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Professor
of the Year
UM
professor earns top honor
University
of Montana economics Professor John
Photiades has been named the 2001 Montana Professor of the
Year.
The
prestigious award is presented by the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement
and Support of Education. CASE Professors of the Year are
chosen from each state to salute outstanding undergraduate
instructors.
Photiades, a 31-year member of UM's Department of Economics,
was nominated by the University at the recommendation of
economics Chair Tom Power. In his nomination letter, Power
described Photiades as a "brilliant, dedicated teacher.
"His
interests are broad, which allows him to reach out to a
diverse group of students," Power wrote. "His
points of view are provocative, which allows him to lead
students into exciting new realms of intellectual exploration.
His logic is brutal, which allows him to challenge the intellectual
skills of students in ways in which they have never been
tested before."
Photiades
teaches classes in political economics, economic development,
macroeconomics and micro-economics. He previously was honored
with UM's Distinguished Teaching Award, three UM Merit Awards
for Excellence in Teaching and Research, and two Mortar
Board Teacher of the Month Awards. He regularly receives
high marks in both faculty and student evaluations.
"Little
did I know, when I begrudgingly signed up for Photiades'
introduction to political economics class," wrote a
journalism student, "it would soon rank among the best
I've taken while at UM."
Another
student said Photiades inspired him to add an economics
major to his Spanish major.
"Dr.
Photiades gave life to a class that so many people consider
overwhelmingly dull," he wrote. "He was so animated,
passionate, comical and energetic that even as I sat in
the very back row, he had a total command of my attention."
A
native of Greece, Photiades came to the United States at
the age of 17 to attend Miami University in Oxford, Ohio,
where he earned a bachelor of science degree in business
economics. Then, after receiving a master's degree in economics
from Columbia University, Photiades was preparing to return
to Greece to fulfill military and family obligations when
a military junta took over the country. Not knowing what
else to do, he accepted a teaching assistant position at
the University of Illinois and pursued a doctorate in economics.
In
1970 Photiades applied for a position at UM.
"I
thought it would be a nice adventure to experience the 'Wild
West' for a couple of years or so," he said. "More
than a generation later, I am still here, a regular Montanan
except for the accent, some strange food preferences and
perhaps a few uncommon ideas about what needs fixing in
today's economies."
As
one of 46 CASE Professors of the Year, Photiades was selected
from 384 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities
throughout the country. Judges -- who include government,
foundation and association representatives, educators and
students -- select four national Professors of the Year
and one winner from each state.
"It's
obviously a great honor and I'm thrilled about it,"
Photiades said after the announcement. "There is a
matter of some luck involved, in having people who will
go the extra mile in nominating you. Both our chair and
our secretary share in the honors."
Photiades
is a past executive director of the Montana State Council
on Economic Education and past director of UM's Center on
Economic Education.
CASE,
the largest international association of educational institutions,
initiated the Professors of the Year program in 1981. CASE
has nearly 2,900 member colleges, universities, and elementary
and secondary schools, represented by more than 21,000 professionals
in the fields of alumni relations, communications and fund
raising.
In
1994 CASE renamed the award after the Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching due to its historical involvement
with the practice and scholarship of teaching and its financial
support of the award.
The
foundation was established in 1905 by Andrew Carnegie "to
do all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify
the profession of teaching."
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