LeBrun named Professor of the YearThe Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recently named Roger LeBrun, an entomology professor at the University of Rhode Island, the 2001 Rhode Island Professor of the Year.
LeBrun is the first recipient of the state award since 1997 and the first URI professor to receive the award since the program was established in 1981. He was selected from among nearly 400 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country.
LeBrun has taught at URI since 1977 and has been recognized many times for the quality of his teaching and research. In 2000 alone, he was cited for teaching excellence by the URI Foundation, R.I. Gov. Lincoln Almond, and the Entomological Society of America.
Students and teachers often cite LeBrun’s energy level as one reason he is such a successful teacher. “I do put out a lot of energy into my lectures,” LeBrun said, “but I feed off the energy and vigor of my students. They pull me in and convince me I’m 23 years old again. The nature of college students gives me energy.
“I’m continuing the work of superb teachers who taught me. Their work carries on here at URI. I like to think that I’ve inspired some of my students and they’ll pass along a little bit of me to their students in the future. It’s like my connection to immortality,” he said.
In nominating LeBrun for the Carnegie honor, URI Provost M. Beverly Swan wrote: “Dr. LeBrun welcomes the opportunity to share his enthusiasm for entomology with undergraduates and teaches a highly demanding, but very popular, course entitled ‘Humans, Insects and Disease.’ We are very proud to count Dr. LeBrun among our faculty. He is the ideal colleague and a superb mentor for the faculty of the future.”
In addition to teaching, LeBrun is director of graduate programs in the College of the Environment and Life Sciences and director of the URI Laboratory for Invertebrate Pathology. His recent research has focused on diseases transmitted by ticks and mosquitoes, especially Lyme disease, West Nile virus, and eastern equine encephalitis.
He holds three patents, has published more than 40 scientific papers and received more than $1 million in research grants.
By Todd McLeish
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