SIUE Graduate School Announces Outstanding Teaching Assistant and Thesis Award Recipients
The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Graduate School has selected Drake Jensen as the University’s 2015 Outstanding Thesis Award recipient. His noteworthy thesis was titled, “Functional Analysis of Calmodulin’s Calcium Dependent Inactivation of Orial.”
“Extensions of his research clearly not only have relevant physiological implications, but also provide insights for structure-based drug discovery,” said Jensen’s thesis advisor Chin-Chuan Wei, associate professor of chemistry.
Jensen completed his master’s in chemistry at SIUE in May 2015. He is now a doctoral student at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics.
The University has also recognized Clayton Faber and Ali Keshavarz Panahi as 2015 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award winners. The award acknowledges the two for their exceptional effort and contributions to academic excellence through teaching and instruction.
Faber has been a teaching assistant for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering since fall 2014, and is expected to graduate in spring 2016. In his nomination letter, Faber was described as someone who “demonstrates on a daily basis a true desire to motivate and help students achieve excellence in the laboratory sections he teaches.”
Fellow recipient Panahi is a PhD candidate in the SIUE School of Engineering. He has been a teaching assistant for the Industrial Engineering Program since fall 2014. Assistant Professor Sohyung Cho notes that “one of Mr. Panahi’s key contributions is his devotion to delivering interesting lab exercises that require tremendous time and effort.”
