Salgo Award goes to Biochemistry

Salgo Award goes to Biochemistry’s Gustin

BY JADE BOYD
Rice News staff

It has been said that teaching is the greatest act of optimism, so perhaps it’s no coincidence that Michael Gustin credits his own optimism and outgoing personality for a measure of his success in the classroom.

Michael Gustin

Gustin, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology, is the recipient of the 2005 Nicholas Salgo Distinguished Teaching Award. Created in 1966 by the Noren-Salgo Foundation, it is Rice’s oldest teaching award. The Salgo winner is chosen each year by members of the junior and senior class and awarded a $1,500 prize.

“I was genuinely excited when I heard I had won this award,” he said. “I think perhaps, to some of [the students], I have been an influence, and I’m very honored by that.”

“I come to these students at a point when their lives are in transition,” Gustin said. “I enjoy teaching, and I like to spend time with individual students, find out about their interests and offer them ideas that force them to expand their thinking.”

Gustin’s introductory biology course is something of an institution at Rice. He’s taught the class for 13 years, and he’s the first to admit that the class is very demanding for students. But Gustin also goes out of his way to make the class fun and engaging for the students. The annual live enactment — in which the class is divided into teams to act out the functions of the digestive system — is now a course tradition. And Gustin said he’s constantly trying new things in class.

“I’m continually thinking about how to improve the class, how students will respond and how to involve the whole class,” Gustin said.

One recent experiment involved a “whole-class” discussion. Gustin had students read about controversial topics in modern biology, such as making hiring decisions based on genetic testing, and then he had students openly discuss their reactions to these personal and societal challenges. Gustin liked the result, but there was no way everyone in this large class could participate, so he’ll refine the exercise next fall and divide the class into smaller groups.

Teaching and research both appeal to Gustin’s intellect, but he said teaching is rewarding in unique ways.

“This sounds overly simplistic, but I really love meeting people, and teaching offers a kind of interaction with people that you really don’t get any other way,” Gustin said.