By Stephanie Schupska
University of
Georgia
University of Georgia entomology professor Karl Espelie
received the D.W. Brooks Award for Excellence in Teaching Oct.
3 in Athens, Ga.
The award, which includes a framed certificate and $5,000, is
given in honor of D.W. Brooks. Founder of Gold Kist Inc. and
Cotton States Mutual Insurance Companies, Brooks was an advisor
on agriculture and trade issues to seven U.S. presidents.
Espelie’s impact on students sets him apart from his peers and
was one of the many reasons he was nominated for the honor.
Ray Noblet, head of the UGA entomology department, said Espelie
is “an exceptional faculty member with a passion for
undergraduate teaching that is truly rare.” His understanding
of curriculum and the issues facing undergraduate students,
Noblet said, makes him a “truly exceptional professor.”
Espelie counsels 300 biology and premedicine majors in the
honors program while serving as the UGA College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences premed advisor. His track record for
placing students in medical school is excellent. All seven
students he helped apply to the Medical College of Georgia in
2004 were admitted.
Because of his excellence in advising and teaching, Espelie was
named UGA’s Outstanding Faculty Advisor in 2005 and received a
Certificate of Merit from the National Academic Advising
Association. He received the Lothar Tresp Outstanding Honors
Professor Teaching Award in 1996, 2000 and 2003, a recognition
that comes from the brightest and most demanding CAES
students.
It’s through student evaluations that Espelie’s impact can best
be measured. Recently, one student wrote, “Dr. Espelie had a
knack of making me feel as if I were his only advisee, although
I knew that he was giving the same special treatment to
hundreds of others.”
Another wrote, “I could go on about how stellar Dr. Espelie is.
However, I can sum it up by saying that if every student at any
college as wonderful as UGA had a professor such as Dr.
Espelie, not only would they be better students academically,
but more importantly, they would be better people.”
Espelie received his master’s and doctorate degrees in
biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin and his
bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Augustana College. He
joined the University of Georgia faculty in 1986 as an
associate research scientist.
Having taught every semester for the past 12 years, he has
taught thousands of UGA students. His courses include the CAES
introductory course in entomology, “Insects and the
Environment,” and a series of biology honors courses.
Other D.W. Brooks honorees this year were Andrew Paterson,
research; Phillip Roberts, extension; and Mary White, public
service extension.
(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
