Institute Feature

At ease with students of all ages, Jerome Grant enthralls audiences with his lessons about entomology. Download this photo (263 KB)

The Entomological Society of America (ESA) has more than 5,700 members, but each year it honors only one person with its Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching. UT’s Jerome Grant, professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, is the most recent recipient.

Entomologists chosen for the elite honor must have excelled through innovations in developing new courses, programs, and teaching methods. Only nominations from ESA branches are accepted for the award, and each branch is limited to one new nomination per year. Grant, the first faculty member from UT selected for the honor, also received the outstanding teaching award presented by the Southeastern Branch of the ESA.

The Entomological Society of America is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and colleagues in related disciplines. Members include educators, Extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, private industries, colleges and universities, and state and federal governments.

Grant has been a member of UT’s faculty since 1985 and is highly regarded for his engaging and fact-filled lectures and presentations about insects. In recent years, he and colleague Paris Lambdin have trained science teachers from rural high schools on innovative, cost-effective ways to use insects as teaching tools in their lesson plans.

This spring, one of Grant’s graduate students, Amy Kovach, received the Kirby L. Hays Memorial Award presented to the outstanding M.S. student in the ESA’s Southeastern Branch. Only the very top students are considered for nomination and it is very competitive. The honor is especially sweet, Grant notes, because UT students compete with nominees from much larger entomology programs in the region.