The UL Lafayette Foundation has changed the name of its annual faculty recognition program from the Distinguished Professor Awards to the Eminent Faculty Awards.
But the titles of the Foundation’s two prestigious honors have stayed the same.
Recipients of the 2015 Distinguished Professor Award are Dr. Paul L. Klerks, a biology professor, and Dr. Chan Kiat Lim, an associate professor of music. Established in 1965, the award recognizes University educators for their research, teaching effectiveness, and contributions to their professions and campus life.
Dr. Pegge L. Alciatore, an assistant professor of biology, and Dr. Ross Chiquet, a master instructor of mathematics, have earned the 2015 Dr. Ray P. Authement Excellence in Teaching Award. That recognition was created in 1992 as the Excellence in Teaching Award; it was renamed in 2008 to honor Authement, the University’s fifth president. The award is presented for faculty members’ commitment to teaching, innovation, and pedagogical scholarship.
Award recipients, chosen by their peers, will be acknowledged during the Eminent Faculty Awards banquet on Tuesday, April 14. The event will begin at 6 p.m. in the La Marquise Building in Parc Lafayette. Tickets may be purchased via the UL Lafayette Foundation’s website, www.ullafayettefoundation.org, through April 10. Sponsorships are also available.
Klerks specializes in ecotoxicology, the study of pollutants in the environment.
“His ecotoxicology course is so popular he has to turn away many potential students every time it is offered,” noted Dr. Paul Leberg, professor and head of UL Lafayette’s Department of Biology, in a letter nominating Klerks for the Distinguished Professor Award.
Klerks joined the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Biology Department in 1992. He has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator for projects supported by more than $6 million in research funding from several agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Included in that total is a $1.02 million grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative to study the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on shrimp and clams.
Klerks was assistant dean of the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences from 2011-13. He co-chaired the college’s Strategic Plan Committee and is chair of a Coastal Research Excellence Strategy Task Force. That task force will determine the best way for the University to promote coastal and wetland research and education.
Lim is a performer and teacher of piano performance. “I view my primary role to be that of performer-pedagogue, one who sets an example for students striving to make it in the extraordinarily competitive field of classical music,” he said.
Garth Alpert, director of the School of Music and Performing Arts, said Lim’s creative performance is “international in scope and of high professional and artistic level.
“Two composers, Ned Rorem and William Bolcom, who have each won the Pulitzer Prize and the Grammy Award, granted Dr. Lim permission to release world-premiere recordings of their works. The importance of this cannot be overstated.”
Gordon Brooks II, dean of UL Lafayette’s College of the Arts, noted Lim’s commitment “to the creation of 21st Century approaches to connecting people to music – through new ways of presenting music and through new ways of teaching music.”
Along with UL Lafayette professor of music Dr. Susanna Garcia, for example, Lim has developed a website for teaching piano, eNovativePiano.com. Brooks explained that the website doesn’t replace the piano teacher; it “provides a graded curriculum using best practices from current piano pedagogy.”
Alciatore joined the UL Lafayette faculty in 1982 as an instructor of anatomy and physiology.
She is a mentor to members of the University’s highly successful Pre-Professional Society. Many of her former students give her credit for helping them prepare for their careers in the medical field, according to Dr. Paul Leberg, head of the Department of Biology.
“It is striking that whenever I enter a local hospital, medical, or dental office, veterinary clinic, or physical therapy practice, and the staff, doctors or nurses learn that I am a faculty member in biology, I am universally told of how important Dr. Alciatore was in their lives,” he said.
Alciatore’s research interests include effective college teaching methods and accountability practices in higher education. She is co-principal investigator for a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to prepare teachers in STEM areas, such as biology. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math education.
Alciatore consistently receives excellent evaluations from students she has taught. And their praise goes beyond the material in her courses. “Many former students indicate that Dr. Alciatore taught them how to study and learn,” Leberg said.
Chiquet is one of the university’s most popular math instructors.
“Ross is passionate and enthusiastic about teaching mathematics at a level that is infectious to anybody who listens to his lectures,” noted Dr. Azmy Ackleh, dean of the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences, in an letter nominating him for the teaching award.
Chiquet has taught various courses, ranging from freshman- to senior-level mathematics. He is assistant department head and was freshman coordinator from 2011-13.
Dr. Keng Deng, head of UL Lafayette’s Department of Mathematics, said Chiquet has “a unique ability to motivate students to learn mathematics. Ross is able to explain complicated concepts in a way that everyone can understand. . .”
Chiquet is also a research investigator for a $5.2 million Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative grant that will be used to study the impact of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on endangered sperm whales, beaked whales and dolphins in the Gulf.