Franklin faculty honored with Regents awards

Two Franklin College professors along with the First-Year Odyssey program, which if you remember also originated in the Franklin College, were honored with excellence awards from the USG Board of Regents:

• William Finlay, Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the Regents' Teaching Excellence Award;

• Paula Lemons, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Franklin College, is the recipient of the Regents' Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award;

• The university's First-Year Odyssey Seminar program has received the Regents' Teaching Excellence Department/Program Award, giving UGA three of the seven statewide awards.

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Finlay, Meigs Professor and former head of the department of sociology, has received numerous accolades for his work. He has been awarded many of UGA's highest honors for faculty, including the Sandy Beaver Award and the Lothar Tresp Outstanding Professor Award. Finlay also has been named a Senior Teaching Fellow by the Center for Teaching and Learning; a Research Fellow by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts; and a Wye Faculty Fellow by the Aspen Institute.

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Lemons is recognized nationally as a leader in science education. Selected as a National Academy of Sciences Education Fellow in the Life Sciences in 2010-2011, she has twice received UGA Innovative Instruction Faculty Grants and has used the funding to transform teaching methods in her department and to refine an online problem-solving tutorial for students called SOLVEIT.

Lemons' research has garnered more than $1 million in grant funding from federal and state agencies. Since joining UGA's faculty in 2009, she has taught large-scale introductory courses to hundreds of students per year, including her current course in "Introductory Biochemistry." 

These already highly-decorated faculty members continue to find new ways to impact their disciplines and students, and it's great for the University System to find ways to recognize these important efforts. Our best faculty always find ways to get better. Their inspiring careers teach us all that lifelong learning is not just an admonition for students, but the path to getting the most out of life for the finest minds among us.