Dedicated teachers and dynamic researchers are among the winners
in the top Montana State University 2002 faculty awards announced
this week. The annual awards honor achievement in faculty
research, teaching and creative projects. The awards will be
presented at the University Honors Banquet on May 10.
Cox Awards for scholarship and teaching
An outstanding faculty mentor, a noted film scholar and a
respected teacher and researcher in neuroscience are recipients
of the 2002 Cox Family Awards for Creative Scholarship and
Teaching. Each will receive a $2,000 honorarium from the MSU
Foundation as well as an $800 stipend to be used for the purchase
of books dedicated in their honor at MSU's Renee Library.
English professor Alanna Brown, known for her work in Native
American literature, has a teaching career that spans almost 30
years at MSU. Brown has been recognized on campus and by her
profession for her excellence in the classroom as well as her
mentoring of students and student researchers. Brown skillfully
unites her research with her role as teacher, outstanding senior
students - not just in English, but in a variety of disciplines -
have named her 10 times for a faculty excellence award. She has
also mentored a student this year whose manuscript on Crow
stories will be published by the University of Nebraska Press.
Brown received the Burlington Northern Teaching Award and the
College of Letters and Science Outstanding Teacher award. She has
directed and developed programs to enhance teaching and
scholarship on campus including directing the University Honors
Program during its formative years.
Professor Paul Monaco has headed the department of media and
theater arts at MSU for 17 years and over that time has
distinguished himself as a scholar and teacher. He was
professionally recognized with two Fulbright Senior Scholar in
Germany awards and has already received the MSU Wiley Award for
Meritorious Research. He is the author of five books, the latest,
"The History of American Cinema: The Sixties, 1960-1969," was the
result of his selection by the editorial board of the History of
American Cinema Project to write the volume on American cinema in
the sixties and represents a summit achievement in professional
scholarship in his field. He is a prolific film/video maker and
has been an award winning producer/director for KUSM-TV, Montana
Public Television, since 1988. His work with students in the
production of senior films gives them the unique perspective of a
film scholar and film maker.
Professor Charles Paden of the Department of Cell Biology and
Neuroscinece is involved in research that examines how nerve
cells form new connections in the damaged brain utilizing
numerous methodologies of modern neurosicence. It is in his
capacity as a researcher that Paden has had a tremendous impact
as mentor to more than 50 students over 20 years who have worked
in his research laboratory. His reputation for working with
students in a positive and challenging way, and the interesting
topics and methods of his work, often attract the top students on
campus. Undergraduate students in his lab have included two
Goldwater Scholars and a winner of the Phi Kappa Phi National
Graduate Fellowship. Paden has also worked consistently with
programs that place Native American students in research
laboratories.
Wiley Awards
Four researchers whose reputations have reached far beyond
MSU-Bozeman have won this year's Charles and Nora L. Wiley
Faculty Award for Meritorious Research.
The recipients are Randy Babbitt, physics; Anne Camper, Center
for Biofilm Engineering/College of Engineering; Susan Kollin,
English; and Timothy Minton, chemistry. Besides the honor, each
received a $2,000 honorarium. Babbitt, a professor of physics, is
an internationally recognized leader in spectral-spatial
holography and its applications.
Called a "worldclass superstar in optical sciences," he already
has an extensive patent list and has been unusually productive in
generating outside funding. Babbitt moved his optics lab
operation to MSU five years ago from the University of
Washington. Soon afterwards, he was supervising three
undergraduates, four graduate students and two postdoctoral
researchers. One of his current undergraduate colleagues, Zeb
Barber, received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship this spring.
Babbitt combines fundamental research with a commitment to
technological development. Open about collaborations, he
effectively couples research and education at all levels.
Camper, associate dean for research and graduate studies, College
of Engineering, has dominated the field of biofilms in water
distribution systems for more than a decade. She has a national
and international reputation in the field of drinking water
treatment and distribution. She has also been instrumental in
advancing the acceptance of biofilms from concept to fact. In one
pivotal step, Camper's research group showed that biofilms resist
antibiotics because bacteria change their gene expression pattern
as they form biofilms; the biofilm cells resist antibiotics
because they lack the targets they were designed to attack. That
discovery is profound because of its scientific value, and it is
expected to lead to more effective antibiotics and vaccines.
Camper is regarded as an excellent mentor for graduate students.
Kollin, professor of English, is praised for her high level of
expertise in several distinct, but related fields. Author of the
acclaimed, "Nature's State: Imagining Alaska as the Last
Frontier," she is an authority on western American literature,
ecocriticism, film studies and feminist theory. She is considered
one of the top three or four younger scholars in the country who
are working in and developing western American literary and
cultural studies as they intersect with gender and
race/ethnicity. She is the only known scholar attempting to
define a new genre, the Anti-Western, that has been emerging
recently in the writings of some prominent Native American
authors. Kollin is praised for the ambitious questions she
addresses and for the breadth of learning, clarity of writing and
depth of her research. Last year Kollin was elected chair of the
Western Literature Association.
