Susan Lozier Receives Universitywide Award for Excellence in Mentoring
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 – M. Susan Lozier, professor of physical
oceanography and chair of the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences
at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, has
received a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring from the Duke
University Graduate School.
The award, which carries a $2,000 prize, recognizes faculty members
for outstanding work in guiding graduate students, not just on academic
issues but also on career, institutional and other topics.
Lozier is one of three Duke faculty members who were selected to
receive the honor by a committee of senior deans and graduate students.
This is the fourth year the Graduate School has presented the awards,
and the second year in a row that a Nicholas School faculty member
has won one. Lisa M. Campbell, Rachel Carson Assistant Professor
of Marine Affairs and Policy, received a 2006 Dean’s Award.
Lozier said, “I am honored to receive this award, but in all honesty I have never really focused on mentoring in and of itself. Mentoring for me is a natural byproduct of my passion for both teaching and research. It comes with the territory.
“Nowhere are teaching and research merged more fluidly than through the training of graduate students, especially those as fantastic as mine," she said.
William H. Schlesinger, dean of the Nicholas School and James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry, said, “Susan is the type of faculty member for whom students – and deans – daily give thanks. Her achievement, like Lisa’s before her, is something our entire school can take pride in.”
Lozier’s expertise lies in large-scale ocean circulation and its response to climate change. By understanding the extent to which climatic anomalies spread from their source region, and the rapidity of that spreading, she aims to determine the effectiveness of the deep ocean as a climatic reservoir for heat.
Lozier joined the Duke faculty in 1992. She holds a doctoral degree in physical oceanography from the University of Washington a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University.
She and her fellow Excellence in Mentoring honorees received their awards at Duke’s annual Distinguished Teaching and Mentoring Award dinner April 24.
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For more information, contact Tim Lucas at (919) 613-8084 or tdlucas@duke.edu.


