Innovative Instructor Lauded
News Staff - Wed Mar 18, 2015The U of A Students’ Union is excited to announce that Dr. Allen Shostak has been awarded the first ever Be Booksmart CTL and SU Award for Innovation in Academic Materials!
Dr. Shostak was nominated by a student in his ZOOL 352 class, who commended him on the website he created. Dr. Shostak’s website catalogs different parasites and saves students from having to get a textbook for his class. The award adjudication committee thought that his innovative approach to compiling information for students and the time and effort he clearly put into the website made him stand out among the many outstanding instructors who were nominated to the SU/CTL Award for Innovation in Academic Materials Honour Roll.
The Be Booksmart CTL and SU Award for Innovation in Academic Materials is an award that has grown out of the SU’s Be Booksmart initiative, which encourages students and instructors to work together and find innovative solutions to reduce the barrier that expensive textbooks presents to access to higher education.
Dr. Shostak will be presented with the award at the Students’ Union awards night, and he has graciously decided to donate the $1000 award to The Landing, the SU’s student space offering support for gender and sexual diversity.
Dr. Shostak received his BSc(Hon) and MSc from the University of Alberta, a PhD from University of Manitoba, an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and a Canadian Government Laboratories Visiting Fellowship at the Fisheries and Oceans’ Maurice Lamontagne Institute in Quebec. He has been at the University of Alberta since 1989, where he is currently a Faculty Service Officer III in the Department of Biological Sciences, and a Curator of the University of Alberta Parasite Collection. He routinely teaches in Principles of Parasitism (a live videoconference course offered collaboratively with the University of Calgary), Wildlife Disease, and Experimental Parasitology. Dr. Shostak supervises several undergraduate independent research projects each year. His general interest in zoology goes back to his childhood, but his specific interest in parasitology was kindled in his undergraduate years when taking courses from an exceptional group of enthusiastic parasitologists: Bill Samuel, John Holmes and Jerry Mahrt. Off campus Dr. Shostak enjoys curling, the occasional round of golf, and woodworking.
All members of the SU's Honour Roll are instructors that have gone out of their way to save students money on academic materials and improve the quality of education for undergraduates. Congratulations again to those listed below!
Dr. Ahmed Bouferguene, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Ajay Sandhi, Department of Sociology
Dr. Alison McInnes, Department of Educational Psychology
Dr. Allen Shostak, Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. Andrew Simmonds, Department of Cell Biology
Dr. Ann de Leon, Department of Modern Language and Cultural Studies
Anna Wittmann, Department of English and Film Studies
Dr. Arthur Mar, Department of Chemistry
Dr. Christine Brzezowski, Department of Chemistry
Dalbir Sehmby, Faculty Saint Jean
Dr. Daniel Fried, Department of East Asian Studies
Douglas Peterson, Department of Business Law
Dr. Martin Davies, Department of Pharmacology
Dr. Marek Reformat, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Dr. Edan Foley, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology
Dr. Erin Garvin, Department of History and Classics
Evan Miller-Tait, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology
Dr. Felice Lifshitz, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies
Dr. George Owttrim, Department of Biological Sciences
Glen Fairen, Department of Religious Studies
Dr. Glen Hvenegaard, Department of Forest Science and Management
Dr. Glynnis Hood, Department of Environmental Science and Studies
Gordon Lee, Department of Economics
Dr. Hans Machel, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Dr. Heather Proctor, Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. Herb Yang, Department of Computing Science
Hoyne Santa-Balaz, Department of Art and Design
Jason Breiter, Department of English
Dr. Jennifer Passey, Department of Psychology
Dr. Jeremy Caradonna, Department of History and Classics
Dr. Jim Parsons, Department of Secondary Education
Jocelyn King, Department of Alberta School of Business
Dr. Jonathan Clapperton, Department of Native Studies
Dr. Torah Kachur, Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. Karen Loerke, Department of Elementary Education
Dr. Kelly MacFarlane, Department of History and Classics
Dr. Kenneth Caine, Department of Sociology
Kristine Nutting, Department of Drama
Learry Gagné, Department of Science Politique, CSJ
Dr. Lynne Wiltse, Department of Elementary Education
Marianne Kerolus, Department of Computing Science
Dr. Marina Blekher, Department of Linguistics
Dr. Mélanie Methot, Department of History
Dr. Michael RW Dawson, Department of Psychology
Michele Moscicki, Department of Psychology
Dr. Michael Harrington, Department of Biological Sciences
Dr. Natalie Loveless, Department of Art and Design
Neil Hepburn, Social Sciences Department, Augustana Campus
Odile Cisneros, Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies
Patrick Tomczyk, Department of Secondary Education
Phil Davidson, Department of Alberta School of Business
Dr. Richard Westerman, Department of Sociology
Dr. Robert Driver, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dr. Robert Summers, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Dr. Roger Epp, Department of Political Studies
Ron Wigglesworth, Department of Extension
Dr. Sandra Bucerius, Department of Sociology
Dr. Timothy Mills, Department of Linguistics
Dr. Tong Zhang, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Dr. Wayne DeFehr, Department of English and Film Studies
Dr. Wendy Wismer, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Nutritional Sciences
For more information, please contact:
Simon Yackulic
External Communications & Media Advisor
University of Alberta Students’ Union
P: 780.492.4236
E: ecma@su.ualberta.ca
