UF professor to receive national award for mentorship
March 27, 2015
Anne E. Donnelly, director of the University of Florida’s Center for Undergraduate Research, is among 15 recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, the White House announced earlier today.
President Obama will present the award to 14 individuals and one organization in recognition of the crucial role they play in mentoring academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering, particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in those fields.
Donnelly, who came to UF in 1996, credits her students for the recognition.
“I am honored to join the newest group of individuals selected to receive this award, but the real reward has been a career working with outstanding students, both graduate and undergraduate, who have shown the utmost determination and persistence as they pursue their academic paths,” she said. “It has truly been an honor to be a part of their stories.”
Candidates for the president’s award are nominated by colleagues, administrators and students in their home institutions or through professional affiliations. Their mentoring can involve students at any grade level from elementary through graduate school and professional development mentoring of early career scientists.
Donnelly’s mentoring role has included serving as director for the National Science Foundation’s South East Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, a program designed to support minority Ph.D. students in science, engineering and mathematics who aspire to academic positions. She also has served on the National Science Foundation Committee of Visitors and the National Science Foundation Centers site visit team.
From 1996-2009, she was associate director for education and outreach for the UF Particle Engineering Research Center, where she managed an interdisciplinary undergraduate research program that placed more than 700 students in research labs.
She received a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in business administration from Georgia State University, and a Ph.D. in instruction and curriculum from the University of Florida.
In addition to being honored at the White House, Donnelly will receive a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation.
Other individuals and organizations receiving the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring are:
- Sheila M. Humphreys, University of California, Berkeley
- Raymond L. Johnson, University of Maryland, College Park
- Murty S. Kambhampati, Southern University at New Orleans
- Gary S. May, Dean, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Elizabeth A. Parry, North Carolina State University
- Tilak Ratnanather, Johns Hopkins University
- John Brooks Slaughter, University of Southern California
- GeoFORCE Texas, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin
- Luis Colón, State University of New York at Buffalo
- Lorraine Fleming, Howard University
- John Matsui, University of California, Berkeley
- Beth Olivares, University of Rochester
- Sandra Petersen, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Julio Soto, San Jose State University