Richard Losick has received Harvard’s 2013 Fannie Cox Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching. The prize specifically recognizes exceptional teaching in introductory courses, as well as the ability to inspire students with a passion for science.
“I am thrilled to win the Fannie Cox Prize,” said Losick, who is a Harvard College Professor and the Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Biology. “Its purpose is to promote a culture in which both teaching and research are valued. A special feature of the Prize is that it provides support for the research activities of the recipient. So teaching is rewarded with funds that help the research activities of the Prize winner. I was extremely surprised to win the Prize because I helped in its creation with a generous and visionary alumnus, Gardner Hendrie (’54), and so I considered myself ineligible. But Dean Jeremy Bloxham and Gardner blindsided me by including me among this year’s winners.” (Bloxham is the Dean of Science and Mallinckrodt Professor of Geophysics and Professor of Computational Science).
The prize provides a $10,000 personal award and $40,000 in unrestricted support for teaching and research. Losick’s research focuses on differentiation, morphogenesis and multicellularity in the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus subtilis, but he has always believed that research and teaching go hand-in-hand, and he has received many awards and recognition for his teaching and contributions to undergraduate science education. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, he has designed new science learning models at Harvard that promote “ownership and discovery” in students as they study science.
LOSICK WINS HARVARD PRIZE FOR EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE TEACHING
