Biology PhD student Hope Okunbor received an American Society of Plant Biologists Travel Award to attend
Biology Instructor Receives Eminent Faculty Award
Wed, 04/20/2016 - 9:30am
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette Foundation honored five faculty members at a banquet on Thursday, 14 April 2016.
Patricia Mire-Watson, a master instructor of biology, received the Dr. Ray P. Authement Excellence in Teaching Award. (Shelly Leroy, a senior instructor of English also received this award.) The award is presented for commitment to teaching, innovation, and pedagogical scholarship. It was established in 1992 and renamed in 2008 to honor Ray Authement, the University's fifth president.
Mire-Watson founded the Department of Biology's Undergraduate Research Symposium. She was instrumental in the development of the college's Science Day. The College of Sciences hosts high school juniors and seniors for tours of the Biology, Chemistry, Computing and Informatics, Geosciences, Mathematics and Physics units, and to participate in experiments and science-related activities.
Dr. Paul Leberg, head of the Department of Biology, praised Mire-Watson's innovative pedagogical approaches. "Typically, it is hard to be innovative in large sections with hundreds of students, but this has not stopped her from experimenting with novel ways to explain complex topics," he noted. During her 20 years at the University, Mire-Watson has helped generate over $600,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation and from the National Institutes of Health.