Inside Iowa State

April 27, 2007

Bender receives Sesquicentennial Hubbard Teaching Award

Holly Bender, associate professor of veterinary pathology, has been awarded the Sesquicentennial Hubbard Teaching Award. The $18,000 award was presented in conjunction with the kickoff of Iowa State's 150th anniversary and coordinated by the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching.

An expert in veterinary clinical pathology and student learning, Bender has won many teaching awards, including the highest national awards in the teaching of veterinary medicine. As director of the interdisciplinary Biomedical Informatics Research Group, Bender oversaw development and implementation of the Diagnostic Pathfinder. This Web-based case analysis tool helps students learn reasoning and analytic skills.

Bender also uses personal response ("clicker") technology, and other classroom technology to help students develop skills in reasoning with laboratory data.

One of Bender's students commented that her courses are "highlighted by interactive lectures, continual opportunities for application of material, and abundant and rapid feedback." Another student praised Bender's teaching as the "gold standard."

A graduate of Michigan State University with a doctorate from Virginia Tech, Bender came to Iowa State in 2002.

The award honors the late Philip G. Hubbard and is sponsored by Joseph A. Walder, founder of Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc., Coralville. Hubbard, a professor of mechanical engineering, was one of Walder's teachers at the University of Iowa. Fourteen Iowa State faculty members were nominated for the award.

This is the second Hubbard Award given at Iowa State. In 2002, Brad Shrader, professor of management, received the honor.

Holly Bender is the second ISU faculty member to win the $18,000 Hubbard Teaching Award.