Dear Colleagues,

It is my distinct pleasure to announce that the recipient of the ‘23/’24 Departmental Award for Excellence in Teaching goes to Dr. John Campbell. This award is meant to recognize some combination of performance in the previous year and broader impacts to the curriculum. Please feel free to send him our congratulations and thanks.

John’s teaching service has some impressive highlights. His signature innovation has been his course, “Homeostasis: the wisdom of the body” where he asks students to consider the act of eating, that involves motivation (hunger), intake, storage, metabolism and feedbacks that maintain the body’s ability to regulate and continue all of the above in a steady way. This is inherently interdisciplinary and cutting edge, reflecting well on us as a department. John’s teaching involves a strong component of learner-centered teaching that fosters critical thinking and collaboration. John has exercised selfless leadership in graduate education that includes the School of Medicine and helps to keep our programs communicating with each other.

This award was decided on by the Kudos committee and the Chair. Nominees were collected based on the peer review process and the committee voted based on peer review, student evaluations, the recent history of teaching awards, and overall impact on the curriculum. The committee was awestruck by the depth of excellence of teaching in the department of biology, and as per usual, will seek out deserved recognition for other star teachers in the form of other awards.

The award is accompanied by a token of our appreciation in the form of a $1000 cash prize.

Thank you, John!