McGill to receive Southeast's 2018 PRIDE Award

Southeast Missouri State University's 2018 PRIDE Award will honor Jim McGill, chemistry professor and director of the Jane Stephens Honors Program at Southeast.

The Provost's Research, Instruction and Development for Excellence (PRIDE) Award recognizes a faculty member who has demonstrated excellence as a teacher, an extraordinary level of scholarship and service and whose overall accomplishments are especially noteworthy.

This is the award's 22nd year.

"Dr. McGill's work as a teacher and scholar are evident in his passion for student success and the respect he has earned from the professional forensics community," Brad Deken, interim dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, said in the release. "He continuously goes above and beyond to help students, and that helpfulness and good attitude extend into his service to the University."

McGill advises an above-average number of students, and student evaluations consistently rank him highly.

He supports the honors students as the Honors Program director and helps other students and faculty at the university, Deken said in the release. In 2018, McGill was honored at Southeast with the University's Outstanding Academic Advisor Award, then advanced to the national level where the National Academic Advising Association presented him with an Outstanding Advising Award for a faculty advisor.

McGill was certified as a Master Advisor in 2016.

He has also developed two forensics-related courses and revised the "Basic Principles of Chemistry" online course to align with the Quality Matters rubric.

McGill has served and continues to serve on numerous committees within the university. He has been a member of the Department of Chemistry Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) User Group since 2015 and the chair since 2016. He has served twice as a member of the University Budget Review Committee, most recently from 2016 to 2018, and served as the chair of Faculty Senate from 2017 to 2018.

His membership in professional organizations includes the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Chemical Society, its Chemistry and the Law Division and Organic Division; the Midwestern Association of Forensic Scientists and the International Association for Identification. He is certified as a diplomate of the American Board of Criminalistics with a specialty in drug analysis.

McGill holds a doctoral degree in chemistry from Kansas State University and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Southeast.

He began his career at Southeast as a visiting assistant professor, becoming an assistant professor in 2002, an associate professor in 2008 and a professor in 2015.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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