| Dr. Mormile named Woman of the Year |
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| Written by Josh Owens | |
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Dr. Melanie Mormile received the Missouri S&T’s 2008 Woman of the Year (WOY) award on Monday, April 7th, during the luncheon held for the occasion in the Havener Center. Chancellor John F. Carney III presented Dr. Mormile with the WOY award. Dr. Mormile has a Ph.D. in Micro-Biology from the University of Oklahoma. Her hobbies include cross stitching and cooking. She has two sons: a college freshman and a 13 year old. Mormile teaches a number of classes, consistently checks her email, and maintains an open door policy. Dr. Mormile considers the WOY award to be “great” because it “provides recognition for what female faculty does on campus!” She thinks that if more female faculty are recognized, then the number of female faculty members will increase, which will balance out the male/female ratio. Linda G. Bramel of the Office of the Chancellor described in detail the intricate process through which the winner of the WOY award is decided upon. The Nominations for the WOY award came from the students and faculty. A nominator would collect letters of support for the nominee and submit them with a letter of nomination to the award selection committee. This committee consisted of the WOY award winners from the previous four years in combination with three male faculty that represent different disciplines on campus. The 2008 selection committee consisted of Franca Oboh-Ikuenobe, Dee Montgomery, Kris Swenson, Jennifer Leopold (last year’s winner), John Hogan, Richard Hall, and Ron Frank. Bramel described the following breakdown that the selection committee used to select the winner: 30 percent work on issues that affect the quality of women’s lives at Missouri S&T; 25 percent willingness to speak out on issues that affect the quality of life at Missouri S&T, especially women’s issues; 20 percent active participation in student and faculty mentoring; 12 percent support for diversity; eight percent commitment to student learning; and five percent achievements in her professional field The WOY award is funded by Missouri S&T graduate Cindy Tang who founded the Insight Industries Inc. Tang received her bachelor’s in economics from Missouri S&T in 1985. She also got her master’s in business administration from Drury University in 1987. In the past year, Dr. Mormile has participated in multiple projects. Most of the projects focus on bacteria in strange environments. In one project, one of her graduate students is researching iron reducing bacteria which they hope will be developed into producing electricity. She is also working with Dr. Oboh-Ikuenobe and some people from Mizzou who are studying bacteria in some lakes in Australia which can take glycerol and convert it into ethanol or hydrogen. Dr. Mormile chose Missouri S&T because of the opportunity to develop the graduate program and the good balance between research and teaching. When asked how she balanced all the time requirements, she said that you cannot do it all at once. She described the need to know when to go ahead to something new. As an undergraduate, Dr. Mormile spent some time working in a fresh water ecology lab and the EPA. She said that she enjoyed working outdoors and the microbiology she was exposed to with the EPA. It was during that period that she decided she wanted to be a professor in microbiology. She intends to become a full professor, as she is currently an associate professor. As a professor, she has flexible time but admits that there are certain barriers to women in her profession that do ease the higher up she gets. Women in her profession face a little harsher judgment and have to constantly prove themselves. Dr. Mormile considers her greatest achievement to be her students, to see what they have done, and know that she had a part in making them become who they are. She received the alumni award for outstanding student adviser and she considers it to be a symbol of her greatest achievement. If anything else, she wants to be remembered as a problem solver. Dr. Mormile was asked if there was any advice she wanted to share with the students. She said that the “Students should take a class or participate in an activity not directly related to their major. We all tend to focus on what we need to earn our degree and progress in our careers. However, we still need to take care of ourselves and have a little fun.” |
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