Jacob wins prestigious prize for science education

March 29, 2012

Nitya Jacob, associate professor of biology at Oxford College, has been named by Science magazine, the world's leading journal in science, as one of 15 international recipients of its Inquiry-Based-Instruction Prize (IBI).  The prize was established to encourage innovation and excellence in education by recognizing outstanding, inquiry-based science and design-based engineering education modules.

Entries were judged by a panel of more than 70 scientists and science teachers.  A synopsis of each of the 15 winning modules will be published throughout 2012 in issues of Science, along with online material containing the details needed to teach each module.  Jacob's entry, Investigating Arabia Mountain: a Molecular Approach was published in the March 30 issue of Science. 

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) which publishes Science has already done a news story on the AAAS website, and Emory University's Senior Science Communicator, Carol Clark, has also published an extensive report on Jacob and her inquiry-based approach to teaching. 
 
Jacob joined the Oxford College faculty in 2002.  In addition to her teaching in the regular academic year, she directs Oxford's SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research at Emory) program. She received a BA degree in biology from Agnes Scott College and a PhD in horticulture and crop science from the Ohio State University.  She was a postdoctoral fellow at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.  In 2011, Jacob received Oxford's Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching, its most prestigious teaching honor.