Faculty recognized for excellence in teaching

Diane Barger, professor of music, received the Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities.
Diane Barger, professor of music, received the Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities.

UNL has awarded the College Distinguished Teaching Awards, the Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award and the Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award.

College Distinguished Teaching Awards are $1,000 awards in recognition of consistent excellence in teaching.

Faculty earning 2013 College Awards for Distinguished Teaching were:

• College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources: Lloyd Bell, professor of agricultural leadership, education and communication.

• College of Arts and Sciences: Sarah Gervais, assistant professor of psychology; Roland Vegso, assistant professor of English; Lisa Kort-Butler, assistant professor of sociology; Isabel Maria Velázquez, assistant professor of modern languages and literatures; Stephen Ramsay, associate professor of English.

• College of Business Administration: Geoffrey Friesen, associate professor of finance.

• College of Education and Human Sciences: Martha Horvay, assistant professor of textiles, merchandising and fashion design; Julia Torquati, associate professor of child, youth and family studies; James Griesen, professor of educational administration.

• College of Engineering: Curtis Weller, professor of biological systems engineering; Roger Sash, associate professor of computer and electronics engineering.

• Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts: Aaron Holz, associate professor of art and art history.

• College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Stacy James, senior lecturer of journalism and mass communications.

Daniel Toundykov, assistant professor of mathematics, received the Harold and Esther Edgerton Junior Faculty Award.

The Edgerton Junior Faculty Award is in recognition of creative research, extraordinary teaching and academic promise. Toundykov joined UNL in 2007 as a research assistant professor. He was hired as an assistant professor in 2010. His research emphasis is in the filed of nonlinear evolutionary partial differential equations.

In addition to his research accomplishments, he maintains a strong dedication to his students, both in and out of the classroom.

Diane Barger, professor of music, received the Annis Chaikin Sorensen Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities.

Barger joined UNL in 1994, received promotion and tenure to associate professor in 2000 and was promoted to full professor in 2007. She was named a Hixson-Lied Distinguished Professor in 2011. As an award-winning teacher of clarinet, Barger finds ways to blend teaching with creative activities to engage her students.

These faculty members will be recognized at Honors Convocation on April 14. For more information about the awards, go to http://www.unl.edu/svcaa/honors.