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Faculty Awardees - Two from COSAM honored with University Faculty Awards
Auburn University honored the 2017-2018 Faculty Award recipients during a ceremony at the Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. Two COSAM faculty members were among the honorees. The awards recognize some of the institution’s most innovative and impactful teachers, researchers, and scholars for their unique and distinguished contributions to the university’s mission.
Robert Boyd, professor and undergraduate program officer in the Department of Biological Sciences, was named Alumni Professor. Faculty selected to receive a professorship are required to have a high yield of productivity and professionalism and should demonstrate a high potential for continuous meritorious performance.
Boyd is a California native who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from California State Polytechnic University. He received a doctorate in botany from the University of California, Davis. He joined the faculty at Auburn in fall 1988 as an assistant professor in the Department of Botany and Microbiology and became a professor in 2000, when the Department of Biological Sciences was created. He was named the department’s undergraduate program officer in 2013.
Boyd’s research specializes in plant ecology and conservation biology, with a focus on the hyperaccumulation of metals by plants and the natural history and management of rare Southeastern plant species. He has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals and book entries, has been a guest editor for three scientific journals, and has served on editorial boards for scientific journals.
In naming Boyd Alumni Professor, the awards committee recognized his research involving work on hyperaccumulator plants which grow on a special type of soil called serpentine soils. Areas with serpentine soils attract researchers on an international level, which has taken Boyd to conferences in China, Japan, New Caledonia, Cuba, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Malaysia, and Albania.
“The Alumni Professor award is exciting because it includes recognition of the research that my students and I have been doing during my career here at Auburn. Previous awards were based on teaching, and the Alumni Professorship recognizes both teaching and research.”
Ken Halanych, the Schneller Endowed Chair in the Department of Biological Sciences, received the Creative Research and Scholarship Award. The award honors faculty members who have defined themselves through their research and scholarly feats. Criteria for the award includes publications in top journals, authorship of scholarly works, patents, and prestigious status within distinguished societies and awards.
Halanych received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Wake Forest University and a doctorate in biology from the University of Texas. He was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Pretoria in South Africa and Rutgers University. He joined Auburn in 2003 to run the university’s marine biology program and today is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.
The Halanych Lab has been very involved with changing current understanding of some of the earliest animal lineages. Halanych says that has a large influence on our understanding of the evolution of everything from nervous systems to muscles, which has major implications for understanding human biology and human health. His lab is part of the Molette Biology Laboratory for Environmental and Climate Change Studies at Auburn, for which he serves as co-director.
Halanych’s research has resulted in more than 150 articles, numerous keynote lectures and presentations, and upwards of $10 million in grant funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He is a member of the Research Board of Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative, an organization dedicated to improving society’s ability to understand and change the impact of petroleum pollution on marine and coastal ecosystems.
The Creative Research and Scholarship Award recognized Halanych’s work in the fields of molecular systematics, phylogeography, and evolution of marine invertebrates, research that has taken him to more than 20 different countries.
Last Updated: 10/12/2018