Two members of the Yale faculty - Roger Howe, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, and Joe Wolenski, a senior lecturer II and research scientist in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences - were awarded the William Clyde DeVane for outstanding scholarship and undergraduate teaching by Yale's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) last week during its annual reception for Yale College seniors.
The DeVane award, the oldest teaching award in Yale College, has been conferred annually by the chapter since 1966. William Clyde DeVane, the award's namesake, was dean of Yale College from 1938 until 1963 and was a long-time president of Yale's PBK chapter and a senator and president for the national society of Phi Beta Kappa.
At the same reception, Sarah Mahurin, '11 Ph.D., dean of Timothy Dwight College and a lecturer in the Department of Black Studies, was presented with the Joseph W. Gordon Award for outstanding support of teaching and learning in Yale College. This prize was established in 2016 in honor of Gordon, who earned his Ph.D. at Yale in 1976 and subsequently served on the English department faculty. He later became deputy dean and dean of undergraduate education in Yale College.
Rigorous and generous community builder
"[Joe] Wolenski is, in many ways, what we hope for in a teacher," said Rishi Shah, a Yale senior and one of the undergraduate members of Phi Beta Kappa, when presenting the DeVane award. He "brings a rare combination of rigor and generosity to the laboratory," Shah added. "His courses demand clarity of thought, careful design, and a willingness to sit with uncertainty. Students learn how to ask good questions, revise their thinking, and speak with precision and purpose. These are scientific skills, but they are also human ones."
Shah also praised this humanistic side of the scientist and lab instructor.
What stands out most, however, Shah said, is the community Wolenski builds. Wolenski, an avid photographer, keeps class photos of all his classes to document and remember the community that formed during 13 weeks of classes - some of his lab courses meet twice weekly for five hours - and became, "in some sense, a family."
A distinguished mathematician and dedicated teacher
As a mathematician, Roger Howe, is known for his contributions to representation theory, a branch of mathematics that translates abstract algebraic structures into linear algebra. But he is equally known and admired as teacher and for his contributions to mathematics education.
In presenting the DeVane award to Howe, Penny Laurans, a member of the PBK Graduate Board of Advisors, noted that when he was awarded the Dylan Hixon Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Natural Sciences at Yale, his citation read, in part: "[I]f mathematics is a language, you certainly speak it beautifully. Fortunately for those who are not themselves native speakers, you have demonstrated a gift for making fundamental concepts in the structure of mathematics become familiar and intelligible."
Howe has also been heavily involved in math education reform nationally, serving on numerous national committees, Laurans said. For his contributions, the American Mathematical Society presented him with their Distinguished Public Service Award, which recognizes a research mathematician who has made a distinguished contribution to the mathematics profession.
Long-serving residential college dean, skilled administrator, devoted teacher
In presenting the Gordon Award to Sarah Mahurin, George Levesque, dean of academic affairs in Yale College and secretary for the chapter, noted that she is currently the longest serving college dean in Yale College, holding the role at Timothy Dwight College (TD) since 2014. Mahurin, he said, "has, in my view, the perfect balance of empathy and firmness."
She is "much loved by the students in TD, who simply call her 'Dean,'" he said. "No last name needed." While Mahurin is an outstanding administrator, he added, "she is at heart an outstanding educator" who, despite her busy administrative responsibilities, insists on teaching a course every term - and, this year, is also the senior essay coordinator for the Black Studies major. In addition, Mahurin voluntarily teaches year-round in the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, a maximum-security level prison for men, and serves on the board of the Yale Prison Education Initiative. "I don't when or how this woman sleeps," Levesque said.
