The College of Pharmacy, Nursing, and Allied Sciences held its second annual college awards ceremony and reception on May 2. Two faculty members, Carla Gross and Chengwen Sun, were honored.
The Mary Berg Award for Excellence in Teaching went to Gross, associate professor of nursing. The award recognizes a faculty member who is an outstanding teacher as defined by the ability to inspire and engage students in learning, who has demonstrated knowledge of pedagogical principles and who has been creative and innovative in approaches to teaching. Mary Berg was a 1974 graduate of pharmacy who died in 2004. Her father, Ordean Berg, BS ’41, left a $1.4 million estate gift to the college on her behalf, part of which funds the award for faculty.
Gross joined NDSU in 1987. She teaches undergraduate courses on adult health, role development and adult health clinical.
“I feel like I’ve been lucky in my career to combine two passions, and that’s nursing and education,” Gross said. “Throughout the years I’ve discovered there are two essential ingredients to teaching. The first is that students really need to be treated with respect and know that they are respected and valued … The second is how important it is to create a learning environment that students can be successful in, an environment that also challenges them to reach their potential,” she said. “In the process, my hope is that I can inspire students as much as they inspire me.”
Sun, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences, received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research. The award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated outstanding achievements in research and who demonstrates excellence and innovation in scholarly work.
Sun joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2007. His current research focuses on central blood pressure regulation and pathogenesis of hypertension to identify novel targets for the treatment of hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases.
He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers, 20 abstracts and been invited to present five lectures. His research has received approximately $1.5 million in funding from federal agencies. He oversees three postdoctoral fellows, three graduate students and three visiting scholars.
“This award is not only for me, but also for my hard-working research team, including postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and visiting scholars. They are hard working every day in the lab while doing research.”
