Cherry Award Finalist Will Present Public Lecture

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WACO, Texas (Oct. 24, 2017) — Heidi G. Elmendorf, Ph.D., associate professor of biology at Georgetown University and finalist for Baylor University’s Robert Foster Cherry Award For Great Teaching, will present her public lecture at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30 in Kayser Auditorium of Hankamer Academic Center.

Her presentation, “The Moral Relativism of Microbes: To Be or Not To Be Virulent,” will explore how a better understanding of the dynamics between microbes and their human hosts offer lessons from the very basics of evolutionary biology to applications for medicine and human health.

Elmendorf is one of three finalists who have been selected from a field of nominees for the Cherry Award. The Cherry Award is designed to honor great teachers, stimulate discussion in the academy about the value of teaching and encourage departments and institutions to value their own great teachers. Each finalist receives $15,000 and presents a lectures at Baylor during the fall semester. Finalists will present a Cherry Award Lecture on their home campuses as well.

The Cherry Award recipient will receive a prize of $250,000 and teach in residence at Baylor University during the fall of 2018 or spring of 2019 semester. The recipient of the Cherry Award, announced in spring of 2018, also will receive $35,000 for his or her home department.

Elmendorf earned her A.B. degree in biology, magna cum laude, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa, from Princeton University in 1988 and her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology in 1993 from Stanford University, where she was a National Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow. In 1999, she began teaching at Georgetown University, where she serves as director of the Regents Science Scholars Program.

Elmendorf has won numerous awards for scholarship and teaching, including being named the 2014 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s District of Columbia Professor of the Year. In 2016, she received the Edward J. Bunn Award for Faculty Excellence from Georgetown University, where she also earned the Georgetown Commitment to Diversity Faculty Award in 2009 and the Dorothy Brown Award in Teaching in 2005. In 2006, Elmendorf was named a Carnegie Visiting Scholar. She has won the Georgetown College Academic Council Award in 2011 and 2017.

For more information about the Cherry Award, visit the Cherry Award website.

by Joy Moton, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
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ABOUT THE ROBERT FOSTER CHERRY AWARD FOR GREAT TEACHING

The Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching was created by Robert Foster Cherry, who earned his A.B. from Baylor University in 1929. He enrolled in the Baylor Law School in 1932 and passed the Texas State Bar Examination the following year. With a deep appreciation for how his life had been changed by significant teachers, he made an exceptional estate bequest to establish the Cherry Award program to recognize excellent teachers and bring them in contact with Baylor University students. The first Robert Foster Cherry Award was made in 1991 and has since been awarded biennially.