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LAWRENCE -- A "Surprise Patrol" led by Chancellor Robert Hemenway today handed out $5,000 Kemper Awards to six University of Kansas professors in recognition of their excellence in teaching and advising.
In all, 20 professors will be honored and $100,000 distributed with Kemper Awards this year. The patrol will hand out Kemper Awards to additional unsuspecting professors Friday, Aug. 22, and next week. The patrol includes Commerce Bank representative Mark Gonzales, community bank president in Lawrence, and Dale Seuferling, president of the KU Endowment Association.
The W.T. Kemper Fellowships for Teaching Excellence recognize outstanding teachers and advisers at KU as determined by a seven-member selection committee. Now in the eighth year of a 10-year program, the awards were established by a $500,000 fund from the William T. Kemper Foundation-Commerce Bank, Trustee, and $500,000 in matching funds from the KU Endowment Association.
Today's winners are (biographies of the winners follow the list):
W. Perry Alexander, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science
Jonathan Earle, assistant professor of history
Charles Eldredge, professor of art history
Richard Hale, assistant professor of aerospace engineering
John Head, professor of law
John Kelly, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology
Biographies of the winners:
Associate Professor Perry Alexander joined the KU faculty in 1999. After receiving two bachelor's degrees and a master's degree from KU, he completed his doctoral degree here in 1992. Alexander has helped redesign and create several courses in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He also helped secure new digital design equipment for the department. Through his efforts, engineering students have more training in computer simulation equipment.
A colleague says Alexander "has the ability to explain complex material so well that it disarms students." In their evaluations, his students applaud his passion for teaching. One student said, "He brings interaction and experience to his classes such that theory becomes practical." In 2002, Alexander received a KU Center for Teaching Excellence award. He also won the EECS Engineering Expo Outstanding Teacher Award in 2000.
Assistant Professor Jonathan Earle joined the KU faculty in 1997. Four years later, he became the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History. In this capacity, he has advised a number of students not only on their schedules but also on their career paths. In 2002, Earle received the KU Center for Teaching Excellence award for his department.
In their evaluations, students say he makes history come to life. One student said, "It seemed as though the entire class came to hear a story, not a lecture." Earle also teaches his students to play "townball," a crude 19th-century version of baseball. He says this experience makes the era seem less foreign. Another student said Earle has an "uncanny ability to make history applicable to current events." By making these connections, his students say they understand and enjoy history more.
Earle earned his doctorate in 1996 from Princeton University in New Jersey.
Professor Charles Eldredge returned to KU's faculty in 1988 after six years at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He says he left his position as director of the National Museum of American Art to pursue full-time teaching. Eldredge says he is "equally at home in the gallery and in the classroom." However, he enjoys "cajoling a dissertation out of a candidate who never conceived of writing one."
In 2000, Eldredge won KU's Center for Teaching Excellence award. As a past director of the Spencer Museum of Art, Eldredge combines his experience with classroom guidance. He also experiments with class structure to find the most effective format. In one class, he even did away with examinations in favor of bi-weekly papers.
Eldredge received his doctorate in 1971 from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He is a Hall distinguished professor of American art and culture.
In 1998, Assistant Professor Richard Hale left his industry career and joined the KU faculty. According to Hale's colleagues, his field experience makes him a better teacher. Hale won the Aerospace Engineering Educator of the Year award for the 1999-2000 and 2001-02 academic years. In 2002, he also received the Henry E. Gould Award for Distinguished Services to Undergraduate Education.
Although students constantly praise Hale's teaching abilities, he continues to explore various learning styles. He serves as the Department of Aerospace Engineering's ambassador to the Center for Teaching Excellence. In his statement of teaching philosophy, he says instructors "must explore student-learning styles as voraciously as [they] explore [their] technical disciplines." Hale frequently surveys his students about their learning styles and his teaching styles. Then he analyzes their responses and adjusts his teaching methods accordingly.
Hale received his doctorate in 1995 from Iowa State University in Ames. He has received two U.S. utility patents and written two software systems. Recently he created the Aerospace Engineering Learning Community, which he hopes will develop leaders in the field.
Professor John Head joined the KU School of Law faculty in 1990. Each year since then, Head has coached KU's team for the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Under his direction, the team has won regional rounds and traveled to Washington, D.C., for the international competition.
Head's unique combination of knowledge and humor has influenced countless law students. The student evaluations frequently praise his talents for accordion playing, singing and writing song parodies. Outside class, students constantly seek Head's advice, both in their studies and careers. One colleague said Head had to "create and furnish, at his own expense, an attractive waiting area outside his office to handle the overflow crowds."
In 1979, Head received his juris doctorate from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He also studied at Oxford University in England.
Assistant Professor John Kelly began his career in KU's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in 1998. He earned his Ph.D. in 1996 from the University of Chicago and received that university's Outstanding Dissertation Award.
In 2000, undergraduate students in Kelly's department awarded him with the KU Center for Teaching Excellence award for excellence in teaching. According to one student, students often sit in on Kelly's lectures, even when they aren't enrolled in the class. Another student said she was not excited about taking Population Genetics until Kelly began his first lecture. She says, "A good teacher can teach those that are already interested in a subject. However, it takes a truly gifted teacher to inspire the uninterested student."
In addition to teaching, Kelly also has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles based on his research.
[Biographies written by Jamie Rentfro]
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