Will Bridges, Jason Middleton, and Elaine Sia will be honored at an on-campus ceremony in October.
Three
University of Rochester educators will be honored for their work next month as recipients of the annual Goergen Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
This year’s ceremony will be held Thursday, October 28, at a campus location to be determined and will honor Will Bridges, an associate professor of Japanese in the
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures; Jason Middleton, an associate professor in the
Department of English and director of the
Film and Media Studies program; and Elaine Sia, a professor in the
Department of Biology.
Established in 1997 by University Trustee and Board Chair Emeritus Robert Goergen ’60 and his wife, Pamela, the annual awards recognize distinctive teaching accomplishments of faculty in
Arts, Sciences & Engineering.
Nominations come from students, faculty, staff members, and administrators. The winners are chosen by Jeffrey Runner, dean of the College; Gloria Culver, dean of the
School of Arts & Sciences; and Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the
Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences.
Bridges came to the University in 2017. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas–Austin and his doctorate from Princeton University.
Middleton has been at the University since 2007. He received his bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and his doctorate from Duke University.
Sia joined the University in 2000 and was named a professor in 2014. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University in 1987 and her doctoral degree in microbiology from Columbia University in 1994, followed by postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.