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First Posted: 8/22/2010
TOM VENESKY
tvenesky@www.timesleader.com
For the last 33 years, Ken Klemow watched his colleagues at the annual Ecological Society of America conference step onto the stage to accept a national award that recognized them as the top ecology educators in the country.
Klemow, who is biology professor at Wilkes University, admired those who won the prestigious Eugene P. Odum Award for Excellence in Ecology Education. Odum is one of the nation’s top ecologists. He authored the book “Fundamentals of Ecology,” which is considered the Bible of ecology and founded the Institute of Ecology at the University of Georgia.
“To get an award named after him would be something to be proud of,” Klemow said.
On Aug. 2, Klemow had a lot to be proud of as he was the one who took that stage at the society’s conference in Pittsburgh as the recipient of the 2010 Odum Award.
The award recognizes Klemow as one of the top ecology educators in the United States. It is the crowning achievement of a career that spans more than three decades.
“This is without a doubt the biggest award I have ever gotten,” Klemow said. “It ranks after getting married and having a child.”
Klemow’s path to the Odum Award actually began in the early 1970s as a biology student at the University of Miami. In his sophomore year, one of Klemow’s professors took the class to the Everglades and Florida Keys for some hands-on field work.
It was then that Klemow became hooked on ecology and education.
“It was the first time I saw nature actually explained to me,” he said. “Growing up in Hazleton, I would walk around the stripping pits and woods but never had it explained to me. But that class was when I experienced somebody actually interpreting nature for me.”
After he completed his education at the University of Miami, Klemow attended graduate school at Syracuse University. It was there that the desire to teach was ignited in Klemow.
“I was a teacher’s assistant and got to explain concepts to students. I saw the light going on in their heads when I did that, and it was a very empowering experience,” he said.
After teaching a summer biology course at the Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, Klemow had a clear direction for his career path.
“I wanted a position where I could do both teaching and research,” he said.
Klemow found just that at Wilkes University when he joined the faculty in 1982. He developed a biology curriculum that incorporates his students into research both in the lab and field, giving them a taste of what it’s like to be a biologist.
As his teaching career blossomed, Klemow helped launch the science careers of hundreds of students, teaching such courses as general ecology, field botany, medical botany and alternative energy, and has mentored one-on-one research projects with more than 80 students.
“Sometimes people view nature as something that needs to be conquered,” Klemow said. “I like to give my students an appreciation of what’s out there and why it’s important.”
Not only do Klemow’s students glean an appreciation of nature from his teaching, they also gain a respect for their professor as well.
And that’s what led to Klemow receiving this year’s Odum Award.
He was nominated for the award by former student Rachel Curtis, who said she switched her major from biochemistry to biology because of Klemow’s enthusiasm for his subject and the opportunity to do hands-on projects with him.
“My first class with Dr. Klemow was second semester general biology at Wilkes, and it was because of his teaching skills that I began to truly enjoy studying biology,” Curtis said. “Not only is Dr. Klemow extremely knowledgeable in a wide array of subjects, but he also is able to instill his excitement for the material into his classes.”
Klemow had no idea Curtis nominated him for the award until the Ecological Society called in March and told him he would be this year’s recipient.
That call answered a question that had lingered with Klemow for years.
“I have so much respect for those who won the award and what they have accomplished, and I always wondered if I would ever qualify for an award like this,” he said. “It is better to be nominated by a student than by almost anyone else and I was astounded to be selected.”
Now that Klemow can join his colleagues as a winner of the Odum Award, he isn’t content to let his career in biology education simply stay the course.
The award, he said, has reignited a passion to become more involved in environmental and education issues.
“I want to take more of a leadership role and work to address the areas where ecology education can be improved and help people understand the importance of our natural ecosystems and how we need to manage them wisely,” Klemow said.