Student Awards

Each spring semester the Botany and Microbiology Department at Ohio Wesleyan University presents various student awards for academic excellence, research, and/or service to the department. Majors within the Department are eligible for three named awards. Click on an award below to view a description and list of recipients..

The Burns-Shirling Award for Outstanding Achievement

The Esther Carpenter Award

The Decker-Ichida Award

Burns-Shirling Award for Outstanding Achievement

In honor of former departmental professors, Dr. George Burns and Dr. Elwood Shirling, the Botany / Microbiology Department annually presents the Burns-Shirling Award. This award goes to a current junior or senior Botany/Microbiology major who has demonstrated exemplary academic success and/or service to the department. In addition to having his/her name engraved permanently on the award plaque, the student(s) selected receives a certificate and monetary gift.

Recipients of the Burns-Shirling Award

2009	Elizabeth Mayers
2008	Alexander Paya and Lindsey Saum
2007	George S. Hamaoui, Jr.
2006	Amanda Robinson and Christina Vorobej
2005	Student Board Officers
2004	Patricia B. S. Celestino
2003	Susan L. Schifer
2002	Beth Ann Browne
2001	Priscilla A. McDowell
2000	Jessica M. Mann
1999	Jessica A. Hankinson
1998	Jarrod T. Bruce
1997	Kathleen A. Peterson
1996	Peter M. Yarchak
1995	Michelle A. Bixler
1994	Andrew C. Cooper
1993	Chanda A. Ewing
1992	Eglantina Lucio-Zavaleta
1991	Eileen L. Seeholzer and Ann M. Kneipp
1990	Eileen L. Seeholzer
1989	Susan C. Funderburg
1988	Marie Y. Hu
1987	David A. Mangus
1986	Steven C. Peiffer
1985	Kimberly A. Barker
1984	John J. Casino
1983	Charles L. Stinemetz
1982	Robert. W. Gensemer
1981	Peter A. Holthe
1980	James A. Cameron

Biographical Information

Dr. George W. Burns was professor in Botany-Microbiology from 1946 until his retirement in 1979. He came to Ohio Wesleyan after serving as a Naval Meteorologist during World War II. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Burns received an AB from the University of Cincinnati. He did his graduate work in Botany at the University of Minnesota, receiving a PhD in 1941. Dr. Bums was a very popular professor in botany over the years, with many friends among the alumni. During his career he served as Acting Vice President and Dean and then went on to serve as Acting President during difficult times of transition at Ohio Wesleyan. Dr. Bums' research took him to Alaska to study botanical indicators of glacial retreat. He worked with geologists at The Ohio State University on some of the first studies of climate change in North America. As genetics began evolving in the college curriculum, he developed courses at OWU that resulted in a textbook "The Science of Genetics" that went on to be published in 6 editions. He was a very accomplished scientist, teacher, meteorologist, ham radio operator and, most of all, a great friend to all whose lives he touched. George Bums died in April of 1994 after a long bout with cancer.

 

Dr. Elwood B. Shirling came to OWU in 1953 and retired in 1979. He received a B.S. from Kansas City Teachers College in 1935 and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1953. He, like Dr. Bums, was one of OWU's greatest teachers, receiving the Bishop We1ch Meritorious Teaching Award. Additionally, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Carski teaching award from the American Society for Microbiology. Dr. Shirling was a active researcher and a very skilled microbiologist. He was coordinator and Director of the International Streptomyces Project (an international cooperative research program involving the collaboration of more than 40 scientists from 20 nations that categorized and cataloged bacterial species and strains that became so important in medicine as antibiotic producing microbes). He was an important consultant to drug companies who were patenting antibiotics in the 1960's and 70's. Dr. Shirling is remembered by Alumni as an excellent teacher, mentor and friend. He started many microbiologists on to bright careers, for which they remain eternally grateful. He continues to enjoy a very happy retirement in Colorado, maintaining his home near Estes Park on the Continental Divide. The Burns-Shirling Award is generated annually from an endowed account that Alumni and friends established in 1979 when these two distinguished professors retired

Dr. Elwood Shirling at age 95 hiking near his home in Colorado.

The Esther Carpenter Award

This award is presented to a senior female major who has demonstrated excellence in research. In addition to having her name engraved permanently on the award plaque, the student(s) selected receives a certificate and a monetary gift.

