kendall, chairman of the Board.
"Through their hard work, dedication, and creative
endeavors, they have shown that for teachers and students
alike, real learning knows no boundaries. The Board is
pleased to bestow its highest honor upon them."
Each recipient of an award for mentoring, public service,
teaching, and research, scholarship, and creative activity
will receive $1,000 and a plaque of recognition for the
honor. Each recipient of an award for interinstitutional
collaboration will receive $500 and a plaque.
The Board of Regents established the Faculty Awards in 1995
to publicly recognize distinguished performance by educators
and researchers within the University System. The Regents
Faculty Award Committee, made up of faculty from the USM's
research and comprehensive institutions as well as one
member from the System office staff, receives nominations
from the president of each institution, along with the
nominees' portfolios. The portfolios provided documentation
of outstanding performance, during the last three years, in
the award category for which the faculty member was
nominated. Each nominee must have served as a USM faculty
member for at least five years.
This year's award winners for Excellence in USM
Interinstitutional Collaboration are:
Judith M. Stribling, associate professor of biology
at Salisbury University, and Gian Gupta, professor of
environmental sciences and chemistry in the Department of
Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Stribling and Gupta lead the nationally recognized
undergraduate dual degree program in environment/marine
science and biology at their respective institutions.
Ten years ago, UMES and Salisbury began a collaborative
program that took advantage of their existing strengths
and avoided the costs of duplicating a program offered
at a nearby institution. Stribling was assigned by Salisbury
University to coordinate and strengthen the program in 1997,
and she found a ready ally in Gupta, who has led the UMES
side of the effort since 1991. Both Gupta and Stribling
teach a fullload of courses and advise more than 25
students. Gupta supervises graduate students and serves
in the faculty governance organizations at UMES, while
Stribling volunteers for several regional conservation
groups, supervises undergraduate research, and advises
the Bioenvirons Club. Recognized nationally in 1998 by
the Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for collaborative programming
between a predominantly white campus and a historically
black institution, the UMES-Salisbury dual degree program
is an example of the kind of collaboration that can be
achieved within the USM family of institutions.
This year's award winner for Excellence in Mentoring is:
Noel Myricks, associate professor in the
Department of Family Studies at the University of Maryland,
College Park (UMCP). Over the past three decades, Myricks,
an educator and lawyer, has mentored students from diverse
racial and ethnic backgrounds, demanding quality and setting
standards that will prove incalculably valuable for students
in their careers and personal lives. Myricks has encouraged
promising students, many of whom are minorities, to go to
law school or graduate school, and to pursue other professional
endeavors. Under his guidance, the University Mock Trial
Program has produced nine consecutive regional championships
and five national championships. His work has enhanced the
undergraduate experience, enriched student lives, and
advanced the educational mission of the institution.
This year's award winners for Excellence in Public Service are:
E. Wendy Saul, professor of education
at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Because
of their unique professional concern with education, all faculty
members in the Department of Education are expected to draw on
their expertise, training, and experience to perform service
that benefits the public. The scope, intensity, quality, and
impact of Saul's public service surpass even the highest
expectations of her department and her national and
international peers. Saul's career is based on listening to
those voices too often ignored - encouraging them to present
their findings in larger forums or in publications, and
supporting teacher research within their own classrooms. Her
insights into teaching and learning include the linkage
between literacy and science, meaning and inquiry, and
readiness and learning and their application to schools. She
has promoted critical thinking and active learning among
young students by developing an annual Kids Inquiry
Conference, held at UMBC each summer, and engaged in service
to the educational community by active participation on many
boards and in numerous organizations that promote inquiry,
education, and teaching. Saul also has received praise for
her international service. Since 1997, she has volunteered
with the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project
in Lithuania and Azerbaijan as an expert teacher trainer.
The project, a collaboration of George Soros' Open Society
Institute and the International Reading Association, is a
professional development program to assist teachers from 28
countries to change classroom teaching practices at all
grade levels.
