Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I think teaching is an interactive sport. It’s not just “I have this knowledge and
I am giving it to you,” because one never learns a field as well as when you stand up
in front of a bunch of people and talk about it. Reed Scherer, NIU Geology professor excels
at just about everything: inspirational teacher, world renowned polar scientist, institutional
innovator. Reed Scherer is really a model of what we’re looking for in our science
faculty. He’s a world class scientist and regularly involves students, both graduates
and undergraduates. In that science, they are in the act of discovery, they’re part
of the scientific process, that’s what we value most, that’s how real learning takes
place, that’s how engaged learning takes place. Reed’s approach to science and especially
his students is all very hands-on. He’s very much into having us do our own work and
sort of set our own path so he’s really all about making sure that we’re in control
of the experience and that we learn not just by hearing about science, but by going out
and doing it. Scherer has long embraced the engaged learning approach in all its variations,
whether he’s presenting a classroom comparison between the evolution of automobiles and organisms,
working alongside students on dinosaur digs in the American West, or training the next
generation of scientists while on arctic expeditions. Reed has a substantial breadth of research
interest. For example, he’s worked with students in dinosaur paleontology and other
areas of paleontology and other areas of paleontology and other areas of sedimentary geology and
his students have worked on projects out in the west on dinosaur digs. He very much is
the proponent of what we do in Geology, which is field research, combined with lab research,
combined with normal classroom activities. Geology more than most fields has always been
a hands on sort of thing because it’s part of a journey, it’s an adventure to learn
things in a way that you can’t learn in a classroom. So it certainly fits naturally
for me to bring my students in the field because you can hear about it in a lecture, you can
read about it in a book but until you’re out there looking at a fossil, trying to discover
that, say individual fossil for example, is not necessarily exactly like the one that
you saw a picture in a book. And you gotta put your hands on it. Despite his numerous
international research commitments, Scherer has been a leader on campus as well. In recent
years he has served as Interim Associate Dean for research and graduate affairs in the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He was also a leader proponent of the strategic planning
initiative that resulted in a popular new environmental studies major and minor which
he oversees in his role as ESE institute director. When (Name Unclear) called for strategic planning
for bold new ideas, I saw an opportunity for broadening out the folks that we had in Geology
on climate and environmental change to bring in faculty that are doing things that are
related to the environment. Not just collaborations between Geology and Biological Sciences, but
I realized that there are people all across this campus who are interested in various
aspects of the environment. In contemporary and Geologic terms, Reed Scherer simply rocks.
He’s nevertheless last year still managed to be co-author or author of I think 6 refereed
articles, 3 coming into this year and also obtaining new research grants and taught a
class. It’s a tremendous amount of energy and a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and
really well deserving of Board of Trustees Award.