September 6,
2005
Goergen Awards honor faculty, staff contributions
he University will recognize the recipients of this year's Goergen Awards for Contributions to Undergraduate Education in the College during the College's annual Convocation on Friday, September 9. The Goergen Awards were first presented in 1997 and are named for and sponsored by trustee and former board chairman Robert B. Goergen '60 and his wife, Pamela. This year's winners are:
JAMES FARRAR, professor of chemistry
Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Education
"I try to construct my approach to teaching around three principles: Be clear, give students tools that enable them to think for themselves, and tell the truth," says Farrar, who joined the faculty in 1976 and teaches courses in physical chemistry and quantum chemistry. "My own teachers and colleagues have influenced my style of teaching. I am also grateful to many generations of students at the University, who have tried to hold me to reasonable standards of clarity.
"In recent years, I have been fortunate to collaborate with colleagues who are committed to the workshop approach to teaching. By thinking about how we actually learn, the workshop model transforms teaching from the transmission of information to a process in which students help construct their own understanding in peer-led teams. The teacher's job is not simply to provide ‘The Answer,' but to guide students toward scientific truth as we currently understand it by subjecting their ideas to critical analysis, discussion, and comparison with facts."
EMIL HOMERIN, professor of religion
Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Education
Homerin teaches Islamic and Arabic studies and also created a course in religious iconography drawing on the architecture of Mt. Hope Cemetery for case studies. He joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1988.
"Just as medical professionals explicitly take the Hippocratic Oath to help others in any time or place, so, too, I believe that we in the humanities have implicitly taken a 'Socratic Oath' to help others ask relevant and probing questions in times of personal and national crises," says Homerin. "In this light, I have tried to help my students and all Americans to better understand Islam, so that they will be better informed and equipped to confront our country's current crisis. This motivates the central focus of my work, both in the classroom and in the wider community, namely poetry. For when we are overwhelmed by fundamentalists and terrorists, when we grow tired of pillars, creeds, and ideologies, poetry can help us to sense Islam's deeper dimensions. This is why I translate poetry, and why translation is not some academic exercise."
DAVID PRIMO, assistant professor of political science
Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Education
"Teaching is about making connections," says Primo, who has taught American politics at the University since 2002 and has created courses focusing on money and business in politics, positive political theory, and the nature of entrepreneurship. "Most important, I strive to connect with students both inside and outside the classroom. If undergraduates sense my enthusiasm for what I teach, they are more likely to participate in discussions, ask questions, and be active rather than passive learners. This improves my ability to communicate ideas and enables classmates to learn from one another as well as from me.
"Perhaps because of my approach to research, I also find it important when teaching to make connections across academic fields and tear down artificial disciplinary boundaries. For example, there is no reason that a well-designed course related to business and government cannot draw from economics, political science, and philosophy.
"Neuroscience has even made its way into one of my political science classes! My hope is that students will take what they learn in my courses and link ideas in ways that may not have occurred to them previously."
OVIDE CORRIVEAU, senior operations officer in the College
Goergen Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Learning in the College
Corriveau oversees all logistical operations in the College, such as new construction, renovation, space planning, and maintenance assessment and planning, as serves as liaison between the College and facilities. He has been with the University since 1970 and was named to his current position in 1998.
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Goergen Award for Curricular Achievement in Undergraduate Education
According to Chair and Professor Richard Waugh and Associate Professor Diane Dalecki the department's goal "has always been to make our undergraduate program one of the very best in the country. As we developed our curriculum, we focused on building an integrated approach to teaching biomedical engineering. We created a common set of core courses where our students learn engineering analysis and design in the context of biomedical applications. Our curriculum requires that students gain a depth of expertise in biomedical engineering by completing a series of courses concentrating in one of four specialty areas within the field. Furthermore, our students take courses in the basic sciences and traditional engineering fields to ensure that they have the background and the vocabulary to excel in cross-disciplinary teams.
"It was a great challenge and a great opportunity for us to design an entirely new curriculum for this emerging field, and we are honored to be recognized as recipients of the Goergen Award."
Department of Political Science
Goergen Award for Curricular Achievement in Undergraduate Education
"Of the nation's leading departments of political science, the Rochester department is distinctive for its contributions to methodological rigor in research, for graduate training, and for our commitment to undergraduate education," write Chair and Associate Professor Gerald Gamm and Professor Richard Niemi.
"Following the example of William H. Riker, who taught at Rochester from 1962 until 1993, we introduce undergraduate students—at all levels, from freshmen to seniors—to the same approach we use in our research and graduate teaching. We emphasize analytical rigor in our teaching, and we teach subjects to undergraduates, such as positive political theory and theories of international relations, that most other universities teach only to graduate students, if at all.
"Our commitment to undergraduates is also apparent in the fact that all advising is done by full-time faculty and that every member of our faculty teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses."
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