Spring 2003

FACULTY NEWS


Meigs Award
Five of UGA’s outstanding teachers received the 2003 Josiah Meigs Awards for Excellence in Teaching at the Faculty Recognition Banquet in the Georgia Center for Continuing Education the evening of April 24, 2003. Meigs winners receive a permanent salary increase of $6,000 and a fund of $1,000 for departmental use. The award is named for Josiah Meigs, who in 1801 succeeded Abraham Baldwin as president--and sole professor--of Georgia’s fledgling state university.

James W. Porter
Professor of Ecology

Jim Porter dives into his teaching with the same enthusiasm he devotes to his coral reef research. An extraordinary teacher who receives a near perfect rating in every class he teaches, Porter attributes his high ratings to the fact that “I show students how their own ideas can fit into the future advancement of knowledge.”

“Jim had a profound effect on the recruitment and intellectual stimulation of many of the University of Georgia’s brightest and most involved undergraduates,” concurs Ron Carroll, director of the Institute of Ecology, Porter’s educational home base. Carroll cites some student comments.

“This is not just teaching, this is turbo teaching!” wrote one undergraduate.
“Porter is to teaching as Flamenco is to strumming!” wrote another.

Others added, “I tell everyone this class is like going to Epcot Center!” and “Dr. Porter is the best instructor I have ever had. He has literally changed my life.”
Words and phrases like “riveting” and “simply magical” are sprinkled throughout other assessments.

Porter’s students have gone on to be top-ranked scientists and teachers.
Colleen Cavanaugh, a former undergraduate student under Porter who is now professor of biology at Harvard University, says, “The reason I am here is because of Jim Porter. Jim made scientific research come alive for me. Of the roughly 60 students enrolled in his course, I estimate that roughly half went into marine sciences . . . due largely to Jim.”

Porter’s teaching career spans more than 30 years. He received the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Sandy Beaver Teaching Award in 1988 and in 1999 was named the Institute of Ecology’s first Outstanding Ecology Instructor.
“Jim has a rare gift of being able to teach brilliantly to both majors and non-majors,” says Carroll. “He starts with a basic principle and then builds it into an elegant presentation with the power and focus of a surgical laser.”

As a researcher, Porter has conducted extensive studies of Florida Keys coral reefs for more than 25 years, publishing his findings in first-tier scientific journals, including Science, Nature, Ecology and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1993, he was awarded the University of Georgia’s Creative Research Medal.

That creative research continues today, despite carrying a heavy teaching load. His student load averages from 150 to 250 students, and yet news of his relentless work on the causes of coral disease continues to be seen in newspapers and broadcast news reports around the nation.

Porter has testified before Congress several times and has shared his testimony, as well as the experience, with his students. “What students learn from this is that to save the world, you must teach the world,” Porter says. As U.S. Rep. Anibal Acevedo-Vila (Dem., P.R.) says, “It is obvious that Dr. Porter’s classroom extends well beyond the confines of his academic institution and includes the halls of Congress.”

Porter’s philosophy is simple: provide students with the tools to make intelligent decisions. This is as important as his research, he believes. “The future of the Earth is in the hands of the students I teach. To teach is to change lives.”

--Janice Sand

University of Georgia | Institute of Ecology | School of Environmental Design
Ecology Public Service and Outreach | Environmental Design Public Service and Outreach

The College of Environment and Design • Caldwell Hall • University of Georgia • Athens, GA 30602-1845 USA
phone (706) 542-1816  •  fax (706) 542-4485

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