KU News Release

Professor receives Louise Byrd Graduate Educator Award

Paulyn Cartwright

LAWRENCE — Paulyn Cartwright, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas, is the 2009 recipient of the Louise Byrd Graduate Educator Award. The award will be presented May 16 during KU’s annual doctoral hooding ceremony at the Lied Center.

The award was established in 1984 in memory of Louise E. Byrd, who served for many years as secretary of the Graduate School. The award honors faculty members who have demonstrated extraordinary devotion to graduate students and graduate education and who have distinguished themselves as scholars.

“KU places a high priority on excellent mentoring of graduate students,” said Sara Rosen, associate vice provost for research and graduate studies and dean of graduate studies. “A strong, positive relationship between the student and the mentor ensures success in research training at all levels: undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral. Paulyn Cartwright exemplifies the kind of mentoring that allows her students to flourish.”

In a letter supporting Cartwright’s nomination, one of her doctoral students wrote: “Her work as a mentor and scientist has illustrated to her students that good scholarship means maintaining high standards for the quality of your research, and that this does not mean sacrificing your obligations to friends and family. These standards have impressed, and influenced, her students’ concept of what a true scholar is and what kind of scientist they want to be.”

Cartwright came to KU in 1998 as a National Science Foundation Sloan Postdoctoral Fellow in molecular evolution. She remained at KU as an instructor until 2004, when she left to serve as a research affiliate at Yale University. She returned to KU in her present position in 2005 and is an adjunct research associate in KU’s Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute. Her academic background includes a bachelor’s degree from the University of California-Los Angeles and master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale, all in biology.

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