Faculty Awards

— Reported by B. J. Almond, Dawn Dorsey, Jennifer Evans, Lindsey Fielder, and Arie Wilson

— Michael Emerson — Richard Baraniuk — Michael Gustin — James Brown — Richard Stoll — Alexander Byrd — John Hutchinson — Kyriacos Athanasiou — Lisa Meffert — Robert Roux — Carlos Jimenez — William Wilson — Jose Narbona Michael Emerson Michael Gustin John Hutchinson Kyriacos Athanasiou John Boles Lisa Meffert

Emerson Wins Teaching Prize

This year’s recipient of Rice’s most prestigious teaching award vividly recalls his social psychology professor at Loyola University in Chicago. “He came into class one day with his tie on his head and his shirt open down to his belly button so you could see the chains he was wearing,” says Michael Emerson, the Allyn and Gladys Cline Professor of Sociology. “He made the point that we would think differently of him if he dressed this way all the time. His creativity in teaching stood out.”

Now Emerson’s own outstanding teaching is in the spotlight. He was awarded the 2006 George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching. The recipient is chosen on the basis of survey responses from alumni who graduated two and five years ago.

Whether he’s teaching courses on race and ethnicity, the sociology of religion, statistics and methods, or urban sociology, Emerson strives to relate the material to his students’ lives. Being authentic is one of the essential ingredients of successful teaching, according to Emerson. “You can read a lot of books about teaching and take courses,” he notes, “but at the end of the day, what matters is whether you truly care about your subject and your students. I try to live what I’m teaching, and I want my students to apply it in their own lives.”

A member of Rice’s Department of Sociology faculty since 1999, Emerson left during the 2004–05 academic year to teach at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. But he came back last year because he missed Rice students.

When he isn’t immersed in teaching, Emerson is likely to be conducting research or writing a book. He has co-authored Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, which won the 2001 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, United by Faith, and Against All Odds. His latest book, People of the Dream: Multiracial Congregations in the United States, was published in April. Emerson also is director and founder of Rice’s Center on Race, Religion, and Urban Life.

Six other Rice professors were honored for their outstanding skills in the classroom with the 2006 George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching. The recipients are Richard Baraniuk, the Victor C. Cameron Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering; Michael Gustin, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology; James Brown, professor of economics; Richard Stoll, associate dean of social sciences and professor of political science; Alexander Byrd, assistant professor of history; and John Hutchinson, professor of chemistry.

Athanasiou, Boles Honored for Mentoring

Rice’s 2006 Presidential Award for Mentoring has been presented to bioengineering’s Kyriacos Athanasiou and history’s John Boles.

Athanasiou, the Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Bioengineering, is internationally known for his research, actively involved in professional organizations, and a leader of one of the largest research groups on campus. But, he says, interacting with students is the primary reason he is a faculty member.

Athanasiou has mentored more than 130 postdoctoral researchers, medical residents, graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students. In 2003, he won the Graduate Student Association Teaching and Mentoring Award.

“It exhilarates me when I see young people reach for the stars,” he says. “It is such a joy to see students garner prestigious awards and accolades and then leave the program knowing they have what it takes to be at the very top. It’s also rewarding when they keep in touch professionally and personally.”

Boles, the William Pettus Hobby Professor of History, decided when he was a boy that he wanted to be a college professor, even though he knew nothing about it. Hundreds of Rice students are happy he didn’t fancy being a cowboy or a fireman, for they have been beneficiaries of his skill at writing, talking, teaching, and advising. But it is his outstanding achievement in mentoring that has earned Boles the 2006 Presidential Mentoring Award.

Former students roundly lauded Boles for his patience, engagement, wisdom, and advocacy. “I regard him as the finest living example of how to mold and shape future colleagues in academia,” wrote one student in a nomination letter for the award.

Ecology’s Meffert Takes Home Phi Beta Kappa Award

Assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Lisa Meffert’s favorite teaching evaluation starts out, “Even though I have no interest in Dr. Meffert’s fields whatsoever, I’ve got to say that she did an amazing job of holding my attention and getting me to learn her material.”

