2013 Imhoff Award Captured by Chemical Engineering Professor Ed Clausen

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Ed Clausen, winner 2013 Imhoff Award for Outstanding Teaching and Student Mentorship

Ed Clausen, holder of the Ray C. Adam Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering, is the 2013 winner of the Dr. John and Mrs. Lois Imhoff Award for Outstanding Teaching and Student Mentorship.

The award is presented annually by the Teaching Academy and celebrates excellence in teaching and mentorship. Clausen, along with two finalists, Carole Shook and Calvin White Jr., will be honored at the Teaching Academy Banquet, which is being rescheduled as a result of the inclement weather and announced soon.

Clausen has taught in the Ralph E. Martin department of chemical engineering since 1981. Currently he teaches Chemical Engineering I, Introduction to Chemical Engineering II, Professional Practice Seminar and Chemical Engineering Reactor Design. In addition, he is the director of the honors program in the College of Engineering. The Midwest Section of the American Society for Engineering Education named him its 2011 Outstanding Teacher. Department head Tom Spicer explained that Clausen's generous nature and rapport with students make him an outstanding teacher.

"Dr. Clausen is able to put students at ease and make them feel welcomed," said Spicer. "He is extremely generous with his time when it comes to students and keenly interested in helping them understand the material."

Clausen's favorite classes are introduction to Chemical Engineering I and II, which give freshman and sophomore students the skills they need to solve complex engineering problems. "It is really neat to watch the development of young chemical engineers as we arm them with the tools to make them successful," he said.

Carole Shook

Carole Shook, a 2013 finalist for the Imhoff Award, is an instructor in the department of supply chain management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. In 2013, she was awarded the Walton College Outstanding Teaching Award. Past teaching and advising awards include the University of Arkansas Outstanding Faculty Advising Award, the Student Alumni Board/Associated Student Government Outstanding Teaching Award, the Walton College Diversity Award, the Order of Omega Outstanding Faculty Member, the Beta Alpha Psi Outstanding Teaching Award, the Chi Omega Outstanding Teaching Award, the Arkansas Advising Network Outstanding Faculty Advising Award, the Region VII National Academic Association Outstanding Faculty Advising Award, and the Walton College Outstanding Advising Award.

Calvin White Jr.

Calvin White Jr., also a finalist for the Imhoff Award, is a native Arkansan and was raised in the Delta town of Stuttgart. As a first-generation college student, he attended the University of Central Arkansas where he received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in history. Deciding to forgo law school, White completed his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Mississippi in 2007 with a concentration on the U.S. South, with an emphasis on the African American experience. His current book The Rise to Respectability: Race Religion and the Church of God in Christ was released in October 2012. White is also the recipient of several national fellowships. Most recently, he served as a Gilder-Lehrman Fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, N.Y. White has also been the recipient of the Student Alumni Board teaching, the OMNI, and Fulbright Master Advisor awards. He currently serves as the director of the African and African American studies program.

The Teaching Academy is a society committed to excellence in teaching at the University of Arkansas. It was established in 1988 by Dan Ferritor, at that time chancellor of the University of Arkansas. The Teaching Academy's mission is to advocate and represent teaching interests, promote and stimulate an environment of teaching and learning excellence, and encourage recognition and reward for exceptional teaching. The Teaching Academy consists of faculty members who have been recognized by their peers, colleges and the university for their excellence in teaching, including excellence in classroom teaching.

Other criteria for being selected to the Teaching Academy include a professor's ability to establish a special rapport with students, to instill in them a love for learning, and to encourage them to go beyond the expectations of the classroom and to explore their disciplines for themselves. The Teaching Academy logo represents a drop of water falling into a pond creating ripples spreading out in all directions, having an effect which can neither be controlled nor predicted. So it is with the effect of outstanding teaching on students. For more information on the Teaching Academy, see uateach.uark.edu/events.