Baylor Biology Professor Honored With Excellence In Graduate Mentoring Award
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Dr. Owen T. Lind, professor of biology at Baylor University, College of Arts and Sciences, has been honored as the 2011 recipient of the Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Award from the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools. The award - which recognizes long-term success in mentoring graduate students and directing their thesis and dissertation research - was presented to Lind during the CSGS annual meeting Feb. 26 in Huntsville, Ala.
The Baylor Graduate School prepared the nomination, which included supporting letters from seven of Lind's advisees.
In congratulating him on this award, Dr. Larry Lyon, dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for institutional effectiveness at Baylor, noted that "during most of Professor Lind's career, Baylor was focused on undergraduate teaching. Yet, Owen pursued and published important ecological research with graduate students, while still serving his undergraduate charges effectively."
Lind began his faculty career at Baylor as an assistant professor in 1966. Since that time, he has directed the theses and dissertations of 30 master's and doctoral students. With these students, he has presented scores of papers at professional meetings and has shared the author line with his students on more than 50 peer-reviewed publications.
Ten of Lind's 23 master's students have gone on to earn their Ph.D. degrees at other institutions, a fact that pleases the professor. When Baylor's department of biology began its doctoral program in the mid-1990s, Lind quickly embraced the opportunity and has successfully directed five doctoral students.
Lind's specialty is in limnology, the study of aquatic systems. He is widely recognized in academe for research contributing to understanding of the ecological principles of limnology.
In fact, his research examining processes that govern water quality has significant implications for society both here and abroad. In efforts to bring needed education, training and expertise to Latin America, he was a central figure in establishing Chapala Ecology Station near Guadalajara, Mexico, where he taught basic and advanced limnological courses and workshops to undergraduates, graduate students and others from Baylor and throughout Latin America.
Dr. Ken Wilkins, professor of biology and associate dean of graduate studies and research in the Baylor Graduate School, has been a colleague of Dr. Lind's for 28 years.
"Professor Lind has served as a mentor for me as well," Wilkins said. "He has been a great model of how to balance effective teaching, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, with meaningful research. Owen is highly deserving of this recognition."
Much of Lind's research has been conducted in Mexico and has involved mentoring of a number of Mexican students, who are now applying Baylor graduate degrees in government as water agency scientists and in the academy as university faculty in Latin America.
Lind and his wife, Laura Davalos Lind, continue their professional outreach in a cooperative program between Baylor and Universidad de Veracruz, through which he is currently mentoring a Mexican doctoral student.
Media contact: Frank Raczkiewicz, Assistant Vice President of Media Communications, (254) 710-1964