Warren D. Tewes, assistant professor in the School of
Dentistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Tewes, a
full member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, is
a volunteer dental consultant to the Maryland State Office
of the Chief Medical Examiner and a member of the federal
Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team. Each time he is
called to the grim task of dental identification, he knows
that he is assisting a distressed and grieving family. In
this spirit, he has participated in making over 100
identifications in the past three years. In addition to his
forensic odontology work with the medical examiner, Tewes
has helped the state to establish the Maryland Dental
Database for Missing and Unidentified Persons. A central
repository of dental records for missing persons allows
police to compare reports from families with unidentified
persons. The key to success has been the inter-organization
communications between the Medical Examiners Office, the
Maryland State Police, and the Maryland State Dental
Association. Working with the Forensic Dentistry Committee,
Tewes has solicited volunteer participation so that a
statewide network has at least one dentist assigned to each
county. Because of the acclaim that he received working in
these areas, he was asked to be the volunteer forensic
dental representative on the Forensic Advisory Board at the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in
Alexandria, VA. There, he developed simplified dental
charting schemes for non-dental first responders that can be
faxed globally in a crisis times. Beginning September 12,
2001, Tewes worked with 40 other team members for two weeks
to process the remains of the 44 passengers and crew of
United Airlines Flight 93.
Memo Diriker, associate professor
of marketing in the Franklin P. Perdue School of Business at
Salisbury University. Diriker has been a tireless contributor
to many endeavors that have enriched the Eastern Shore's
quality of life. Residents of the Eastern Shore feel an
attachment to Salisbury University because of Diriker.
They may read his weekly newspaper column, may have seen
him interviewed on television, or may make use of his
annual Regional Economic Forecast. They may own a business
that used him as a consultant, belong to the same civic
organization, or speak Spanish and appreciate his initiation
of Bienvenidos a Delmarva. Diriker's community involvement
affects his classroom, becoming a basis for case studies, student
projects, and further research. Under his guidance, the
student chapter of the Perdue School's American Marketing
Association won its first national awards. Awareness of the
need to apply his extensive knowledge of economic and
marketing principles to understand and solve public sector
challenges has spurred him to develop online learning
modules and to use technology to help diverse communities
communicate.
This year's winners of the award for Excellence in Teaching are:
Spencer Benson, associate professor
of cell biology and molecular genetics at the University of
Maryland, College Park. A longtime advocate of undergraduate
education, he has been a key contributor to the overall
design and monitoring of College Park's general education
courses and an active participant in the Center for Teaching
Excellence. Benson was a member of the faculty group that
launched the innovative, team-taught, interdisciplinary
World Courses. He co-designed and co-delivered a novel
course focusing on the Nile River, viewed through the
prism of the geopolitical and engineering challenges
accompanying the construction of the Aswan Dam and the
economic and ecological consequences of the construction.
He also has helped shape science education in the state as
part of the University Task Force on K-16 Education.
Practicing what he preaches, Benson is participating in a
$7.5 million National Science Foundation grant to improve
instruction and middle-school student achievement in science.
His undergraduate teaching involves large and small classes,
both for life-science majors and non-majors. He routinely
holds workshops on teaching for graduate students and works
with graduate assistants to develop their teaching skills.
As he has continued to innovate in his courses, he has also
published extensively and, as invited speaker, shared his
findings at many national conferences and workshops.
Kimberly Hunter, assistant professor of biological
sciences in the Richard A. Henson School of Science and
Technology at Salisbury University. Hunter is a leader in
engaging Salisbury's biology majors as well as students
from other disciplines in learning about biology, botany
in particular, through undergraduate research. She has
mentored more than 140 students in various research projects
since she arrived on campus in 1997. Hunter teaches the
required complement of three or four courses each semester,
advises 30 students, and fulfills expectations for university
and community service. What separates top-tier scientists from
the rest is their capacity for asking important questions.
