Dr. Debbie Thomas, assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography in the College of Geosciences, has been named a 2008-2009 Montague Scholar. The Montague-Center for Teaching Excellence Scholar program honors faculty at Texas A&M University for early-career excellence in undergraduate teaching. Named for founding donor Kenneth Montague ’37, the program annually recognizes one tenure-track assistant professor in each college who has demonstrated a commitment to, and potential for, excellence in undergraduate teaching.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Dr. Debbie Thomas, assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography in the College of Geosciences, has been named a 2008-2009 Montague Scholar. The Montague-Center for Teaching Excellence Scholar program honors faculty at Texas A&M University for early-career excellence in undergraduate teaching. Named for founding donor Kenneth Montague ’37, the program annually recognizes one tenure-track assistant professor in each college who has demonstrated a commitment to, and potential for, excellence in undergraduate teaching. Each Montague Scholar receives a $5,000 grant to encourage further development of teaching skills.
Thomas came to Texas A&M in 2004 after completing her M.S., Ph. D., and a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She earned her B.S. degree at Brown University. Thomas studies the paleoceanography of the past 350 million years, using the marine sedimentary record to investigate the relationship between global tectonism, atmospheric greenhouse gases, and the evolution of the earth's climate system. Her current research is focused on the “how and why?” of exceptionally warm climates throughout geologic history, looking primarily at a 60 million year period between about 95 and 35 million years ago.
Thomas teaches both undergraduate and graduate level classes in oceanography and is faculty advisor for three PhD students, one Undergraduate Research Scholar, and six Environmental Geosciences majors. She was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching from the Texas A&M Association of Former Students in 2007, and is a 2008-2009 Distinguished Lecturer in the Consortium for Ocean Leadership Distinguished Lecture Series.
Thomas and her students are gathering data using core samples drilled from the floor of the world’s oceans that document the evolution of deep ocean circulation patterns in the Atlantic and Pacific. She is one of three principal investigators overseeing operation of the College of Geosciences’ new state-of-the-art R. Ken Williams Radiogenic Isotope Geosciences Laboratory and is principal or co-principal investigator for three National Science Foundation grants totaling over $497,500.
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