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H.O.P.E. Award honors outstanding teaching

The winner of the 2007 H.O.P.E. Award -- Honor for an Outstanding Progressive Educator -- was announced between the first and second quarters of the Nov. 17 KU vs. Iowa State football game in Memorial Stadium. The award was presented after Oread's press time.

The H.O.P.E. Award is the only honor given exclusively by students for teaching excellence. Winners receive a monetary award and recognition on a permanent plaque displayed in the Kansas Union.

Nominations were solicited from the senior class by e-mail. Faculty receiving the most nominations were placed on a ballot that was e-mailed to seniors to narrow the field to a group of finalists. Representatives of the Board of Class Officers and its Senior Advisory Board select the winner through interviews with the finalists. The 2007 finalists are: Kerry Benson, lecturer in journalism; David Holmes, professor in psychology; Mary Klayder, University Honors lecturer in English; Craig Martin, professor and chair, ecology and evolutionary biology; and Edward McBride, lecturer in civil/environmental/architectural engineering.

The Class of 1959 established the award to recognize outstanding teaching and concern for students. With one exception, only one award has been bestowed each year. In 1972, three professors tied and each received a H.O.P.E. Award: the late John Bremner in journalism, Arno Knapper in business and Elizabeth Schultz in English.

Chancellor Robert Hemenway joined representatives of the senior class and Board of Class Officers in introducing the finalists during the Nov. 17 game and presented the award.

RESEARCH MATTERS

Lisa Timmons, assistant professor of biology, is looking to roundworms for tips on how cancer develops in humans. She uses a process called RNA interference because worms and humans share genes called A-B-C transporters that carry toxins to cells. For more information and to listen, visit www.researchmatters.ku.edu.