Chemistry Professor Receives Dual Awards
Dr. Sharmistha Basu-Dutt, associate professor of chemistry, has received two honors for her teaching this month: the 2007 Teaching Excellence Award from the Board of Regents and the First-Year Student Advocate Award from the EXCEL Center for Academic Success. Her passion and dedication to West Georgia students is one of many reasons for the recognition.
The Teaching Excellence Award honors outstanding professors who significantly improve student achievement and demonstrate a commitment to student-focused research. A panel of department chairs and faculty members from across the University System of Georgia review portfolios on each nomination and are rigorous in their choices. Very few teachers at the university level receive the honor.
In their assessment, the review panel wrote that Basu-Dutt is a “master at collaborative and cooperative learning, inquiry-based learning, integrative teaching and activities-based interdisciplinary approaches.” She received a unanimous recommendation from the panel for the award.
As a chemistry professor and director of Engineering Studies, Basu-Dutt said one of her goals at West Georgia is to provide exemplary learning and research opportunities to the students and to the community.
“As a teacher, I yearn to ensure that the quest for knowledge does not go away for my students after graduation,” said Basu-Dutt. “If my students leave class with an eternal thirst for learning, I feel that I have done my job. The best part of my job is the immense amount of opportunity I have to touch the lives of my students in ways that transcend the boundaries of my normal teaching responsibilities.”
Basu-Dutt, who began teaching at UWG in 1997, has coordinated several interdisciplinary projects in engineering studies with students and fellow professors. She has also collaborated with the College of Education and developed workshops for local K-12 teachers in the area of learning and teaching science in the classroom.
Her students and her peers also honored her with the First-Year Student Advocate Award from the EXCEL Center for Academic Success this month. The annual award is presented to a professor who provides exemplary support to freshmen.
As a mentor in the EXCEL Center, Basu-Dutt provides students with advice and assistance on becoming a successful student. Marc Baumgardner, a West Georgia graduate, benefited from that advice.
“Much of my success in both the academic and non-academic arenas I attribute to the mentorship, guidance, instruction and friendship of Dr. Basu-Dutt,” said Baumgardner. “She was never too busy to answer any question, her door was never closed and there seemed to be no limit to the lengths she would go to for her students.”
Basu-Dutt has been recognized in the Who’s Who Among American Teachers in 2005 and with the Honors Faculty of the Year Award in 2003. She’ll receive the Regents Teaching Excellence Award at a ceremony in Atlanta in March 2008.
“The driving force for all my endeavors has been to connect with my students in a way that is above and beyond being just a professor in a classroom,” said Basu-Dutt. “I want to be an advisor and confidant who they feel comfortable coming to after class and many years after graduation.”
