By Jenna Simard, CSE communications intern

 

Assistant professor of biology Michael Chumley, Ph.D, was named 2013 Honors Professor of the Year during the 50th Annual Honors Convocation this April. Chumley serves as an active member of the TCU community and the scientific community at large, with more than 20 years of research experience across multiple disciplines. Above all, he demonstrates his commitment to undergraduate education by serving as a mentor and engaging students in academia both within and beyond the classroom.

 

Chumley received his bachelor of science in education from the University of Wyoming and began teaching secondary education. Before earning his master’s degree in exercise physiology from the University of Wyoming, he conducted research at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, where he studied the effect of rigorous athletic training on the human immune system. He later earned his doctorate in immunology from the University of Colorado Health Sciences, and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Kansas and UT Southwestern before arriving at TCU in 2008.

Chumley currently teaches mammalian physiology and immunology at TCU. His research focuses primarily on psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), a cross-disciplinary study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems.

 

Despite his research interests, he cites TCU’s dedication to undergraduate education as one of the reasons why he enjoys teaching at the University. “Mentoring students is my most important responsibility,” he said. “Sometimes this role can become lost at larger medical institutions.” In addition to mentoring students in his classes, Chumley works closely with students in his research lab, thus exemplifying the true teacher-scholar model.

Chumley acknowledged his students for having made a significant impact on his teaching and thanked them for selecting him to win the award. “I’m lucky to have really good students,” he said. “They make teaching fun so that I enjoy putting time into it. Receiving this honor makes me feel like I’m truly engaging them.”

Chumley’s students concur that the professor has made a meaningful impact on them. Junior Brock Boren said the honor was much deserved. “I started working in Dr. Chumley's lab my sophomore year and it's easily been one of the highlights of my time at TCU,” said Boren. “He's so enthusiastic about his research and it rubs off on all of us. He's also one of the smartest and most friendly professors I know. All of us in the lab were so thrilled when we heard he had won Honors Professor of the Year because we all see first-hand how hard he works, and it was great to see him rewarded for that.”

Each year, honors students nominate candidates for the award and vote to select the recipient. Dean Phil Hartman said the title Honors Professor of the Year is the most prestigious student-driven honor a faculty member can receive at TCU and congratulates Chumley on his reception of the award. Since 1957, 16 professors from College of Science & Engineering have received this honor, the second highest number of recipients of all TCU’s colleges.