Ziegler recognized with 2020 Palmer Faculty Mentoring Award

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Gregory Ziegler, professor of food science in the College of Agricultural Sciences, is the recipient of the 2020 Howard B. Palmer Faculty Mentoring Award.

The award honors and recognizes outstanding achievement by a faculty member with at least five years of service who effectively guides junior faculty. Howard Palmer was the senior associate dean of the Graduate School from 1984 to 1991.

Colleagues say Ziegler is devoted to developing junior faculty and is often sought out for his support and guidance.

“Ziegler’s effort span the full range of our efforts in education, research, outreach and extension,” a colleague said. “He links faculty and their research to potential collaborators within and outside the department and is a sounding board and reviewer for grant proposals and submissions. As a result of his effort, we have had success in developing our junior faculty into productive and collegial members of the department, our college and the University.”

Colleagues praised Ziegler’s efforts of nearly 30 years of serving as the “connector of people and ideas.” They praised his ability to pull diverse minds together for interdisciplinary research.

“Food science is an inherently interdisciplinary subject that depends on the integration of engineering, chemistry, microbiology and nutrition to solve practical problems,” a nominator said. “Frequently we hire faculty members with specialized disciplinary training with the expectation that they will develop into food scientists by engaging in interdisciplinary research on food-related questions. Ziegler is classically an engineer but he has transcended those boundaries to work with many of our new faculty members.”

One colleague said Ziegler was invaluable as he was beginning his career. He credited Ziegler with assisting with grants and guiding successful research.

“Ziegler is the heart of our department,” the colleague said. “He’s the connector who holds diverse scientists together to solve complex problems related to food science.”

To help junior faculty, Ziegler has taken on key leadership positions including:

• serving on Faculty Senate for 12 years, including chairing the Undergraduate Education Committee;
• serving on Graduate Council for two terms;
• serving on and chairing the college’s Faculty Advisory Committee to the Dean;
• serving as the department’s director of graduate studies; and
• serving as chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities.