Last modified: Friday, February 25, 2005
Matthew R. Auer
The President's Award for Teaching Excellence -- 2005
Associate Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs
School of Public and Environmental Affairs
University Graduate School
Indiana University Bloomington
Appointed to IU faculty, 1996
A.B., Harvard University, 1988
M.A., Tufts University, 1990
Ph.D., Yale University, 1996
Alarming headlines about ecological disasters, water pollution, and deforestation leave many of us overwhelmed. But these challenges just seem to energize Matthew Auer.
He injects so much enthusiasm, insight, and humor into his courses on environmental policy that his students not only enjoy class, but many are inspired to pursue majors and careers encompassing environmental issues. Auer has received thank-you notes from former students whose training in brokering interests helps them evaluate state highway projects, conduct city planning, or oversee federal budgets.
"Most of all, you care about your students, encouraging them to speak their minds. You have made me a better student," wrote Paul Mitchell, who earned a Master of Public Affairs degree from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA).
An expert in the international politics of forestry, foreign aid, and industrial environmental policy, Auer refrains from promoting just one viewpoint. Instead, he effectively makes students think and analyze each course's concepts and cases with a "different lens," according to Mitchell: "Students were required to put on the hat of a real-world policy analyst, corporate executive, or environmental advocate."
When Jennifer Mueller gave an outstanding paper on policies governing broadband digital access, Auer encouraged her to present it at a meeting of social scientists at Yale Law School and secured travel funding for her from SPEA. As professor in residence for SPEA's Washington Leadership Program, Auer lived for a semester in the same apartment complex as the students, who spent busy days interning on Capitol Hill and in other centers of power. Auer managed to keep them engrossed during evening classes, and threw pizza parties for program alumni.
Auer adapts to different learning styles. He has a unique ability to captivate students with techniques ranging from eye-opening walks in the woods behind the SPEA Building to having students play the role of "ranchers" who breed and sell cattle. Auer continually researches new ways to make technical information engaging, sharing his methods with other instructors.
"Professor Auer stands out as one of a handful of the most dazzling young scholars I have had the pleasure to watch," states Astrid Merget, dean of SPEA. "He has perfected a set of intellectual skills that few professors can command, extracting points of harmony rather than only those of dissension."
In nine years at the university, Auer has already earned nine teaching awards from SPEA and IU. He has leadership roles on a number of IU committees, conducts international research, and consults for the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Forest Service. Recently he edited Restoring Cursed Earth: Appraising Environmental Policy Reforms in Eastern Europe and Russia, containing several chapters he cowrote with IU students. His voluminous publications include government reports and articles for scholarly journals as well as newspapers such as the New York Times. In addition, he assists students at the Foster International Living-Learning Center, mentors many other students, and advises master's and doctoral candidates.
"If you walk the halls of SPEA with Dr. Auer and see how the students react to him, it is obvious he is respected, admired, and liked," says Orville W. Powell, director of undergraduate programs at SPEA. "In their evaluations, the students use such terms as 'enthusiastic,' 'knowledgeable,' 'dedicated, 'caring,' 'tough but fair,' 'always has time for the students,' and 'my favorite class.'"
"If I could clone one instructor to develop young minds, Dr. Auer would be my model," adds Powell. "He is that good."
