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Contact:
Tom Davis
Troy Office of University Relations
334/670-3196
tomdavis@troy.edu
Office of University Relations
253 Adams Administration
Troy, AL 36082
(334) 670-3196
(334) 670-3274 (fax)
| Dr. Moore Asouzu wins Troy State University’s Ingalls Award |
| Troy
State University chemistry professor Dr. Moore Asouzu is the
2001-02 recipient of the Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom
Teaching, the university’s most prestigious honor for a
faculty member. Asouzu, a resident of Montgomery and native of Nigeria, was presented the award at the 2002 Honors Convocation, held April 22 in the Claudia Crosby Theater on the TSU campus. Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr., TSU Chancellor, presented the award. The Ingalls Award, presented annually since 1972, recognizes the most outstanding instructor in TSU’s undergraduate programs. Students nominate faculty members for the award. A committee of students and faculty advisers selects the recipient. A member of the TSU faculty since 1989, Asouzu teaches courses on general and analytical chemistry, instrumental analysis and special topics. His classes have a reputation for being difficult, he noted, which makes receiving the Ingalls Award more meaningful. “I don’t teach to receive awards,” he said. “I do it because I love teaching. But when the award comes from the very students who believe I put them through boot camp in my class, it is very satisfying. It tells me that our students are hungry for a challenge.” Asouzu said he especially enjoys leading classes that introduce students to chemistry. “I derive joy teaching at the freshman level,” he said. “That’s where you make an impression. To take a student who knows nothing about the atom and molecule and teach him or her to write a meaningful chemistry equation by the end of the semester – to me that is a total joy.” Teaching is more art than science, Asouzu said. “You can’t teach someone to teach,” he said. “You have to have a desire to teach, and then over time you develop a knack for it. You learn when you can sneak some information in, when you can make your point. I don’t think of myself as being good; I’m just a hard worker.” Asouzu’s expertise extends to the laboratory as well. Research he conducted on the paper-making process led to a U.S. patent in 1999, the first patent for a TSU faculty member. He is a former research fellow with the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, a past president of the Alabama Academy of Science and member of the American Chemical Society. He received a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University, a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a doctorate from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Asouzu lives in Montgomery with his wife, Gwanda, and their children Maurice, Ashley and Charles. |