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Carla Hass Honored with C.I. Noll Award

12 April 2010
Carla Hass Honored with C.I. Noll Award

Carla Ann Hass, instructional associate professor of biology at Penn State, is a 2009 recipient of the C.I. Noll Award. Sponsored by the Alumni Society of the Eberly College of Science at Penn State University, this award recognizes faculty members who have taken a special interest in students and who have had a positive impact through their interaction with them. Instituted in 1972 and named in honor of Clarence I. Noll, dean of the college from 1965 to 1971, the award is the highest honor for undergraduate teaching in the college. Winners are chosen by a committee of students and faculty members from nominees suggested by students, faculty members, and alumni.

Hass began teaching at Penn State in 1994, first as a post-doctoral fellow and then as a full-time instructor, at which point she began teaching in and coordinating the department's introductory core courses. She has been involved in the Learning Edge Academic program for entering freshmen, and developed an on-line biology course for nonmajors through the World Campus. She coordinated an award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute that provided summer support for incoming freshman to complete an introductory biology course and to gain experience in research techniques. She most recently developed a senior-level course that gives students broad latitude to explore common themes among different vertebrate groups and that emphasizes using the knowledge that students have gained through their earlier course work to examine different aspects of vertebrate evolution.

Hass currently teaches a biology freshman seminar, in which she introduces students to all the opportunities and resources available to them at Penn State. She also coordinates a summer undergraduate research experience in astrobiology supported by the National Science Foundation. This program brings undergraduates from other institutions to Penn State to work with a faculty member's research team. She continues to look for ways to engage students and to convey the excitement and relevance of the science of biology.

Hass received a bachelor's degree in biology at Dickinson College in 1981. She received a master's degree in zoology in 1985 and a doctoral degree in zoology in 1990, both at the University of Maryland at College Park.