By Faith Peppers
University of
Georgia

University of Georgia professor Robert Shewfelt received the
prestigious D.W. Brooks Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching
Oct. 1 in Athens, Ga.

Shewfelt has been a member of the UGA food science department for
six years. He has developed three new courses and completely
revised three existing courses. He brings to the classroom a
unique style and enthusiasm that inspire his students.

A major theme in his classes is professional development. In one
class he teaches, Chocolate Science, he challenges first-year
students to start thinking about careers. Another class, Food
Science Forum, emphasizes career development in the context of
job-search skills and strategies.

Creative classes

In Food Research and the Scientific Method, graduate students
participate in a simulated grant panel evaluation and design a
joint laboratory with equipment and supplies given a mythical
lump sum of funding.

Students describe him as innovative, enthusiastic, passionate and
caring. One who has taken several of his classes says, “The only
common factor among Shewfelt’s classes is that he strives to get
his students to think for themselves.”

Another student declares, “He expects his students to truly
participate in their own education, and he is always willing to
explain difficult topics again so everyone can understand.”

A graduate claims, “I learned the most of my academic career
under Dr. Shewfelt. The skills and ideas he taught have helped me
excel in my career and in life.”

Other winners

Other honorees this year were Sidney Law, county extension
programming; John Baldwin, extension; Daniel Fletcher, research;
and Gerritt Hoogenboom, international agriculture.

The teaching award was the first of the D.W. Brooks awards to be
given. It was established in 1981 to recognize faculty members
who make outstanding contributions and maintain excellence in the
CAES teaching program.

In 1983, the award was expanded to include research, extension
and county extension programs. An award for international
agriculture was added in 1988 and is given in even-numbered
years.

The awards include a framed certificate and a $5,000 cash
award.

Brooks lecture

Before the awards ceremony, Seth Carus, senior research professor
in the Center for Counterproliferation Research at the National
Defense University, delivered the 2002 D.W. Brooks Lecture,
“Bioterrorism, Homeland Security and the Food Supply.”

The lecture and awards are named for the late D.W. Brooks,
founder and chairman emeritus of Gold Kist, Inc.

Brooks was an advisor on agriculture and trade issues to seven
U.S. presidents. He started Cotton States Mutual Insurance
Companies in 1941 to provide farmers insurance.

His many honors for contributions to global agriculture included
being the first inductee into the UGA Agricultural Hall of Fame.
He received the distinguished agribusiness award from the Georgia
Agribusiness Council and was named Progressive Farmer magazine’s
“man of the year in agriculture in the South.”

The CAES sponsors the annual lecture series in his memory.