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| A CROCUS blooms outside Canfield Administration Building earlier this week, signaling that Spring is on the way. (Photo: Richard Wright) |
John Janovy |
Ann Mari May |
Karen Kunc |
Rosevelt 'Ted' Pardy |
Faculty on the Lincoln campus have received all five universitywide accolades for outstanding individual and departmental teaching, and individual achievement in research and creative activity.
The Outstanding Research and Creative Activity Awards were presented to John Janovy Jr., professor of biological sciences, and Karen Kunc, associate professor of art. The Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Awards were presented to Ann Mari May, associate professor of economics, and Rosevelt L. "Ted" Pardy, professor of biological sciences. And the Universitywide Departmental Teaching Award was presented to the UNL Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Each individual award carries a $3,500 stipend. The departmental award provides $25,000 to be used to further instructional programs within the department.
The awards, presented by the University of Nebraska system, are the highest granted by the university. Committees composed of faculty from all four NU campuses recommended the recipients.
They were announced by Lee Jones, NU executive vice president and provost.
Janovy has held the Paula and D.B. Varner Distinguished Professorship of biological sciences since 1991. The author of nine books ranging from his research specialty, parasitology, to women's athletics, he also has written five laboratory manuals. Most of his research has been conducted in the field on the small common fish Fundulus, which he has made the centerpiece of his study of broad ecological concerns. A member of the UNL faculty since 1966, he has consistently taught introductory as well as advanced courses. He is director of Cedar Point Biological Station, UNL's field station near Ogallala, and has been interim director of the NU State Museum. He earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Oklahoma.
Kunc, a faculty member since 1985, uses the woodcut as her primary artistic medium. Flowing energetic rhythms and colors provide groundwork for abstract landscapes. She has had one-person exhibitions at 55 galleries throughout the United States and in the Czech Republic, Japan and Finland. Her works have been shown in more than 350 exhibits in the United States and 25 international nations. She earned her bachelor's degree from NU and her master's from Ohio State.
May joined the faculty in 1987. Despite a reputation for rigorous academic standards, her courses are popular and crowded. May requires extensive reading, writing and classroom participation and she is a strict no-nonsense grader. She reconstructed the economic history curriculum and developed a new course, Women and Work in the U.S., which examines the transformation of women's economic roles from colonial times to the present. She also has worked to bring provocative speakers to campus. May earned all her academic degrees from Colorado State University.
Pardy, a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at UNL, is a specialist in teaching large class sections. On average, he teaches more than 500 students annually and has abandoned the lectern to roam the aisles wearing a wireless microphone. He makes extensive use of technology and eye-catching visuals for his classes. An advocate of teaching as a primary mission of the university, Pardy has pressed for modernization of classrooms. He founded the "Century Club" for faculty who teach classes of 100 or more students. They meet regularly to discuss issues and challenges. A faculty member since 1977, he has published some 40 papers. Pardy earned his bachelor's degree from Northern Arizona and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Arizona.
The Department of Mathematics and Statistics has 34 tenured or tenure-track faculty, all with Ph.D. degrees, plus five visiting professors, 44 graduate students, six lecturers and 13 evening instructors. They teach classes to more than 5,000 non-math majors each semester as well as 140 students majoring in math and statistics. Half of the department's 30 tenured faculty have received college or university distinguished teaching awards.
The department has a reputation for adapting to and integrating new technology into the classroom, enthusiasm for the general education curriculum and support of the Honors Program. It also has an extensive outreach program to high school math teachers and their students.
Since 1994, the faculty have worked aggressively to reform mathematics education, and have completely revamped its teaching of calculus to a curriculum that increases the role of basic concepts of calculus, their uses and applications.
A mathematics lab systems includes a network of 64 workstations which are used by more than 700 students and faculty.
Encouragement of women in mathematics is a particular departmental emphasis. Fifteen of the last 35 Ph.D.s earned in the department were granted to women (nationally, 23 percent of doctorates are earned by women). The department also sponsors a week-long math camp for high school girls.
-Kim Hachiya, Public Relations
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