Published: Friday, July 13, 2007 2:19 PM CDT

LINDSBORG -- Loranelle Lockyear, associate professor of chemistry at Bethany College, was honored with the 2006-2007 Mortvedt Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award.

The award is named for Robert Mortvedt, the president of Bethany College from 1953-1958. It was endowed by his family to honor faculty members who have made a distinct difference in the teaching climate of the college in such areas as model classroom teaching, distinctive teaching methodology, creative course development and campus leadership and institutional support.

“Dr. Lockyear has been an energetic and innovative teacher, committed to excellence in what she does,” said Eugene Bales, academic vice president. “She is the kind of teacher that everyone at Bethany appreciates and looks up to. I am particularly struck by her approach to the science classroom and to traditional lab work. Finding students enthused about chemistry is not common, but in Loranelle's classes it is the rule, not the exception,” he said.

Lockyear has been at Bethany since 2002 and teaches general chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, and scientific research and writing.

Her research interests include capillary separations and microfluidics. She is an active supporter of the Bethany BioChem Club and was elected this year to the newly-formed Faculty Senate.

Lockyear earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from the University of Evansville in 1991, and earned a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997.

She performed two years of post-doctoral research at the University of Alberta and taught for three years at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo. before coming to Bethany College.