Bryan Auday (2003)

The Senior Distinguished Faculty Award is given each spring to a full professor.  Students often suspect that professors are trying to get inside of their heads.  The fact is that the recipient of this year’s Senior Distinguished Faculty Award can actually do it.  For the past several years, including a sabbatical of research at Harvard, this professor has become increasingly engaged with research on brain imaging.  He has recently pioneered a new interdisciplinary concentration in neurosciences at Gordon, fusing curriculum from psychology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and movement science.  He has helped secure equipment for a brain imaging lab on campus, which now allows students expanded opportunities for their own research.  On several occasions he has collaborated with his own students on research papers or posters presented at national conferences.  His lectures are known for their organization and clarity, and students appreciate his patient and empathetic assistance.  For many students, he has been an inspiration for future graduate study.

Among his colleagues, he is appreciated as a person of quiet integrity and faithfulness.  He was also one of the two faculty members primarily responsible for the development of an Institutional Research Board and a protocol for insuring that research with human subjects at Gordon meets ethical and legal standards.  In all that he does, there is a thoroughness, an unpretentious attention to detail, and a steady concern to balance justice and mercy.  As a department chair and an occasional member of the Faculty Senate, he has displayed a concern for both principle and compassion when dealing with difficult situations.  For his efforts to enrich the curriculum, promote student research, and his Christian integrity and care, I am pleased to present this year’s Senior Distinguished Faculty Award to professor of psychology Dr. Bryan Auday.