Dave McNear was recently named a 2020 UK Great Teacher. This student-nominated award is bestowed by the UK Alumni Association and is the oldest, continuously presented award recognizing teaching at UK. Six awards are given per year. Rebecca McGrail nominated Dave for the award. The committee (and Dave’s wife and twins) surprised him in class on December 12 with the news, and Associate Dean Agouridis’s office coordinated cake and a celebration afterwards. It is a pleasure to see Dave publicly recognized for his years of effort dedicated to instruction here at UK. Congratulations, Dave!

Dave follows in the footsteps of a number of our faculty who have been recipients of this award:

• Harry H. Bailey, Agronomy, 1969
• William G. Survant, Agronomy, 1972
• Wilbur W. Frye, Agronomy, 1980
• John H. Grove, Plant & Soil Sciences, 2013
• Mark Coyne, Plant & Soil Sciences, 2014

For a Department that is not teaching heavy, I find this level of recognition fairly remarkable. Well done to all recipients.