Dr. Liz Flaherty was selected as a winner of the Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, which is the University’s highest undergraduate teaching honor.
Flaherty, an associate professor of wildlife ecology and habitat management, was inducted as a Purdue Teaching Academy Fellow last month in recognition of excellence in teaching, innovation in teaching methodology, teaching-related service and scholarship in teaching and learning.
Flaherty is the fourth FNR faculty member to receive the Murphy Award since 1967, following William R. Chaney (2000-01), Barny Dunning (2010-11) and Rod Williams (2015-16). Flaherty was selected to present the Kohls Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher Lecture at the College of Agriculture’s Celebration of Teaching Excellence in 2019.
Drs. Zhao Ma and Eva Haviarova were promoted to the rank of full professor in Forestry and Natural Resources. Ma, a professor of natural resource social science, focuses her research on understanding how individuals and institutions make decisions with respect to natural resource management and conservation. Haviarova, a professor of wood products, conducts research in areas of furniture strength design and product engineering, direction for emerging furniture design challenges, design and development of low-cost furniture for underprivileged, and frame design for upholstered furniture.
Ma also was named as a University Faculty Scholar. This award recognizes outstanding faculty who are on an accelerated path for academic distinction in the discover and dissemination of knowledge.
Meanwhile Dr. Mark Christie was promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in the department of biological sciences. Christie has a 25% appointment in FNR and is quite active in FNR research and education in aquatic sciences. His research focuses on conservation genetics, kinship and parentage analyses, gene expression and population genetics.
