Five UM faculty honored for excellence

James Bogan is glad he didn’t have a crystal ball back in junior high school.

“If my eighth-grade self could have looked into the future and seen that he would be in a classroom for 37 years, he would’ve run into the woods,” Bogan said Wednesday after receiving the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching in the University of Missouri System. “I’m glad he didn’t.”

Bogan and four other UM faculty were honored at a ceremony in Memorial Union, hosted by MU Chancellor Brady Deaton and his wife, Anne. Elson Floyd, president of the UM system, handed out awards to the honorees.

Bogan, a professor of film and history, has spent 35 years teaching at the University of Missouri-Rolla. In addition to teaching in Brazil and the Netherlands, Bogan has served as director of the Missouri London Program.

Bogan and Antonio Nanni were selected by a systemwide faculty committee that evaluated nominations submitted by the four UM chancellors.

Nanni received the Presidential Award for Research and Creativity.

“Dr. Nanni is very well known and respected nationally and internationally,” wrote one of his colleagues. “If there were a Nobel Prize category for Civil Engineering, Dr. Nanni will be the first person I nominate.”

Douglas Randall, an MU professor of biochemistry, was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award.

Randall graduated from South Dakota State University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. But when he attended Michigan State University to get his doctorate, he decided to become a biochemist. He credits his parents for his focus on plant biochemistry.

“I’m a plant biochemist as much as anything because my parents were in the greenhouse business,” Randall said after the ceremony.

James Olson, president emeritus at UM, received the Curator’s Award for Scholarly Excellence for his book, “Stuart Symington: A Life.” The award is limited to faculty members who publish their book through the University of Missouri Press.

Beverly Jarrett, director and editor in chief of the UM Press, accepted the award on behalf of Olson.

The C. Brice Ratchford Memorial Fellowship nominees are chosen by a panel of representatives from the UM System, off-campus faculty and other Missouri citizens. This year’s recipient is Bette Loiselle, a professor of biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

As for Bogan, he said after the ceremony that he’s just hitting his stride.

“I’m exhilarated,” he said, “and being exhilarated pushes a guy to do that much more.”