Presenter Profile

Dr. Spencer Benson
Center for Teaching Excellence
University of Maryland, College Park

Spencer Benson is the Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and is an associate professor in the department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics. He received his B.S. degree in Zoology from the University of Vermont and his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Chicago. He has published numerous articles on science education, pedagogy, and faculty development. Dr Benson has served as departmental director of undergraduate studies, director of the departmental honors program, content consultant for Project 2061, was a member of the NSF-Steering committee for "The Integral Role of Two-Year Colleges in the Preparation of SMET Teachers" and as a faculty consultant for several K-16 education initiatives in Maryland including a new on-line Master Program in the Life Sciences for high school biology teachers http://www.e-learning.umd.edu/mlfsc/ . He is a discipline consultant for the Quality Undergraduate Education (QUE) initiative and a member of the steering committee for a large NSF Math-Science Partnership grant to the University System of Maryland. He has organized numerous local, nationals and international meetings on science education and faculty development. He is currently a faculty fellow at the University of Maryland’s Center for Teaching Excellence and an AAC&U visiting SENCER scientist for the 2003-2004 academic year. He is past chair of the Undergraduate Education Committee of the Board of Education of the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), current chair of ASM’s Div-W (Teaching) and a member of the steering committee of The Coalition for Education in the Life Science (CELS). He is a former University of Maryland CTE-Lilly Teaching Fellow and has won numerous teaching Awards. In 2001, he was selected as a Carnegie Fellow in the Carnegie Academy for the Advancement of Scholarship in Teaching and Learning (CASTL). He is the 2002 CASE-Carnegie Maryland Professor of the Year and the recipient of a 2003 University of Maryland System Regents Teaching Award.