WVU professor emeritus Keller wins national Lifetime Achievement Award.
For improving opportunities for
those with disabilities WVU professor emeritus Ed Keller wins national Lifetime
Achievement Award WVU professor emeritus, Ed Keller, examines his Web site,
Inclusion in Science Education for Students with Disabilities, which gives
parents and educators strategies to teach children. Keller was recently honored
nationally with the Science Education for Students with Disabilities Lifetime
Achievement Award.
West Virginia University faculty member Edward C. Keller, Jr. has been
recognized nationally for his decades of work improving educational
opportunities for students with disabilities.
Keller was recently presented with the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award by
Science Education for Students with Disabilities (SESD), an affiliate of the
National Science Teachers Association.
The SESD is a nationwide organization which promotes the teaching of science and
the development of curricula and instructional materials for students at all
levels, with any manners of disability in the learning process.
The award is presented to one outstanding individual each year, said SESD
president-elect Laureen Summers.
“Ed is much loved by many, many people,” Summers said. “He’s done a lot of
innovative work over the years for students with disabilities.”
Keller, professor emeritus in the Department of Biology in the Eberly College of
Arts and Sciences, was presented with a plaque which says, “In recognition and
gratitude for exemplary and selfless service toward improving science education
access for all students.”
“Dr. Keller has made major contributions to provide opportunities for students
with disabilities who are interested in science,” said Jonathan Cumming, chair
of WVU’s Department of Biology. “He has a long history and career integrating
activities in biology with specialized educational approaches aimed at enriching
the lives of students with disabilities. His work has kept WVU at the forefront
of these endeavors and has improved countless lives.”
“It’s a feeling of happiness; it recognizes that I have been using my time well,
and not wasting it,” Keller said of the award and his life’s work. “This is
really about all of us working together to improve educational opportunities for
students with disabilities.”
Keller knows what it means to be disabled. He has been disabled most of his
life: polio at age 17, diabetes in his mid-40s, retinopathy in his early 50s,
arterial sclerosis in his early 60s (involving a five-way heart bypass) and most
recently, a right-brain stroke, which put him permanently in a wheelchair.
Yet none of these challenges has stopped the WVU professor from his mission of
improving educational access for students with disabilities and helping disabled
children get to college.
Keller continues to teach a biology course and manages a Web site, Inclusion in
Science Education for Students with Disabilities, to give parents and educators
strategies to teach children with a variety of abilities. The site can be
accessed at http://www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/.
Keller graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s in
agronomy and a master’s and doctorate in genetics and breeding. He completed
post-doctoral work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and
taught at the University of Maryland.
Keller worked in the space program in California as a co-investigator on the
Biosatellite II experiment at the Nuclear Utilities Services Corporation, before
coming to WVU in 1968 as chair of the Department of Biology.
In the late 1960s, Keller noticed what seemed to be too few students with
disabilities attending college. He began working to change that.
His achievements in this endeavor are many. At WVU, he began to work on a more
effective educational approach for science education of students with
disabilities. Keller obtained funds from the National Science Foundation (NSF)
to support summer programs in marine science for disabled students.
He also served the West Virginia Department of Education as their coordinator
for equity and access on two NSF grants totaling $9 million for equal
accessibility of science and mathematics education in the public school system.
In addition, Keller was second chair on the West Virginia delegation to the
White House Conference on Persons with Disabilities. He is also past president
of the West Virginia Academy of Science, Science Education for Students with
Disabilities Association and Foundation for Science and Disability.
He co-authored the 1990 NSF report, “Science and Engineering Education for
Students with Disabilities,” and served as a member of all the focus groups on
disability aspects of the National Science Educational Standards, conducted by
the National Academy of Sciences.
Keller has been honored with WVU’s Neil S. Bucklew Social Justice Award and the
2004 Eberly College Outstanding Public Service Award. He has also been inducted
into the National Hall of Fame for Persons with Disabilities in Columbus, Ohio,
and was elected to Fellow rank by the world’s largest scientific organization,
the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 1998, the
56,000-member National Science Teachers Association presented Keller with their
Distinguished Service Award.
For more information, contact Keller at 304-293-5201, ext. 31513 or
ekeller@mail.wvu.edu.
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Submitted by:
Donald D. Gray, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering West Virginia University P. O.
Box 6103
395 Evansdale Drive
Morgantown, WV 26506-6103
e-mail: gray@cemr.wvu.edu
phone: 304-293-4024 extension 2642
fax: 304-293-7109