Dr. Katayoun Chamany received the 2017 William E. Bennett Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Citizen Science in recognition of her inspiring work at The New School to encourage students’ exploration of the complex issues surrounding coursework in biology. The award was presented by Dr. Monica Devanas, a previous recipient of the Bennett Award, during the 2017 SENCER Summer Institute, held this year on the Stony Brook University campus.
A longtime participant, contributor, and faculty leader in SENCER programs, Katayoun has developed educational materials integrating social justice perspectives into biology, providing more highly-contextualized biology education to students. In Spring 2016, she launched Stem Cells Across the Curriculum, an open access collection of educational modules developed in collaboration with colleagues in the humanities, social sciences, and arts/design.
In recognition of her transformative teaching and leadership, Katayoun became the first-ever endowed professor Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts; the Mohn Family Professor of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. She is also Chair of the Interdisciplinary Science Program, and Project Shepherd and Director of University Science Labs for The New School. She received her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UC Berkeley, serves on the editorial boards of the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science and the journal Life Sciences Education, and was elected a SENCER Leadership Fellow in 2009.
The William E. Bennett Award for Extraordinary Contributions to Citizen Science was established by NCSCE in 2009 and named in honor of its first recipient for his lifetime contributions to citizen science. The Bennett Award is given annually to an individual and/or team.
Photograph: Katayoun Chamany with NCSCE Executive Director Eliza Reilly, credit NCSCE staff