The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry Associate Professor, Jennifer Ottesen, has received the ASC Honors Faculty Service Award, which recognizes excellence in honors advising, honors instruction, honors committee work, and other initiatives which enhance honors students quality of education. Past recipients include CBC’s Dr. Terry Gustafson (2000) and Dr. Bruce Bursten (1994).

Jennifer was nominated by her peers for various reasons, but mostly because “she has gone far above and beyond the typical faculty contribution as a departmental Honors advisor.” She has not only been the primary research mentor for over a dozen Honors students, and served as a judge at numerous research forums at OSU, but she is a representative on the Arts & Sciences Honors Committee, the faculty advisor for the undergraduate Chemistry and Biochemistry club, and has developed and supervised two of the department’s honors courses for years. Her dedication and commitment to enriching the educational lives of students is exemplary.

Convincingly, Jennifer’s greatest contribution to Honors education in our department is her role in the Biochemistry Course Series – Early Experience in Research in Biochemistry. This course was originally developed by CBC’s Professor Venkat Gopalan, and has been supported by a number of faculty through the years. In 2008, Ottesen began to play a key role. The course is constructed to teach students the breadth of research at OSU, biochemistry as a living field outside of the classroom, research techniques, and core research ethics. In the second semester of this course, students are placed with research mentors to learn and engage in the research experience. Once with their research mentors, Jennifer maintains appropriate interaction with both parties to make sure their education consisted of valuable, beneficial research experience. When Jennifer began coordinating this course, 3-5 students took advantage of the opportunity. Now, 9 years later, between 10-35 students participate each year. To forwardly increase the scope of this class, Jennifer developed the Biochemistry Undergraduate Research Forum in 2009 which allows students to present their research to peers and judges within the department. Many of these students have gone on to win awards at the NMS and Denman forums in the following years.

What you may not know is that during Jennifer’s undergraduate career, she had challenges getting started in research; not knowing how to start, where to go, what to do, who to talk to, and how to relate to science beyond the classroom. Her struggle drove her to give OSU Biochemistry students a smoother path. “I’m dedicated to enhancing the Biochemistry Community - faculty and students, to create an open environment for all students to experience research early in their careers and learn how to relate that to the classroom and the outside world”, she stated.

It is only fitting that Professor Jennifer Ottesen received the 2017 ASC Honors Faculty Search Award. Ottesen is also a recipient of the Deans Award for Undergraduate Research Mentoring (2008) and an NSF Career Award (2009). We’re proud to have Jennifer a part of our department – and it’s not only because she brings students “brain candy” to their exams!

Congratulations, Professor Jennifer Ottesen! Well done!