Excellent teachers are not hard to find at Dartmouth, but nine particularly exceptional professors were honored at the end of last term with a variety of awards. The Dean of the Faculty conferred honors on six College professors and the Graduate Student Council and Office of Graduate Studies presented a new award to three professors.
History professor Kenneth Shewmaker won this year's Jerome Goldstein Award for Distinguished Teaching, which is voted on by the gradating class and presented at Class Day. Shewmaker, who also received the award in 1986 and 1996, is the first professor to win the award three times.
"You did better than Smarty Jones," one of Shewmaker's colleagues said upon hearing of Shewmaker's most recent award.
"I do feel much more fortunate than Smarty Jones," Shewmaker said, "but my true good fortune was coming to Dartmouth 37 years ago."
He credits the "bright and talented" students with his success in teaching at the College and counts winning the award three times as one of his most memorable experiences during his distinguished teaching career.
Mathematics professor Thomas Bickel was awarded the Robert A. Fish 1918 Memorial Prize, which is given to a recently retired faculty member for his contributions to undergraduate education.
Bickel is retiring this year after 37 years at Dartmouth, though he plans to continue working with the registrar's office after leaving the math department. He credits his success in teaching to his interest in his students and to his approach to teaching that attempts to involve students in the learning process.
Government professor Allan Stam and French professor Katharine Conley were presented with the J. Kenneth Huntington Memorial Award for newly promoted faculty. Both professors were recently promoted from assistant to associate professor within their departments, making them eligible for the award.
Stam teaches courses in international relations and is known for his charismatic teaching style. Conley's courses on surrealism in both French and women and gender studies are popular on campus.
Elisabeth Sherman '06 took a course on surrealism with Conley and praised her as "incredibly passionate" and gifted at "transferring that passion to students so they fell in love with the subject matter."
Geography professor Benjamin Forest obtained the J. Kenneth Huntington Memorial Award for newly tenured faculty. Forest led the Prague Foreign Study Program this year. He teaches an introductory Geography course as well as several upper-level courses that deal with questions of racial and national identity.
"Professor Forest made my transition to Dartmouth very easy. His course was always interesting and he was very accessible," said Alex Gelman '06, who was enrolled in Forest's political geography course in the fall of his freshman year.
The Dean of the Faculty Teaching Award for visiting and adjunct professors was awarded to visiting English and comparative literature professor Laurence Davies. Davies teaches several popular English courses at Dartmouth, many of which deal with Celtic literature.
In addition, a new award was presented to three professors for their contributions to mentoring graduate students. Biology professor Matthew Ayres, engineering professor George Cybenko and anesthesiology and pharmacology professor Joyce DeLeo were chosen for the award based on nominations submitted by graduate students. The award was presented by the Graduate Student Council and the Office of Graduate Studies.
Cybenko expressed his gratitude for the award by saying that it was "a great honor because it comes from my students." He said he was particularly impressed by the self-motivation of the graduate students who submitted nominations for their professors to receive this award.
