Twenty-six faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at the University of Missouri-Rolla were honored for their excellence in teaching in 2004-2005 during a reception held Friday, Oct.14.

Dr. Paula Lutz, dean of the UMR College of Arts and Sciences, presented the awards.

The CAS Excellence in Teaching Award is given each year to College of Arts and Sciences faculty members in two categories. “We wanted to recognize those faculty who teach well to a large number of students (more than 100 per year) and those who teach labs,” explains Lutz. In addition, an award for freshmen – or first year – tenure-track faculty honors those faculty members who achieve this excellence in their initial year at UMR.

Award winners are selected by a committee of Curators’ Teaching Professors in the College of Arts and Sciences based on student evaluations of faculty members done by the Committee for Effective Teaching at UMR. All college faculty, with the exception of Curators’ Teaching Professors, are eligible for the awards.

The CAS Freshman Faculty Teaching Award for 2004-2005 was presented to Dr. Will Canu, assistant professor of psychology. Canu was honored as the outstanding first year tenure-track faculty member. 

The following faculty members who taught more than 100 students in lecture classes during 2004-2005 were selected for CAS Excellence in Teaching Awards in the lecture category:

– Dr. Diana Ahmad, assistant professor of history and political science.

– Col. Tom Akers, instructor of mathematics and statistics.

– Dr. Elvan Akin, assistant professor of mathematics and statistics.

– Dr. Ronald J. Bieniek, associate professor of physics and director of UMR’s Learning Enhancement Across Disciplines and New Faculty programs.

– Dr. Martin Bohner, associate professor of mathematics and statistics.

– Dr. Will Canu, assistant professor of psychology.

– Dr. Ron Frank, associate professor of biological sciences.

– Dr. Patrick Huber, assistant professor history and political science.

– Merilee Krueger, lecturer in psychology.

– Dr. Vy Le, associate professor of mathematics and statistics.

– David Leach, instructor of mathematics and statistics.

– Dr. Jennifer Leopold, assistant professor of computer science.

– Dr. Yinfa Ma, professor of chemistry.

– Dr. James Martin, assistant professor of psychology.

– Dr. John McManus, assistant professor of history and political science.

– Dr. Michael E. Meagher, associate professor of history and political science.

– Dr. Michael Nelson, assistant professor of psychology.

– Dr. Clayton Price, instructor of computer science.

– Dr. Oran Allan Pringle, professor of physics.

– Dr. Kristine Swenson, associate professor of English and technical communications.

– Dr. Ralph Wilkerson, professor of computer science and associate dean of the UMR College of Arts and Sciences.

Of those faculty members, Akers, Akin, Bieniek, Canu, Krueger and Leach met the award requirements while teaching courses with more than 200 students.

The following instructors who taught three or more lab courses in 2004-2005 were selected for the CAS Excellence in Teaching Awards in the lab category:

– Terry Bone, lecturer in chemistry.

– Lorie Francis, lecturer in music in the arts, languages and philosophy department.

– Dr. Don Miller, assistant professor of music in the arts, languages and philosophy department.

– Dr. Greg Story, associate professor of physics.

– Terry J. Wilson, teaching associate in biological sciences.