Barbara S. Andereck
Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for Encouragement of Teachers (1994)
Bishop Herbert Welch Meritorious Teaching Award (2020)
1993-1994 Commencement Ceremony Excerpt
I am most pleased to announce that the winner of the Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for 1994 is associate professor of physics and astronomy, Dr. Barbara Andereck.
Dr. Andereck holds a bachelors degree from Southwest Missouri State and a Ph.D. from Rutgers. Before coming to Ohio Wesleyan in 1985, she taught at Southwest Missouri State, Rutgers, Texas, and from 1983-85 at Kenyon.
Dr. Andereck’s “liquid crystal” and “critical phenomenon” research has been published in physical review letters, the world’s leading physics journal, a publication reserved for experimental and theoretical results that change the way researchers in a given field look at their work. She has made such great progress in her research, that the work of Dr. Andereck and her collaborator is now referred to in her branch of physics as the “Andereck Model.”
She is, according to her students, and again in their words, a “superb,” “knowledgeable,” “helpful,” “approachable,” “confident,” “interesting,” and “fascinating” teacher. About her, Dr. Andereck’s students have written, “She cares about her students.”; “She stimulates thinking with her ‘curiosity questions.’ ”; “She makes difficult material comprehensible and always does it with a smile.”; and “She uses lots of neat experiments, and the hands-on experience makes us think and want to come to class. We need more like her!”
I agree! Barbara, congratulations!