Virginia Tech Agriculture Professors Win National And Regional Teaching Awards

BLACKSBURG, Va., Nov. 1, 2002 -- Two professors in Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will receive prestigious Food and Agriculture Sciences Excellence in Teaching awards Nov. 10.

Michael J. Ellerbrock, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics, is to receive one of the association's two national teaching awards in a ceremony in Chicago at the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, or NASULGC.

James W. Knight, professor of animal and poultry sciences, will receive one of two regional awards from the association's Southern region. A total of eight regional awards are to be presented, with two being awarded in each of four regions.

The program under which both faculty members were recognized was authorized by Congress in 1990, and seeks to acknowledge the contributions of the best teachers in the country in the areas of agriculture, natural resources, veterinary science, and human sciences. The awards, jointly sponsored by the USDA and the NASULGC, include a $5,000 stipend for Ellerbrock and a $2,000 stipend for Knight.

"I'm just humbled by this award," said Ellerbrock. " It's mind-boggling to me that I'm being recognized by my peers at this level for doing something I truly love to do."

Ellerbrock joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 1992. He previously had been a faculty member at the University of Florida and at East Texas State University. He earned a bachelor's degree from Texas A&M University, and earned his master's and doctoral degrees from Clemson University. In addition to his duty as a professor, he is the director of the Center for Economic Education.

He teaches undergraduate courses in macroeconomics as related to the food and fiber system, as well as courses in agricultural/environmental ethics and a new course he developed entitled "Science and Religion: Friends or Foes?" As director of the Center for Economic Education, he develops and implements a statewide economic education program directed toward public school teachers, 4-H youth leaders, and other youth educators.

Ellerbrock has received the University Sporn Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching, the only teaching award for which the winner is selected by the entire student body at Virginia Tech. He has also received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Southern Agricultural Economics Association.

Knight has been a member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 1976, and also served as director of the university's Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from 1993 to 1995. He was a visiting scientist in Mariensee, Germany, during the 1988-89 academic year. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana in 1970, and his master's and doctoral degrees from University of Florida in1972 and 1975 respectively.

Knight teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the physiology of reproduction and a University Honors Colloquium on "Controversial Issues in Science and Society."

He is known among colleagues as a gifted instructor who can communicate difficult principles and skillfully address sensitive issues such as animal welfare, ethics, and research. He encourages students to recognize the connection between what they study in the classroom and what they encounter in their daily lives.

Knight received the university's first Digg's Teaching Scholar Award in 1992, and the W.E. Wine Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1987. He also received the Certificate of Teaching Excellence in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1983, and has been inducted into both the university's Academy of Faculty Service and Academy of Teaching Excellence.

Ellerbrock is the first Virginia Tech faculty member to receive the national award. Previous Virginia Tech winners of the Southern regional award were L. Janette Taper, Department of Human Nutrition, in 1992, and John R. Seiler, Department of Forestry, in 2001.