1/8/03

AU COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, AAES HONORS TOP FACULTY MEMBERS

AUBURN -- Four faculty members from Auburn University's College of Agriculture and School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences have earned the College of Agriculture and the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station's top awards for teaching, advising and research for 2002.

The four are Mary Miller-Goodman, Bob Nelson, Daowei Zhang and D. Allen Davis.

Miller-Goodman, associate professor of agronomy and soils at Auburn since 1993, received the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence. She was cited for her innovative classroom techniques, her dedication to ensuring that students receive a top-quality education and her leadership in the department's curriculum development.

Nelson's commitment to advising students, his leadership as undergraduate coordinator and his role in founding and advising AU's award-winning National Agri-Marketing Association earned him the Dean's Award for Excellence in Advising. Nelson is associate professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology.

Zhang, professor of forestry and wildlife sciences, was presented the Director's Senior-level Award for Research, in recognition of his forestry research program and his leadership in Forestry and Wildlife Sciences' Peak of Excellence program, the Center for Forest Sustainability.

For his research programs in aquatic animal nutrition and physiology, Davis won the Director's Junior-Level Award for Research. The assistant professor of fisheries is focusing his research on catfish, tilapia, red snapper and shrimp.

As recipients of the dean's awards for teaching and advising, Miller-Goodman and Nelson received $1,000 cash awards and another $1,000 each to use for meetings, travel or other purposes related to their continuing development as faculty members.

Zhang was presented $10,000 and Davis $5,000 for use in their research programs.

John Jensen is interim dean of the College of Agriculture and interim director of the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station.

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jan03:AU-awards

CONTACT: Jamie Creamer, 334/844-2783