[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING PROFESSOR MAUREEN STANTON, RECIPIENT OF THE 2005 UC DAVIS 
       PRIZE FOR UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING AND SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENT

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                           HON. MIKE THOMPSON

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 7, 2005

  Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize 
Maureen Stanton, Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University 
of California, Davis as the 2005 recipient of the UC Davis Prize for 
Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. The prestigious 
$30,000 prize, funded by the UC Davis Foundation, is believed to be the 
largest award of its kind in the nation. The winner is selected on the 
recommendation of faculty members, students and research peers.
  Professor Stanton has made significant contributions throughout her 
years of University service. She served as the dynamic and 
extraordinarily productive director of the Center for Population 
Biology from 1993 to 1998. She frequently advises National Science 
Foundation panels and has been a National Council member of the Society 
for the Study of Evolution. She is also the Vice President of the 
American Society of Naturalists and an elected member of the California 
Academy of Sciences.
  Dr. Stanton began her research of the interactions between plants and 
insects as a sophomore at Stanford University. At Harvard University 
she earned her Ph.D. in five years. Dr. Stanton then accepted a 
position at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, but 
missing the discovery of science, she soon relocated to Yale University 
for post-doctoral research. Her findings on the underappreciated 
importance of male characteristics in flowers lifted her into the top 
ranks of evolutionary ecologists.
  In 1982 she joined the UC Davis faculty as an assistant professor of 
botany. At 28 she was younger than many of her doctoral students. In 
her teaching role she continually reshapes course curricula to provoke 
inquiry. She once stated, ``I want to build critical thinking skills. 
That means I have to teach students to question pre-conceived ideas, to 
ask `How confident are we of what we think we know?' ''
  Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate at this time that we recognize 
Professor Stanton and her passion for scholarly achievement, university 
service and undergraduate teaching.

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