Recipients of the Esther Carpenter Award

Biographical Information

Dr. Esther Carpenter graduated in 1925 from Ohio Wesleyan University where she majored in Zoology. She earned a Ph.D. in Embryology from Yale University in 1932. Her dissertation research on the development of ectodermal head structures in Ambystoma, as determined by vital staining and transplantation, was at the cutting edge of experimental embryology at that time. In 1933 Dr. Carpenter began a long career in the Zoology department at Smith College in Northampton, MA, teaching courses including General Zoology, Histology and Cytology until she retired in 1968. Her research resulted in numerous publications and was conducted with the assistance of occasional grants from the Massachusetts and American Cancer Societies and the National Institutes of Health. Ohio Wesleyan recognized Dr. Carpenter's contributions by awarding her an honorary D.Sc. in 1956. Throughout her career, she sought out stimulating scientific opportunities. For several summers she did research at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA. She was a research assistant in the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Later, she held a research fellowship for a year at The Ohio State University. Dr. Carpenter died in 2001 at the age of 98. The Esther Carpenter Award was established as the result of a bequest by Dr. Carpenter to Ohio Wesleyan University.

The Decker-Ichida Award recognizes the academic excellence of a junior and a senior major in botany or microbiology. The award is accompanied by a certificate and monetary gift.

Recipients of the Decker-Ichida Award

2009	Alexander Paya and Rebecca Sisson
2008	Jenna Sroka, Max Schroeder and Michael Bolt
2007	Lindsey A. Saum and Cassandra I. Henry
2006	Reeti R. Khare

Biographical Information

Dr. Jane Decker earned an A.B. from Mount Holyoke College, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale University, where she studied plant anatomy and systematics. Her association with Ohio Wesleyan University began as a Visiting Assistant Professor, 1965-1966, a Visiting Associate Professor, 1968-1973, followed by a regularly appointed full-time Assistant Professor in 1973, filling the position left vacant by her husband, Dr. Hemy Decker, who had held the position since coming to Delaware, Ohio, in 1962. Dr. Decker was a distinguished scholar, superb educator, and powerful role model. Her outstanding career was varied with research and publications on the internal structure of tropical plants, teaching of general and advanced botany courses, and active membership in many professional scientific societies. Jane Decker was the recipient of Ohio Wesleyan University's highest award for outstanding teaching, the Bishop Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award, presented to her during the Spring 1988 Commencement Program. She was highly respected and admired by the students whose lives she touched. She steadfastly supported the study of botany and presented her students an education of the highest scientific integrity and scholarship. She served as a positive role model and source of constant encouragement and inspiration for young women entering professional careers in science. Many students have expressed their hope to be able to live up to the high standards Jane set for herself and for them. Professor Decker died of cancer in November, 1988. As a memorial to her life, which was very much involved with plants, Ohio Wesleyan University established the Jane M. Decker Arboretum on the campus.

 

Dr. Allan Ichida was born in Seattle, Washington. He spent much of his childhood in San Francisco, California where his parents ran a Salvation Army orphanage, before being relocated in 1942 to Manzanar Japanese internment camp during World War II. He majored in botany at Ohio Wesleyan University, receiving a B.A. in 1953. At the University of Tennessee he studied botany and mycology and was awarded his Master's degree in 1955. His studies then took him to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received his Ph.D. in mycology. He also worked at the Madison Forest Products Labs on Dutch Elm Disease. Dr. Ichida returned to OWU in 1961 as a faculty member in the Department of Botany and Bacteriology until he retired in 1995. Dr. Ichida helped to build OWU's botany and microbiology programs and for many years was the force that linked the two disciplines. In 1966 he received a fellowship from the National Science Foundation to study cell ultrastructure utilizing electron microscopy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was instrumental in facilitating the joint acquisition of transmission and scanning electron microscopes by OWU and the U. S. Department of Agriculture Labs and in the acquisition by Ohio Wesleyan University of our own scanning electron microscope in 1998. During his tenure at Ohio Wesleyan, Dr. Ichida served as president and advisor of the Ohio Branch of ASM, which provides a student award in his name at their annual meetings. He also served on the Olentangy Scenic River Commission, and his microbiology water quality research helped to secure the river's "Scenic River" status. During his last 20 years of teaching, Dr. Ichida made the microbiology laboratories available for environmental health studies, allowing students to gain experience in surface water analyses of the Olentangy River, pool and well-water testing, and identification of infectious agents. He was a much-admired professor of plant biology, microbiology, and mycology. He was an enthusiastic canoeist, kayaker, cyclist, skier, and world traveler and spent much of his life studying, preserving and enjoying the natural world. Allan Ichida died suddenly at home of a heart attack in September, 2005. In honor of Jane Decker and Allan Ichida, the Botany and Microbiology Department have established the Jane Decker/Allan Ichida Award for outstanding academic achievement in Botany and Microbiology.