These same sentiments were echoed in many of the teaching evaluations that helped her win the 2006 Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize. A committee reads the evaluations of the assistant professors with the highest teaching evaluation numerical scores to determine the winner of the award.

Shepherd School’s Roux Honored With Chance Prize

The Shepherd School of Music’s Robert Roux is the 2006 recipient of the Julia Mile Chance Prize for Excellence in Teaching, which is given annually to an associate or full professor who provides students with an intellectual challenge and inspiration in a field of study, shows extraordinary dedication to students’ professional development, and enhances gender-sensitive leadership on campus.

The nominations are based on recommendations from undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni and on teaching evaluations.

Roux’s willingness to unselfishly extend himself past his required duties is what has earned him a reputation among students and alumni. “He goes out of his way to give his students the individual attention they need to meet their goals,” commented one student, “even if it involves extra hours spent outside his weekly teaching schedule.”

Duncan Award Goes To Architecture’s Jimenez

Carlos Jimenez, professor of architecture and an internationally known architect, has combined a distinctive style of teaching and research into an award-winning blend. He is the recipient of the 2006 Charles W. Duncan Jr. Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty, which recognizes accomplishment in scholarship and teaching.

Jimenez, who was born in Costa Rica, came to the United States in the 1970s and graduated from the University of Houston in 1981. After a brief partnership, he started his own studio in 1982. He became a visiting professor at Rice in 1987, and in 1996, he started teaching full time at the university. By that time, he was well known with a substantial portfolio of work and many publications.

Dr. Bill Receives Salgo Award

A Rice University alum from the 1970s recently emailed William “Dr. Bill” Wilson, professor in electrical and computer engineering, to congratulate him on his upcoming retirement and noted, “You were the first professor who ever called me by my name.”

Wilson was somewhat surprised. “That’s the whole point of being a teacher,” he says, “knowing who your students are and being part of their lives.”

That personal touch has earned Wilson the Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teaching Award, Rice’s oldest teaching prize, which is funded by the Noren–Salgo Foundation and Rice. The recipient is chosen by members of the junior and senior classes.

It’s likely that the Salgo Award reflects not only Wilson’s dedication as a teacher in the classroom, but also outside the classroom as well. For 28 years, he served as a resident associate of Wiess College, where he became affectionately known as “Dr. Bill.” He has shared his expertise as a theater technician and a sound engineer by helping produce more than 50 Tabletop shows at Wiess, taping shows at other colleges, and recording performances by the Rice Philharmonics, the comedy ensemble Spontaneous Combustion, and other student groups. He helped create JamFest, an annual festival showcasing Rice student bands. And his countless photos of student life have been on display in the Wiess Commons, including freshman mug shots he takes each summer during Orientation Week so that upperclassmen can learn the newcomers’ names. When Rice alumni contributed money for a gift in Wilson’s honor, Wilson established the Dr. Bill Student Initiative Fund to support student projects that improve campus life or student activities.

His dedication helped him win the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching multiple times, as well as the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching, during his 34 years at Rice.

Humanities’ Narbona Wins Sarofim Award

When senior lecturer Jose Narbona teaches Spanish, he hopes to bring together language and culture in a way that enhances students’ learning experience and world view. He calls it a “total learning experience.”

That kind of dedication to his students has earned Narbona the Sarofim Teaching Award for Excellence. Created with support from Rice endowment manager Fayez Sarofim, the award is given to a lecturer in the School of Humanities who has shown exceptional professionalism and dedication to students.

Narbona loves to hear about students’ busy lives, which he does not only in the classroom but also through hosting “language tables” at the residential colleges, giving students a chance to flex their developing language skills over lunch with other students and faculty.

Narbona, who earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Seville, Spain, and his master’s at Rice, says he owes a lot to the university. “I pretty much shaped myself as an instructor here,” he says. “All the knowledge and techniques for teaching that I learned here make me feel very proud, especially because they include important concepts like excellence, efficiency, and professionalism that I consider essential in the work of an educator.”