Each spring, the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) recognizes outstanding community members with collegiate awards. This year, CBS expanded the number of awards to provide additional opportunities to highlight exceptional contributions in the areas of research, education, and service. This year’s award and award recipients included:
CBS Excellence in Research and Innovation Award: Forest Isbell
This award recognizes an associate or full professor who has had an exceptional impact through their scholarship on their field, with an emphasis on the past three years.
Forest Isbell is an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior. His research has shown that more diverse ecosystems are more productive and store more carbon. Additionally, he’s shown that our efforts to restore agricultural lands or rewild urban yards must also seek to restore biodiversity. He is an author of more than 130 articles that have been cited more than 26,000 times. His nominators commented on his work saying: “He is one of the most creative scientists we have ever met. He is always forming novel links between disparate fields and concocting exciting experiments from unexpected opportunities.”
CBS Rising Star in Research and Innovation Award: Christina Camell
This award goes to an assistant professor or first-year associate professor who shows great promise in their research endeavors.
Christina Camell is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics. Her research focuses on elucidating the relationships of infection, inflammation, metabolism, and aging. Since establishing her research lab at the University of Minnesota, she has published in a number of high-profile journals including in Nature, Science, Nature Aging, and Cell Reports. One of her nominators commented on her impact, describing her work this way. “Dr. Camell’s well-documented combination of exceptional scholarship, exemplary teaching and mentorship, and dedicated leadership and service unequivocally justify her strong consideration for the CBS Rising Star in Research and Innovation Award.”
CBS Excellence in Graduate Student Education Award: Wendy Gordon
This award recognizes a faculty member who has made a substantial contribution to graduate student education in one of the graduate degree programs associated with CBS including formal or informal teaching, graduate student mentoring or advising, or graduate program leadership.
Wendy Gordon is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology (BMBB), and Biophysics. She served as the director of graduate studies for the BMBB graduate program for the past four years and has advised, mentored, and guided more than 90 graduate students in that role. A graduate student described Gordon’s impact on her, explaining: “Wendy was always there for me as a mentor, whether I needed academic advice or just a listening ear. She struck the perfect balance between intellectual freedom and guidance — trusting me to explore my ideas while providing the support I needed to succeed.”
Stanley Dagley-Samuel Kirkwood Undergraduate Teaching Award: Anna Mosser
This award acknowledges exceptional faculty contributions to undergraduate education, including classroom presentation, educational innovation, and curriculum development.
Anna Mosser is a teaching associate professor in the Department of Biology Teaching and Learning. She teaches four courses at the University, including the Foundations of Biology course series, and also often serves as a teaching mentor to colleagues newer to the University. As said by her nominators: “Dr. Mosser has enriched the lives of thousands of students through her exemplary teaching, her curricular innovations, her attention to the needs of students from diverse backgrounds and life experiences, and her data-informed teaching.”
John S. Anderson Leadership Award: Deanna Koepp
This award recognizes the exceptional contributions of faculty and staff to their department as well as the College.
Deanna Koepp is an associate professor of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development (GCD). She coordinates faculty teaching assignments, oversees teaching assistant placement, facilitates mentoring and promotion processes for teaching faculty, and serves as a key liaison between GCD and other programs and administrative units. Since 2017, she has served as CBS liaison to the Writing Enriched Curriculum (WEC) program, helping implement multiple iterations of the WEC plan for the College. One of her nominators described her impact this way: “Her administrative leadership, innovative program development, exceptional teaching, and integrity have made an indelible impact on our department, our college, and the University as a whole.”
John S. Anderson Leadership Award: Brittany Eich
This award recognizes the exceptional contributions of faculty and staff to their department as well as the College.
Brittany Eich is director of the College’s Nature of Life program. In this role, she manages the College’s signature program at Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories and on campus, and she also helped oversee a redesign of the program over the last few years. Brittany’s nominators noted her impact this way: “Brittany is an asset to our college for the leadership she demonstrates in the administration of the Nature of Life Program. Her attention to detail means the required elements for this very complex and large program get done, and her large-scale vision for the program means that the program is constantly being evaluated and improved so it continues to serve the needs of our students.”
Outstanding Staff Service Award: Sarah Borgen
The award is presented to civil service, bargaining unit, and P&A staff members in recognition of exemplary contributions to the College, its vision, and its mission.
Sarah Borgen serves as senior lab services coordinator for CBS Instructional Labs. She supports courses in Minneapolis, assisting students in a wide range of courses from non-major intro biology to upper-division specialized labs and ensuring labs are prepared for each week’s curriculum. One of her students described her this way: “Sarah clearly has a deep passion for biology as it radiates from her like the warmth from the sun. … As a student, I am so grateful that I got to work with her this semester."
Outstanding Staff Service Award: Kally Worm
Kally Worm is the research and administrative coordinator for Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. Kally plays a critical role in managing the day-to-day operations of the reserve’s long-term experiments including hiring, training, and supervising student research technicians, managing the prescribed burn program, and more. Her nominators describe her impact this way: “Kally is the glue that holds Cedar Creek together. She is admired and respected by the entire Cedar Creek community, from co-workers to researchers, summer seasonal staff to long-time faculty scientists, and community members to campus counterparts. She works exceptionally well with the many different stakeholders who ask for her help, and works hard every day to make Cedar Creek a welcoming and positive place to do science.”
Outstanding Staff Service Award: Anita Porath-Krause
Anita Porath-Krause is a research scientist and lab manager for Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior faculty members Elizabeth Borer and Eric Seabloom. In addition to helping coordinate the operation of the Nutrient Network, she manages a shared analytical facility used by 14 UMN faculty across four units in two colleges and multiple external collaborators. She has also trained dozens of students, postdocs, and technicians in the use of specialized instruments and mentored many students over the years. One of her nominators described her impact stating: “It is hard to imagine anyone who has done more to extend the global reach and advance the research mission of CBS than Dr. Anita Porath-Krause. Her contributions are extraordinary, and she is most deserving of this recognition.”