Schmidt awarded year's last Kemper

By Juana Summers

Published April 13, 2007

Frank Schmidt became the fifth member of the 2007 class of Kemper Fellows on Wednesday. Schmidt, a biochemistry professor in the School of Medicine and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, has taught at MU since 1978.

"I think that the things that I do that were recognized are kind of the approach I take to teaching science, which is that we are all scientists," he said. "We all find out information, and we evaluate the information based on what we know, we decide what we need to know and then we go find it."

Schmidt was recognized by the Honors College in 2000 for his work in creating the college's science sequence comprised of two courses: Warm Little Pond and Warm Little Planet.

"It was a need because we've had a long-standing humanities sequence in the Honors College, and people asked what we could do for a science sequence," he said. "I knew that I just didn't want a list of isolated facts for people to memorize and call it a science course."

Part of the goal of the courses, which are geared toward non-science related majors, is to help the students understand topics related to science in a more hands-on approach.

"You teach more about science as a 'doing' sort of thing rather than a list of facts that somebody else has found out," Schmidt said. "That really kind of fits with Mizzou."

The Office of the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative chose Schmidt as a Difficult Dialogues faculty fellow for the Winter 2007 term.

Additionally, Schmidt is a member of the MU Faculty Council.

"I can't teach everybody all the science there is in the world," he said. "What I can do is help people discover general principles and interactions and then apply them to different interactions."

The William T. Kemper Foundation, located in Kansas City, recognizes the Kemper Fellows financially through a grant. Kemper, who graduated from MU in 1928, was a prominent banker in the Missouri area and left the university with a $500,000 grant.

Commerce Bank managed the trust fund, and Commerce Bank Chairman Jim Schatz accompanies MU Chancellor Brady Deaton to recognize recipients each year.

Deaton called the Kemper Fellowship Award the "pinnacle recognition of teaching excellence on this campus." He said having a Kemper fellow in the classroom adds to the quality of education for MU students.

"It very openly gives recognition to the quality of the person in front of them," Deaton said. "It allows them to focus more clearly."

In 2006 and 2007, five MU faculty members received the award, but in previous years, 10 recipients were named.

MU spokesman Christian Basi said the number of awards was cut because of a lack of funding.