Tun ’16, Kathy

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Illinois Wesleyan UniversityDigital Commons @ IWUNews and Events University Communications2015Students Elect Harper as Professor of the YearKathy Tun ’16Illinois Wesleyan UniversityThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Ames Library, the Andrew W. Mellon Center for Curricular and FacultyDevelopment, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the President. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Commons @ IWU bythe faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@iwu.edu.©Copyright is owned by the author of this document.Recommended CitationTun ’16, Kathy, "Students Elect Harper as Professor of the Year" (2015). News and Events. Paper 2661.http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/news/2661Students Elect Harper as Professor of the Year April 15, 2015   BLOOMINGTON, Ill.— The Illinois Wesleyan student body has selected R. Given  Harper, the George C. and Ella Beach Lewis Endowed Chair of Biology, as the 2015  Student Senate Professor of the Year.  Harper, who will address the Class of 2015 at the Commencement ceremony on May  3, said, “I was very honored to learn that I had been named the Student Senate  Professor of the Year. I consider it a real privilege to work with bright, motivated  students, and I enjoy watching them grow intellectually during their time at  Illinois Wesleyan.”  As an avian ecologist Harper has taught courses in ecology, ornithology and  conservation biology. He has taken students on 10 May Term Tropical Ecology  courses in Costa Rica.  Harper is currently collaborating with Associate Professor of  Biology Will Jaeckle, colleagues at other universities, and a number of IWU  students on research to determine if the relationship of eggshell porosity can be  used to establish evolutionary relationships among flightless birds.  In addition to  his own papers, he has published 15 papers in scientific journals with IWU  students as co-authors.  Harper’s research has been published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, American Naturalist, Environmental Pollution, Chemosphere, Journal of Field Ornithology, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, Journal of Avian Biology, Ecology and Behavioral Ecology.   Harper has served as chair of the  Biology Department and is currently  the Director of the Environmental  Studies Program.  He served as co-chair  of the Premedical/Predental Advisory  Committee for three years.  Active in  sustainability efforts on campus,  Harper served as the co-director of the  Green Task Force and the co-chair of  the Committee for a Sustainable  Campus. He and Abigail Jahiel,  Associate Director of the  Environmental Studies program,  contributed a chapter to Strategies for  Sustainability: Stories from the Ivory  Tower (MIT Press, 2004).  A native of Kentucky, Harper received a bachelor’s degree from Transylvania University. He holds a master’s degree from  Western Illinois University in zoology and earned a doctorate in biology from Illinois State University.   “The Professor of the Year award is a great way for the IWU students to show their professors just how much they value  their hard work and support in and out of the classroom,” said Student Senate President Jake Thaker ’17. This year 65  professors were nominated for the award.  In this year’s election, Student Senate also announced Sodexo employee Trish Todd as the first recipient for Staff Member  of the Year. “Illinois Wesleyan has a phenomenal set of staff members around campus that should also be recognized for  their hard work and commitment to students,” said Thaker. By Kathy Tun ’16    Given Harper 

Students Elect Harper as Professor of the Year

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Students Elect Harper as Professor of the Year

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