Hunter helps her students learn how to recognize those important
questions, and how to ask them. About 20 students are
involved in research each semester working on one of five
projects, with two to five students on each project. Each
project involves field collection of plant samples, modern
genetic analysis, intensive literature research, grant
writing, lab work, data analysis, and project presentation
of work. In some cases a paper may be produced for peer
review. All projects focus on population genetics and use
similar DNA analysis techniques. Hunter regularly checks
each group's progress, and demonstrates proper lab
techniques to a few students who teach others. Experience in
this efficiently run laboratory helps students discover or
raise their career goals, learn skills that are immediately
useful in industry or graduate school, and contribute their
independent effort to a group project.
Lea Ramsdell, assistant professor of Spanish at Towson
University. Since joining the Department of Modern Languages
in 1997, Ramsdell has consistently received high student
evaluations in a variety of classes that include not only
lower level language classes but also upper level core
requirements for Spanish majors and minors. Colleagues who
have visited her classes proclaim her proficiency with all
the conventional teaching methods, praise the interactive
aspects of her classes, remark on the integration of
technology into her teaching, and rate highly such written
components as tests, homework, and syllabi. What makes her
stand out is the way she has integrated service learning
into the advanced Spanish composition class. Students in the
class must volunteer for 12 hours to either tutor adults at
the Hispanic Apostolate or teach English as a second
language to students at Dumbarton Middle School. They must
keep a log or journal about each session; conduct, tape,
translate, and critique a serious interview in Spanish;
participate in four lunch-time gatherings conducted entirely
in Spanish; and incorporate some of their learning
experiences into the major paper required for the course.
Thanks to Ramsdell's deep sense of community service,
engaging professionalism, and innovative teaching, Spanish
407 has enjoyed enormous success both in the classroom and
in the community.
This year's winners of the award for Excellence in
Research/Scholarship/Creative Activity are:
Govind Rao, professor of chemical
and biochemical engineering at the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County. Building largely on Rao's vision and
leadership, UMBC's Department of Chemical and Biochemical
Engineering is attracting growing attention nationally and
internationally. As a researcher and teacher, Rao has been
an indispensable member of the department and is a role model
for the entire UMBC community. His 93 publications, including
30 in the past three years, and three patents justify the
confidence that National Science Foundation had in him when
they named him a Presidential Young Investigator in 1991.
In turn, he has built the new department at UMBC with
persons of similar talent. Due largely to his active
mentoring, his department is one of only a few in the
nation where every junior faculty member who is eligible
for a National Science Foundation Career Award has received
one. Rao's cutting-edge research in the area of sensors and
instrumentation is resulting in low-cost measurements that
previously were impossible other than in research
laboratories. In another area, he is exploiting the
unique properties of green fluorescent protein to serve
as a real-time marker in bioprocess development. More
recently, he has developed high throughput bioprocessing
techniques that could revolutionize the pharmaceutical
industry. What is unique about Dr. Rao's work is that it
is extremely focused on developing breakthroughs that
affect the greatest number of people at the lowest possible cost.
Elizabeth Gantt, distinguished university professor in the
Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the
University of Maryland, College Park. Gantt is one of the
world's leading experts on the organization of the
photosynthesis apparatus of phycobilin-containing algae. She
was first to identify a group of novel pigmented bodies,
which she named phycobilosomes, that turned out to be major
components of the light harvesting system of photosynthesis.
Gantt's pioneering research covers broad areas of basic
importance in cell biology and biochemistry. Her recent
research has been directed toward elucidating the structural
organization of the photosynthetic membrane during light
acclimation. Some of her more significant accomplishments
have included the development of means by which the
topography of the supramolecular photosynthetic membrane
complexes could be quantitatively studied in situ. Gantt and
her coworkers produced evidence that supports a common
origin for chloroplasts of various pigmented algae,
previously believed to be widely divergent. Despite
maintaining a vigorous and highly visible research program,
Gantt's commitments to teaching and service to UMCP have
never wavered. In addition to teaching, she directs
dissertations of graduate students, hosts postdoctoral
fellows, and serves on numerous graduate student committees.
She is one of her unit's most reliable citizens, serving on
search and other committees.
Contact:
Chris Hart
Phone: 301/445-2739
E-mail: chart@usmd.edu
