Su Zhou, associate professor of economics, and Dhiraj K. Sardar, professor
of physics and astronomy
Distinguished Achievement Awards: Su Zhou and Dhiraj K. Sardar
(April 30, 2002)--Su Zhou, associate professor of economics in the
College of Business is the winner of the 2002 President's Distinguished
Achievement Award for Core Curriculum Teaching.
A member of the UTSA faculty since 1991, Zhou has honed her teaching skills
over the years to deliver excellent instruction to her students. She often
teaches large core curriculum sections of Principles of Microeconomics and
has also taught a diverse range of economics courses at both graduate and
undergraduate levels.
While many students find economics difficult to master, Zhou's students just as frequently note on their evaluations of her classes that she has made her lectures vivid, humorous, motivational and easy to follow, all at the same time.
Such results are not serendipitous. Zhou makes an effort to know her students first, to understand their needs and expectations, as well as their baseline knowledge. Using these parameters, she plans course content and lectures accordingly. In addition to the clarity and quality of course content, another reason for her popularity with students is her willingness to work with them and be available to them for consultation during the semester. She extends her office hours to accommodate her students' schedules and offers extra study sessions outside of class and regular office hours for students with learning difficulties or disabilities.
Comments made by her students on course evaluations say it all... "Dr. Zhou is really flexible with her time and is able to offer tutoring at the student's convenience"... "all the information in class hit the perfect angle for my learning needs"... "Dr. Zhou really helped me. She is 'THE BEST,' " written in all upper case letters.
While it is easy for anyone to excel in a single area, Zhou is known among her colleagues as someone who excels in virtually all. As a scholar, she is among the department's most published researchers and is a past recipient of the President's Distinguished Achievement Award in Research Excellence.
She has served as a faculty adviser to several student associations and currently sits on six university and department committees, as well.
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Dhiraj Sardar, professor of physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Sciences, is the 2002 President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Research.
A member of the faculty since 1984, Sardar has been instrumental in building UTSA's laser center into a nationally recognized research laboratory in applied laser physics.
His research focuses on two major areas -- spectroscopy of solid state laser materials and the optical properties of biological tissues. Sardar's work is recognized internationally by his peers and is considered cutting edge by extramural funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation, which has been a consistent supporter of his work over the past decade.
He has also received two UTSA Faculty Research Grants and one from the Petroleum Research Fund.
He has written or co-authored 42 articles, many with his students. In the past five years alone, 18 articles have been published in refereed journals.
He has been a presenter or co-presenter at 74 conferences and workshops, again, many times sharing the spotlight with his students.
His diligence and commitment in taking the lead in creating a highly positive atmosphere in which students can do research has garnered him the respect of his UTSA colleagues and the appreciation of his students. He is known for recruiting as many freshman as possible to work in his lab, explaining that senior students help by teaching the newer ones, making everyone more productive.
His students and the university's research profile reap the benefits of this philosophy.
Since 1990, Sardar's research students have won seven awards for outstanding presentations at the Texas Section of the American Physical Society's conferences -- an incredible success rate. Because it is so uncommon for undergraduates to present papers at professional conferences, this experience gives them a definite edge over their peers.
In fact, an impressive number of the undergraduate students who have done research in the laser lab under Sardar have gone on to pursue graduate degrees and work with companies such as Philips Semiconductor, Schlumberger, Southwest Research Institute and DuPont.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Poster
for 31st Annual Texas Folklife Festival unveiled at ITC
Academic
enrichment summer camps offered at Downtown Campus
Distinguished
Achievement Award: Daniel A. Engster
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Robert J. Bayley and Mark T. Leung
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Jahan G. Eftekhar and Lars Hansen
Distinguished Achievement Awards: Su Zhou and Dhiraj K. Sardar
Distinguished
Achievement Awards: Deanna M. White and Neil Maurer
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002