Over the next few weeks, eCALS will highlight each winner of a 2019 CALS Award. Winners were recognized at an award ceremony on Wednesday, May 1.

Congratulations to Dietram Scheufele on receiving the 2019 Spitzer Excellence in Teaching Award. Scheufele is a professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication with an impressive career highlighted by frequently cited research and local, national and international service.

Scheufele also teaches two of the most popular courses in the department. His undergraduate course, “Science, Media and Society,” has garnered accolades from around the world. It currently enrolls up to two hundred students from at least six different colleges who report that Scheufele has a remarkable ability to create meaningful discussions and learning opportunities across diverse viewpoints. His graduate level course, “Public Opinion in the Life Sciences,” is extremely popular, repeatedly attracting over twenty PhD students, a very high number for a graduate seminar.

Scheufele consistently earns high marks in student evaluations and regularly creates supportive and rigorous learning environments. One student wrote, “I saw him regularly create supportive and rigorous learning environments by giving students ample room to make the content and [the] work their own while pushing them to go beyond their comfort zones.”