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Luft

Julie A. Luft, the inaugural Athletic Association Professor of Mathematics and Science Education in the University of Georgia College of Education, has been named the 2012 Outstanding Mentor of the Year by the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE).

The award is one of three science education career awards presented by the international organization of educators. It honors ASTE members who support and encourage pre-service and in-service science teachers and new science teacher educators entering the profession.

EunJin Bang, an assistant professor at Iowa State University, organized the nomination of Luft for this award. The nomination letters from colleagues and former students highlighted her commitment in working with new and former graduate students, teachers and science educators. Bang and other colleagues specifically valued the “helping hand” that was provided to them as they began careers, learned to write for publication or learned about grant work.

The Athletic Association Professor of Mathematics and Science Education Professorship was established with an endowment from the UGA Athletic Association as part of the Athletic Professorship Initiative Fund. Luft joined the UGA faculty in January 2012.

Prior to coming to UGA, Luft was a science educator in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. As a science educator, she worked with science faculty on improving undergraduate education, created novel science teacher education programs, and pursued ways to bridge the gap between educational research and classroom practice.

Her current research, funded by the National Science Foundation, focuses on beginning secondary science teachers and the development of their knowledge and instructional practices during their first five years in the classroom. Her work reveals the importance of content knowledge during induction programs and suggests new roles for science educators in higher education. In 2012, research from this project received the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) Award for the most significant publication of the year.

In addition to her research on beginning science teachers, Luft is an associate editor of the JRST and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow. In 2010, she was named the Outstanding Science Teacher Educator of the Year by ASTE. For the last three years, she has been selected to work with doctoral students at the South African Association for Research in Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Summer School, and the Sandra K. Abell Summer Research Institute.She has served on the board and as president of ASTE, as a council member for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the director of research of NSTA, a board member of NSTA, the NSTA representative to the NARST board, and has served as an associate editor for the Electronic Journal of Science Education and the School Science and Mathematics journal. She was also the first Scholar-in-Residence at NSTA.

Luft earned her doctorate in science education from the University of Iowa in 1994, and has been a science educator at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Luft will receive the award, which is sponsored by Frey Scientific, at the 2013 ASTE International Conference Awards and Business Luncheon on Jan.12, 2013 in Charleston, S.C.