As the semester comes to a close, I want to take a moment to recognize several faculty members and students who were recently honored for their outstanding accomplishments.
Six UK professors have been recognized for their excellence in the classroom with the UK Alumni Association 2012 Great Teacher Awards. Beginning in 1961, the Great Teacher Award is the oldest continuous award that recognizes teaching at UK – the nominations are made by students. A&S faculty include Arne Bathke, director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Statistics and director of the Applied Statistics Laboratory; Eric Christianson, associate professor in the Department of History; and Ana Rueda, chairwoman and professor of Peninsular Spanish Literature in the Department of Hispanic Studies. The recipients will be honored at the UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award Recognition Dinner on Jan. 17, 2012. They are scheduled for further honors at Rupp Arena during the Arkansas vs. Kentucky men’s basketball game later that evening.
Adesuwa Ighodaro, a senior biochemistry major, is the first recipient of the Paul G. Sears endowed scholarship in chemistry. The scholarship, initiated in 2008, was created in honor of Dr. Paul G. Sears to assist undergraduates studying chemistry at the University of Kentucky. Ade has her sights set on medical school but after the four-year medical program, she will spend an extra year earning a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in global health.
Matthew Massey, avid rock climber and doctoral graduate in Earth and Environmental Sciences, won the Journal of Structural Geology’s Student Author of the Year Award for 2011. Massey was awarded a scholarship from the Graduate School to study abroad at the University of Liverpool. Prior, second author on the paper, helped critique Massey’s interpretations for his dissertation and address some of the peer review comments. The third author on the paper, Massey’s UK advisor Dr. David Moecher, assisted throughout the process editing Massey’s dissertation and critiquing his research.
UK senior Taylor Lloyd was selected as one of this year’s 26 recipients of the prestigious $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). The ASF Scholarship is presented to outstanding college students majoring in science, technology, engineering or math. Lloyd is pursuing a bachelor's degree in agricultural biotechnology and biology. In addition to her studies, Lloyd is a Chellgren Fellow and member of the Society for the Promotion of Undergraduate Research and Alpha Delta Pi Sorority. She is also a 2011 recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.