March 25, 2002
Katherine H. Freeman, associate professor of geosciences in the College of Earth & Mineral Sciences, has been awarded the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award. This award recognizes tenured faculty members who have excelled both in teaching at the graduate level and in supervising thesis work of graduate students.
Known internationally for her work in organic and isotopic geochemistry, Freeman has been a dedicated mentor both to graduate students and junior faculty. Her department head says, "She treats her students as intellectual peers, and from the moment they arrive, she imparts to them the confidence and independence required to complete a doctoral dissertation." One graduate student adds, "Kate's presentations are challenging, yet easy to follow, and they seem effortlessly performed." Because of her interdisciplinary approach, she has been actively engaged with graduate students in other departments, including fuel science and soil sciences.
Freeman was a co-originator and co-principal investigator of the grant establishing the Biogeochemical Research Initiative for Education (BRIE), supported by Penn State and by the National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT). The BRIE program taps the expertise of 17 faculty members in areas ranging from biotechnology to soils remediation. BRIE, with Freeman as associate director, has proven extremely successful at recruiting women and minority groups for science programs.
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Contact: Paul Blaum (814) 865.9481 or e-mail at pblaum@psu.edu
