West honored with Julia Mile Chance Prize

admin
– May 9, 2002Posted in: Current News

West
honored with Julia Mile Chance Prize
…………………………………………………………………

Working in the
areas of gene therapy, biomaterials and tissue engineering,
Jennifer West, associate professor in bioengineering and
chemical engineering, is making her mark both at Rice and
in her field of expertise. And with these topics expected
to be in the forefront of 21st-century medical applications,
one might even imagine that these white-hot research interests
could monopolize her time.

Yet West doesn’t allow her students to take a back
seat; across the board students and alumni praise her for
her availability, support and openness both inside and outside
the classroom and laboratory.

Because of this
“above-and-beyond” assistance to her students,
her innovative teaching and her demonstrated impact on students’
lives, West has been awarded this year’s Julia Mile
Chance Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

The prize honors faculty who demonstrate excellence in teaching,
advising and mentoring activities and an extraordinary commitment
to students’ intellectual and professional development.
The award is intended to enhance and facilitate gender-sensitive
faculty leadership at Rice.

Teaching evaluations
and letters of nomination from students and alumni, upon
which the selection criteria are based, praise West for
her openness with students in all facets of their lives
and her efforts to go beyond the ordinary demands of teaching
to inspire, support and encourage her students.

She takes the time to provide advice in all areas of life
— academic, professional and personal, one student
wrote. “She has shared a relationship with me that
has helped me and my confidence in my research and personal
life.”

West is a mentor to not only graduate and undergraduate
students, but also to high school research students. Moreover,
she is an associate of Wiess College who has earned the
Distinguished Faculty Associate Award multiple times.

She is clearly committed to the mentoring process, another
student wrote.

West has been an active member of Rice since joining the
faculty in 1996. She is or has been a member of Faculty
Council, University Council, the Undergraduate Admissions
and Financial Aid Committee, the Faculty Search Committee
in the bioengineering department and chair of the Bioengineering
Graduate Committee and the Graduate Recruiting and Admissions
Committee.

The Julia Mile Chance Prize was established by Professor
of English Jane Chance in memory of her mother.

About admin