Each year, Dean Theresa Lee and members of her cabinet, with help from department heads, recognize faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences for their excellence in teaching, research and creative activity, and lifetime achievements.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, however, we were unable to host the annual awards banquet in-person. Each faculty member received a plaque and congratulations from the dean. We posted a video to the college YouTube channel here, which features each faculty award winner.
The Senior Diversity Leadership Award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of a senior-level staff or faculty member in support of the college’s and university’s commitment to diversity.
Dan Roberts, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, has demonstrated leadership and a continued commitment to diversity in all its forms over the past 33 years of his appointment at UT, as a faculty member in BCMB, research mentor, as a former department head. Most recently, Roberts shows demonstrates diversity leadership as the director for the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). The REU program targets the most underrepresented group in STEM – deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Roberts organized the program to be transformative not only for visiting students, but also for participating faculty and students who served as mentors to these students. In 2018, and while he was still department head, he took a course to learn American Sign Language so that he could directly engage with the students.
“Dan is a leader,” said Angie Batey, associate dean for diversity. “He doesn’t only talk the talk, but he walks the walk.”