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April 9, 2006
Five Purdue educators receive 2006 Murphy Awards
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Five Purdue educators will receive 2006 Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Awards in memory of Charles B. Murphy today (Sunday, April 9) during the university's annual Honors Convocation in Elliott Hall of Music.
The university's highest undergraduate teaching honor, the Murphy Award is given in recognition of exemplary teaching in all phases of undergraduate instruction at the West Lafayette campus. A $10,000 monetary award accompanies the honor.
The winners' names will be included in the engraved Book of Great Teachers, a plaque in Purdue Memorial Union that honors the best teachers throughout Purdue's history. Murphy was a history professor at Purdue between 1927 and 1970.
The 2006 Murphy Award winners are:
• Steven Bell, professor of mathematics. Bell has been on the faculty since 1984. Last spring, he won Purdue's Ruth and Joel Spira Award, which recognizes professors who excel in teaching and inspiring students. Bell also works with faculty colleagues to increase undergraduates' participation in research and to integrate them into academic life at all levels of the department. One of his students said Bell "treated me more like a colleague than a student, which provided me with much-needed self-respect and self-esteem."
• Kirby Hayes, assistant professor of food science. Last year, Hayes was named a Purdue University Teaching Academy Fellow, and he was given an Award of Merit from the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture and received the Purdue College of Agriculture Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. On the faculty since 2002, Hayes also won the Department of Food Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Student ratings for his performance as a teacher are consistently 4.8 on a 5-point scale.
• Mary Nakhleh, associate professor of chemistry and curriculum and instruction. On the faculty since 1990, Nakhleh has received four teaching awards from Purdue: two from the College of Education, one from the chemistry department and one from Purdue's Teaching for Tomorrow Program. In addition, in 2004 she received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the curriculum and instruction department and the Outstanding Teacher Award from the College of Education in 2005. One student said of Nakhleh's course: "This is hands-down the best education course I have taken at Purdue."
• Bernard Tao, Indiana Soybean Board Professor in Soybean Utilization and professor of agricultural engineering and food science. At Purdue since 1988, Tao is known internationally for his learning activities in biological engineering, food process engineering and K-12 outreach. He has been responsible for seven undergraduate courses, four of which he developed and two that he revised significantly. One student said Tao "is an intelligent and driven individual who is able to probe students' minds. He challenged students every day and forced them to think rather than take a passive approach to solving problems."
• Kim Wilson, associate professor of landscape architecture. At Purdue since 1999, Wilson won awards as the outstanding teacher in her department and the outstanding teacher of landscape architecture in 2004 and 2005. Last year, she also won the Brian Douglas Hiltunen Faculty Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Scholarship of Engagement, as well as the Honor Award in Student Collaboration, Faculty Adviser, from the student awards category of the American Society of Landscape Architects. One student said: "I learned things about myself, the problem-solving process and working in teams that I will use for the rest of my life."
Writer: Christy Jones, (765) 494-1089, christyjones@purdue.edu
Source: Jim Vruggink, director of special projects, (765) 494-2086, jvruggink@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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