Teaching Academy Names Top University of Arkansas Faculty Members

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas Teaching Academy inducted six new members and awarded the third annual John and Lois Imhoff Award for Outstanding Teaching and Student Mentorship at its annual banquet Thursday, Nov. 8.

Dick Oliver, professor of weed science in the crop, soil and environmental sciences department of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences was named this year’s Imhoff Award winner. The award is given to a faculty member who teaches entry-level courses and has proven to be an outstanding teacher and mentor. Oliver received a $1,000 honorarium and a memento of service.

Oliver is a native of Stuttgart. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Arkansas before earning his doctoral degree in weed sciences at Purdue University. He began teaching at the University of Arkansas in 1976, was appointed University Professor in agronomy in 1994 and was named to the Elms Farming Chair for Weed Science in 1995. He has earned numerous teaching and research awards during his career, including the Award of Excellence from the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy (1998); Educator of the Year award from the Southern Weed Science Society (2000); and the Jack G. Justus Endowment Award for Teaching Excellence from Bumpers College (2004). Oliver teaches weed science at all undergraduate and graduate levels, and advises student competition teams that have won first place in their southern region for 21 of the past 27 years.

Oliver was selected from a group of three finalists for the Imhoff Award. The other finalists, Jenny Xu, instructor of Chinese, and Marianne Neighbors, professor of nursing, were also recognized at the Teaching Academy banquet.

The Imhoff award was created by a gift from the John and Lois Imhoff Trust to the UA Teaching Academy. The award recognizes university faculty members who teach introductory-level courses and have demonstrated consistent and committed excellence in teaching and mentoring, qualities central to the mission of a student-centered institution.  The recipients must be nominated by peers, including a member of the Teaching Academy, and reviewed by the Academy’s award committee.

The following six faculty members were inducted into the Teaching Academy:

• William Greenhaw, adjunct instructor in the accounting department of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, teaches freshman-level business law to classes of 100-130 students. He was named the Beta Sigma Outstanding Teaching in 2006 and the Walton College Outstanding Teacher in 2007.

• Micah Hale, associate professor of civil engineering in the College of Engineering, teaches courses in concrete and other building materials, and earned Outstanding Teacher awards in the College of Engineering in 2004 and 2007.

• Nancy Jack, assistant professor of animal science in the Bumpers College, is the director of the D.E. King equine program. She won the top two teaching awards in the Bumpers College in 2007 and advises the student equine club.

• Jennie Popp, associate professor of agricultural economics in Bumpers College, teaches introductory economics courses, environmental economics and helped develop the campuswide orientation course. She is adviser to the agribusiness club, and has won both teaching and advising awards in Bumpers College. 

• Greg Salamo, Distinguished Professor of physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, is also the Joe N. Basore Professor of Nanotechnology and Innovation. He teaches physics at all undergraduate and graduate levels, including a class for the School of Architecture. In 2007 he won the Charles and Nadine Baum Faculty Teaching Award, the university's most prestigious teaching honor.

• Tricia Starks, associate professor of history in Fulbright College earned two teaching awards in 2006. She teaches Western civilization and specializes in Russian history.