Faculty Recognized for Excellence in Advising, Research, and Teaching

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

During the 2023 UT College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Convocation, EEPS faculty received awards for excellence in advising, research, and teaching. 

Michael McKinney, Professor; Faculty Advising Service Award 

McKinney is an outstanding advocate for student success and education, especially within the field of environmental geosciences and sustainability. He has advised nearly all of the majors in the Environmental Studies concentration since he initiated it as an IDP in 2001. McKinney’s work with these students is extensive, engaged, and highly impactful. He sees his interactions with students as a time to discuss how they can best express their passions for solving environmental problems in an effective and meaningful way.

During this process, McKinney often works as a “matchmaker” to identify internship opportunities in the community which match the goals of individual students and provides the connection for them to develop through placement into those experiences. Within EEPS, McKinney is widely known as someone who cares very deeply for helping undergraduate students succeed and develop outstanding careers and we are grateful for his decade of incredible service.

Nicholas Dygert, Associate Professor; Excellence in Research & Creative Achievement Awards: Early Career

Dygert is a geologist who combines detailed laboratory and modeling analyses to generate novel insights into the evolution of planetary bodies. His research involves detailed, high-resolution analyses of geologic materials and meteorites to explore processes recorded in the rock record to understand the complexity of geologic histories and provide key constraints on the geologic processes that are active across the solar system. These data are enhanced by geochemical modeling and experimental models to further explore and constrain the processes that form planetary surfaces and interiors.

Dygert has established at UT a world-class experimental laboratory that is used to synthesize rocks under high temperature and pressure conditions directly relevant to planetary interiors. The equipment can reproduce conditions in the lunar core, or in Earth’s crust or upper mantle. Running experiments makes it possible to constrain the properties of minerals and melts under controlled pressures and temperatures. In particular, these experiments provide the ability to constrain the rheological (viscous) properties of magmas.

These data provide key insight into the earliest history of planetary bodies, which may have involved a period during which the whole surface of the planet was molten. Dygert has earned numerous grants from NASA and NSF to support his research and has published more than 30 journal articles appearing in high profile venues including Nature Communications, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, and the Journal of Geophysical Research. His work is extremely well regarded and cited. He even earned an award for the most cited paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research in 2019.

Overall, Dygert has achieved outstanding success to date and has exceptional future potential. He is an incredible scientist and faculty member who will continue to make an outstanding impact at our institution. 

Colin Sumrall, Associate Professor; James R. and Nell W. Cunningham Outstanding Teaching Award

Throughout his 20 years at UT, Colin Sumrall has been an incredible educator who has contributed in meaningful ways to teaching at all levels from introductory courses about dinosaurs to graduate student training in presentation development to initiating our new paleontology minor. Throughout his teaching, a common theme is that Sumrall emphasizes scientific literacy and communication at all levels, while using fossils as a tool to promote better scientific understanding and appreciation in all learners. He places emphasis on the scientific process rather than rote memorization of facts and processes, which promotes general scientific literacy, a deeper understanding of covered material, and provides room for students to explore topics within the framework of the class that interest them.

Overall, Sumrall is an incredibly skilled, engaged, and diverse teacher—he has done it all and does it extremely well. A student noted in a course evaluation “It’s always a joy to have him as a professor and I’m so glad he’s here!”, a sentiment to which that sums up why he is so deserving of this award.