2016 – McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Excellence in Teaching Award Winner:
Lon Porter 

Each year, the Dean of the College selects one member of the faculty to receive the McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Excellence in Teaching Award. The award honors the memories of Reid H. McLain ’27, Clair McTurnan ’10, and Kent Arnold ’29, and has been given annually to a member of the faculty who has distinguished him or herself by innovative and engaging teaching since 1965. A list of past winners of the award is available here.

Citation by Dean Scott Feller: Dr. Lon Porter’s classroom defines the term student engagement. Active learning is the default pedagogy for this colleague, from distribution courses to the senior capstone experience.

Our winner this year is a scientist and is perhaps the closest thing that Wabash has to Bill Nye the Science Guy. He brings the lab to life, for our students, for our prospective students, for countless Crawfordsville school children, but most intensely for the dozens of research interns who have begun careers as scientists in his research lab, careers that have continued for many of them at the most prestigious PhD programs in the country.

But our winner does not confine his work to the laboratory, he travels annually with our students to professional conferences where they present work collaboratively and immerse themselves in the discipline. A committed student of the liberal arts, our winner has travelled with immersion trips to multiple continents, collaborating with colleagues to bring the humanities and the sciences into conversation.