University Award for Excellence in Teaching
Michael J. LaMarca, 1983
"Yourself a devoted scientist, you bring to the classroom a deeply held commitment to the disciplined study of the world of living things. Through your own example, spiced by a vigor and rigor that are legendary, you have led your students not only to an understanding of biology but also to the recognition that good questions are as central to our pursuit of knowledge as are good answers. If you have not yet made Rana pipiens and Xenopus laevis household words, you have surely given those little amphibians notoriety among the many students who have worked with great benefit alongside you in your laboratory. Moreover, you have succeeded in a quest that has foiled others for centuries: for the General Zoology Laboratory Manual contains records of heartbeats of unicorns allegedly captured by you in the wilds of Omro, Wisconsin.
Innovative in your approach to computer-assisted education, you have loosed upon the campus a set of programs with such disarmingly direct titles such as ANIMAL, BONES, SKINS, MEATS, and SMARTS, thus freeing you to concentrate in your classes on the leading theoretical and experimental concerns of modern biology. You have also directed your students' attention to the ethical and policy implications of contemporary scientific knowledge through the sensitive handling of your course in human reproduction and through your concern for the roles of experts and citizens alike in making critical decisions in an era of rapidly growing scientific sophistication.
Michael LaMarca, in the best tradition of the teacher/scholar you render vividly for your students the excitement, the challenge, and the responsibilities that attend our efforts to probe nature's workings. Knowledgeable as your students may be about biology, however, they remember you best for your skills in teaching others how to think."