MSU Agriculture Professor Wins Teaching Award

BOZEMAN – Montana State University Assistant Professor of Rangeland Ecology Craig Carr has received the Range Science Education Council's 2017 Early Career Undergraduate Teaching award.

Carr, who is also the MSU College of Agriculture's undergraduate range management team faculty adviser, received the award at the Society for Range Management's annual meeting, held in St. George, Utah, in February.

"We're very proud of Dr. Carr and applaud his dedication and passion for teaching range management at MSU," said Patrick Hatfield, department head of the Animal and Range Sciences Department, which is in the College of Agriculture. "MSU is lucky to have faculty like him--who engage deeply in the classroom, while encouraging students to challenge themselves outside of the classroom."

The purpose of the award is to recognize excellence in teaching and advising range management students at the undergraduate level by faculty or instructors who are in the early stages--those with less than 10 years of experience--of their teaching careers.

"This award was really an honor for me," Carr said. "To be recognized by my peers for doing something that I truly enjoy and to read the various statements of support for my nomination was humbling. Teaching for me is a passion and the interactions with my students are often the highlights of my day. There is no better feeling than presenting a good lecture, seeing a student grasp a challenging concept or assisting students as they work through difficult situations. This award has special meaning to me as I have been involved in the Society for Range Management since I was an undergraduate student over 20 years ago. I have admired many of the past teaching award winners and feel privileged to be considered in the same class."

For more information about Carr, contact Jenny Lavey, MSU College of Agriculture, (406) 994-7866 or [email protected].