Kohler receives 2005 Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence
Abigail Kohler, of Blacksburg, instructor of mathematics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has won the 2005 Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence.
Two Alumni Teaching Excellence Awards are presented each year to outstanding faculty, elected by the Academy of Teaching Excellence from among the recipients of the certificates of teaching excellence for the past three years. A committee of former recipients reviews those eligible and selects two candidates each year.
Kohler has been honored for her teaching skills numerous times. She received the Certificate of Teaching Excellence from the College of Science twice, was named to Who's Who Among America's Teachers, was a member of the group from mathematics that won the Xcaliber Award for Excellence in Curricular Transformation, and was mathematics instructor of the year in 1998.
To enhance students' education environment, Kohler wrote textbooks published by the Virginia Tech Mathematics department and used by students at Virginia Tech and other sites throughout Virginia. She co-developed the restructuring of math courses for the Math Emporium, helped put Math 1015 on line and develop online linear algebra, helped develop Geometry for Architects and rewrote the Matlab computer worksheets for Math 1205 and developed on-line quizzes for them, revitalized and taught Math as a Liberal Art, and serves as a mentor to undergraduate students and GTAs. Besides working with schools and school districts by presenting programs and talking about the math emporium, Kohler was a founding member of the Math Department Instructor Evaluation Committee and the Instructor Affairs Committee
The College of Science at Virginia Tech gives students a comprehensive foundation in the scientific method. Outstanding faculty members teach courses and conduct research in biology, chemistry, economics, geosciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and statistics. The college is dedicated to fostering a research intensive environment and offers programs in nano-scale and biological sciences, information theory and science, and supports research centers--in areas such as biomedical and public health sciences, and critical technology and applied science--that encompass other colleges at the university. The College of Science also houses programs in pre-medicine and scientific law.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
