Metcalf Cup and Prize
Overview
The Metcalf Cup and $10,000 Prize were created by an endowment gift from the late Dr. Arthur G. B. Metcalf, an alumnus and Trustee of Boston University.
Each fall, the Metcalf Committee invites students, faculty members, and alumni to submit letters recommending current full-time faculty members for consideration for the Metcalf Awards.
"The purpose of the prize," Dr. Metcalf stated at the time of its creation, "is to establish a systematic procedure for the review of the quality of teaching and the identification and advancement of those members of the faculty who excel as teachers, of which this cup is symbolic."
2009 Metcalf Cup & Prize Awardees
Thomas David Gilmore
Professor Thomas David Gilmore unites a passion for research with inspiring teaching. His explorations in molecular biology into the Rel/NF-kb family of transcription factors shed new light on mechanisms by which certain genes can transform normal cells into malignant cells. He also is a born teacher. In his legendary undergraduate Molecular Biology Laboratory course, he introduces students to DNA cloning techniques, mammalian cell culture and transfection, and immunofluorescence. Each year he conceives a project based upon a new "gene of interest," and the students then perform hands-on research. Each year he inspires students to pursue advanced work in molecular biology.
Day and night, weekday and weekend, Professor Gilmore carefully considers how best to teach his undergraduate and graduate students and to advance their projects. Always accessible, he recommends the proper technique required to answer each scientific question and helps further their reseach. He provides assistance on their manuscripts, fellowship proposals, and application letters--and he even took care of a student's mice during her honeymoon! "When does this guy sleep?" wondered one grateful student. The accolades are unanimous: "He is by far teh best professor I have had during my undergraduate years." "Enthusiasm! He obviously loves to teach and loves what he teaches. He really believes in us and cares for us."
Professor Gilmore has mentored countless students and his academic progeny populate prestigious scientific departments and institutions throughout the world. Committed to cultivating research in all disciplines, Professor Gilmore recently accepted the directorship of the Undergraduate Research Opportunites Program, and the student applications have since doubled.
World-famed researcher, dedicated teacher, and exemplary mentor, Professor Gilmore communicates the excitement of disciplined discovery and has ignited the ambitions of generations of students. Boston University proudly presents Professor Gilmore with the Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Michelle LaCourse
Professor Michelle LaCourse has transported audiences with her masterful viola playing for over three decades. Whether interpreting the subtleties of Bach in a solo recital, reveling in the sultry torch songs written for her in the album Chocolates, collaborating intuitively with chamber ensembles, or contributing to a unified orchestral voice, she always succeeds in communicating the beautiful complexities of music. One expert praised her playing as "a miraculous blend of intense passion and artistic elegance"; another recognized that she "has a mastery of the instrument like a sixth sense, and with it reveals to us the most profound secrets."
Professor LaCourse's devotion to music and to her instrument has engendered a sense of responsibility to transmit her special knowledge, to teach aspiring artists. She brings alive the different styles of music, explores their context, and describes their forms and underlying gestures; without understanding these, the performer cannot communicate and connect with the audience. In her lessons, Professor LaCourse gives advice on subjects ranging from posture, to variety of vibrato, to methods of fucsing nervous energy into healthy performance. Her preparation of her students is exhaustive and she is a demanding teacher. Yet she is very accessible, and an appreciative student nothed that "she even gives extra lesson time." Another cited her "patient, thoughtful, and insightful guidance" that will enable him to become a good pedagogue in his own right. "She cares so much about her students; I look forward to her classes and lessons!" Another gave her a simple, eloquent evaluation: "Wonderful!"
Lover of the luscious, chocolate sound of the viola, inspired performer, and dedicated teacher, Professor LaCourse is truly a musician's musician. Boston University is pleased to present the Metcalf Cup adn Prize for Excellence in Teaching to Professor LaCourse.
2008 Metcalf Cup & Prize Awardee
Allison Adair
Click play to hear comments from this years Metcalf Cup winner. Credit: BU Today
Ms. Allison Adair transforms the study of writing into a
vital and exciting adventure. Her enthusiasm and love
for her subject matter have shaped her life and
enhanced the skills of students and fellow teachers.
For the past five years, she has taught as a Lecturer
in the Writing Program and, more recently, has served
as Coordinator of the Writing 100 course.
Ms. Adair brings to the writing classroom the passion and as the commanding and encouraging presence of a born teacher. She teaches simultaneously a serious, substantive literature seminar and a writing skills course. Her lively explications engage the students in the trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and logic, which are presented as essential tools for effective expression and appreciation of literature. Ms. Adair selects challenging texts that she explores with the students. Her ultimate aim is to teach the how to learn, how to comprehend, question, critique, investigate, support, and experiment. To this end, she provides exhaustive commentary on approximately four thousand pages of student work each semester, striving for further improvement with each revision. In the role of Coordinator, her supportive mentoring of teachers has given them useful lessons in pedagogy and helped to maintain high quality in the courses.
Ms. Adair embodies the values that inform the freshman experience at Boston University. She places students first, treating each as an individual worthy of close attention from the dedicated faculty member. Yet she never minimizes the real challenges students face preparing to excel at an elite university. The experience of taking a class from Ms. Adair is transformative. One student wrote: "I have never wanted to work so hard at writing in my life." Another wrote that she is "an awesome teacher...stimulating, engaging, and inspiring." And an upperclass-man concluded: "I am a better writer, communicator, and person thanks to Ms. Adair's class...She truly exemplifies excellent teaching at Boston University."
Dedicated teacher, caring mentor, and accomplished poet, Ms. Adair has enabled countless students to begin to master the art of writing and to appreciate great literature more fully. Boston University gratefully awards Ms. Allison Adair the Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
2007 Metcalf Cup & Prize Awardee
Jeffrey F. Beatty
When Hamlet wishes to expose his stepfather's perfidy, he sets a theatrical trap. Resolving to expose his father's murderer, Hamlet directs a troupe of actors to reconstruct the crime, hoping his play will "catch the conscience of the King." As guilty Claudius storms from the room, art reveals what "the corrupt currents of this world" conceal.
Students in Professor Beatty's courses on business and law remember his captivating performances drawn from the daily dramas of corporations and courtrooms. Embellishing his Friday afternoon classes with video clips, documentaries, and sparkling debates on corporate corruption, slumlords, and car loans, Professor Beatty whisks students through three hours that one student says "always left me excited and astonished at what I had learned." One day Beatty recruited a student to propose to the class a shady business plan. "The scene was so well staged that the class believed it to be real," a student recalls, until Professor Beatty exposed the simulation and revealed the project's flaws.
Professor Beatty's students praise him for being accessible and inspiring. Disregarding formal office hours, Beatty is always willing to advise on graduate applications, navigate visa requirements, or help students prepare for exams. Students competing in the annual Case Analysis Competition, the "Beanpot" of Boston's business schools, rely on Professor Beatty to coach with the passion of Jack Parker and the shrewdness of Jack Welch. As the determined but fair chair of his School's Committee on Academic Conduct, Professor Beatty has won his colleague's admiration as "the Sir Edward Coke of SMG."
Professor Beatty has written several best-selling books on business law, and he has designed courses on topics from real estate to Winston Churchill. Accounting for his creativity, Professor Beatty modestly notes that "...change is essential...Law evolves daily, the student population alters annually...A professor must forever push towards the redrawn frontier."
