The President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

 

Established in 1996, the President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration is given to a full-time member of the University faculty who has exhibited extraordinary achievement in the integration of teaching, research or creative accomplishments, and service. Award recipients typically have a strong outreach component to their scholarly endeavors, including connections to communities not typically reached through their everyday work.

 

2023 President’s Award Honoree

 

Christina Grozinger

Christina Grozinger, 2023 Recipient of The President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Christina Grozinger has received the 2023 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration.

Christina Grozinger, Department of Entomology, College of Agricultural Sciences has received the 2023 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration.

Christina Grozinger is the Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology, and the Director for the Center for Pollinator Research and Insect Biodiversity Center at Penn State University.  Her research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms underlying behavior and health in bees and developing strategies to manage and conserve bee populations.  Her program is interdisciplinary, and fosters collaborations among scientists and educators from multiple Colleges, Centers and Institutes within Penn State and beyond.  Grozinger uses her research program as a platform for teaching, outreach, extension, and for training the next generation of scientists to tackle emerging challenges in agriculture and conservation.

Grozinger uses an integrative approach – from genomics to ecology – to study social behavior and health in bees.  With the Beescape Team, Grozinger is developing decision support tools to predict bee health at local scales, to help individuals better assess and mitigate the stressors that bees experience.  With a team of entomologists, computer scientists, and engineers, Grozinger is helping develop tools for automated insect monitoring in the field. Grozinger has published more than 140 research articles, 6 book chapters, and 7 extension articles, which have received more than 16,000 citations.

 

 

 

2022 President’s Award Honoree

 

Photo of Dermot Groome

Dermot Groome, 2022 Recipient of The President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Dermot Groome has received the 2022 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration.

Dermot Groome is the Harvey A. Feldman Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law. Groome is a former national and international prosecutor who teaches criminal law, human rights and international criminal law. Groome is the author of the Handbook of Human Rights Investigation (2nd ed. 2011, foreword by Richard J. Goldstone). The Humanitarian Law Center considers it a “cornerstone text” in human rights and Amnesty International calls it “an invaluable tool for those committed to documenting human rights abuses.” In 2017, HHRI was translated into Arabic for distribution to human rights advocates in Iraq and Syria.

Groome, who led several significant war crimes prosecutions before joining Penn State, uses his life experiences to reshape and improve the curriculum at Penn State. Among them was the case against Ratko Mladić, who was convicted of genocide for the murder of over 7,000 people in Srebrenica in 1995. Learn more. 

 

 

 

 

2021 President’s Award Honoree

 

Photo of LaPhoto of Kristin Buss, 2021 Recipient of The President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Kristin Buss, 2021 Recipient of The President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Dr. Kristin Buss has received the 2021 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration.

Dr. Kristin Buss is the Tracy Winfree and Ted H. McCourtney Professor in Children, Work, and Families, and Professor of Psychology & Human Development and Family Studies; and head of the Department of Psychology in Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts. Dr. Buss is a developmental scientist whose research focuses on behavioral, biological and environmental factors associated with the development of childhood and teen anxiety symptoms. Her work spans multiple areas of research in the realm of social development, psychobiology and neuroscience. Her interest lies in the mechanisms of emotional development as they relate to temperament and anxiety development. Dr. Buss’ work is routinely funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and has resulted in the research group Parents and Children Together (PACT), which she founded and led until 2019. PACT is an interdisciplinary group of researchers who work with the greater Harrisburg community to focus on mutually beneficial research endeavors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020 President’s Award Honoree

 

Photo of Laura A. Guertin, 2020 Recipient of The President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Laura A. Guertin, 2020 Recipient of The President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Dr. Laura Guertin has received the 2020 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration.

Dr. Laura Guertin is a Professor of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State Brandywine, with an undergraduate degree in geology and Ph.D. in marine geology & geophysics from the University of Miami. Guertin’s primary research focus is the effective integration of innovative technologies to improve student learning in introductory-level geoscience courses, and the use of technology to advance scientific and information literacy in students. In addition to receiving campus and university-wide teaching awards, she has been recognized at the national level with the Geological Society of America’s Biggs Earth Science Teaching Award, elected as a Geological Society of America Fellow, and recognized as one of INSIGHT Into Diversity’s Top 100 Women in STEM. In 2008, she was awarded a U.S. Congressional Citation for her work in civic and community engagement. She blogs on geoscience education, educational technology and science communication for the American Geophysical Union (GeoEd Trek).

 

 

 

 

2019 President’s Award Honoree

Michael Berkman, 2019 Recipient of The President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Michael Berkman, 2019 Recipient of The President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

Dr. Michael Berkman is the 2019 recipient of The President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration.

Berkman is a professor of Political Science, director of The McCourtney Institute for Democracy, and co-host of the Democracy Works podcast. His research on U.S. state politics and public policy has been published in journals such as the American Political Science Review and State Politics and Policy Quarterly. He has written three books, including with Evolution, Creationism, and the Battle for Control of America’s Classrooms (with Eric Plutzer). That work won the Don K. Price Award from the American Political Science Association, which annually recognizes the best book on science, technology, and environmental politics.

Berkman also has received the Raymond Lombra Award for Distinction in the Social or Life Sciences Award, which recognizes a tenured faculty member in the College of the Liberal Arts who has demonstrated excellence in research and scholarship in the social or life sciences. Berkman directs the Political Science honors program and has long served as an honors adviser. The College has honored Berkman for his service with the Outstanding Faculty Advising Award and Susan Welch Alumni Relations Award.

 

 

 

President’s Award Resources

 

Selection Committee for 2021 President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Integration

President’s Award Guidelines, including Candidate Criteria and Nomination Packet Instructions

List of President’s Award recipients