Minton, a professor of chemistry, is considered one of the best
physical chemists in the world. His wide-ranging contributions
involve gas-surface dynamics, surface analysis, high energy
chemical transformations and polymer degradation. Known for his
many "firsts," Minton was the first scientist to develop a
dynamical picture of how high energy atom collisions influence
the shape of etched structure in silicon. He was the first
researcher to study reactive atom-liquid surface collisions. He
was the first to directly observe Eley-Rideal reactions at the
surfaces of organic materials. Minton has been extremely
successful at attracting outside funding. His laboratory -
located a half-mile from the main department because of the size
and weight of his equipment - is well populated with graduate and
undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and visiting
scientists.
Provost's Award for Excellence
Raymond Ansotegui, animal and range sciences, is the recipient of
the James and Mary Ross Provost's Award for Excellence. He will
receive a $2,500 honorarium for the award. In its fourth year,
the Provost's Award recognizes excellence in teaching and
scholarship.
Professor Ansotegui has been the backbone of the teaching program
in the department of Animal and Range Sciences since 1976. He has
taught or co-taught more than 30 different Animal and Range
Science classes since his arrival. His mastery of all aspects of
animal science is legendary. One fellow professor believes
Ansotegui can convey ideas better than anyone in the western
United States. He has won over a dozen teaching awards and has
taught move than 5,000 undergraduate students at MSU. As an
educator, Ansotegui objectives are to present practical, real
world problems which can be solved with knowledge and creative
thinking. He presents problems that students are likely to
encounter. In a word, students describe his teaching as
"awesome."
President's Excellence in Teaching Award
The pure love of teaching and commitment to nurturing excellence
in every student are traits shared by professors Kimberly Myers,
Theodore Hodgson and Max Deibert, recipients of the 2002
President's Distinguished Teacher Award. Each will receive a
$2,000 honorarium.
Kimberly Myers is a professor of English and already well-known
for her teaching excellence after only five and a half years on
campus. She has been recognized four times by outstanding senior
students for a faculty excellence award, with three students
choosing her in a single year.
"I have found that the more I expect of students - both
academically and personally - the more they flourish," wrote
Myers of her teaching philosophy. "My goal is to teach students
more than mere facts. I want them to learn how to figure out
answers for themselves- to trust in their own ability and
intelligence.
Myers motivates students to achieve beyond anyone's expectations.
In course evaluations students call Myers remarkable both in
challenging them to think and providing a comfortable safe place
to talk and think. One student remarked, "I truly have not worked
this hard in any class that I have ever taken. It was worth it
because of the challenge - almost like a literary boot camp."
Another student noted that "she is a sharp scholar, always
seeking to go deeper in her understanding of an author's writing,
and continuously demanding quality, thoughtful work from her
students."
Theodore Hodgson is a professor of mathematics education. He
teaches teachers. As one former student noted, "I apply his ideas
in my college algebra classes and they work; students learn
algebra and they tell me how much they enjoy mathematics."
As a teacher, Hodgson says that his objective is not to teach
mathematics. "Rather, I seek to teach students to understand and
appreciate mathematics. Students cannot learn mathematics by
observing me doing mathematics. They learn mathematics by doing
mathematics."
Hodgson has also been integral to the success of the distance
masters program in mathematics education that gives MSU the
largest on-going professional development program in the Western
United States for mathematics teachers.
Hodgson is known as an inspiring instructor who communicates his
enjoyment of the subject. As one student notes, "He is unwavering
as he works to inspire his students and we were all drawn in by
his obvious zeal for the process of teaching."
Max Deibert is a chemical engineering professor with an energy
and enthusiasm that is infectious. From his "joke of the day" to
Pez candy dispensers for high performers on exams, Deibert
reaches out to students.
"I maintain vital and direct contact with students," notes
Deibert about his teaching philosophy. "Students are often told
that relationship and teamwork skills are the most important
professional aptitudes. The most vital means of instructing
teamwork is through demonstration. Students need to be exposed to
direct and continuous student-instructor contact."
Students know that his door is always open to talk about issues
affecting their academic or personal lives.
Deibert has found that instructor energy and enthusiasm is a
prime motivator of students. Noted one student, "I have never
seen a class period where he did not come in very enthusiastic
and excited to teach."
Betty Coffey Award
For fearless exploration of gender issues within the classroom
and dedication to teaching, history professor Michele Maskiell
has received the Betty Coffey Award. The award is given to a
member of the MSU community who demonstrates achievement in
incorporating women's perspectives in the curriculum and
achievement in developing academic programs that contribute to
the elimination of persistent barriers to the success of women.
She is recognized for her influence on men and women of all ages
both within and outside the classroom. Maskiell has persevered in
her beliefs, and her commitment has won over many students who
now appreciate what she has taught them about women's experience
and gender analysis, civil argument, commitment to principle and
grace under pressure.
The Beffy Coffey Award was established in memory of Betty Coffey,
an engineering professor from 1977-1984 who was noted for her
teaching excellence and her contributions to women's equity.
By Brenda McDonald and Evelyn Boswell Posted for April
23, 2002
