Durham, NC - Being a great scholar is not the same thing as being a great teacher, but Daniel Lew, professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, is one person who does both very well.

Lew is the winner of the 2009 University Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award, which will be presented today during the Founders' Day ceremony at Duke Chapel. (You can view the event online starting at 4 p.m. here.)

The Division of Higher Education of the Board of Higher Education and the Ministry of the United Methodist Church established the award in 1981. It honors an outstanding faculty member for his or her contribution to the learning arts, the institution, and the community through teaching, research, and service.

"There is a tension between teaching and research that comes from the simple fact that there are a limited number of hours in the day, so at one level the time devoted to one activity subtracts from the time one can devote to the other," Lew said in an interview this week. "At the same time, there is a synergy between the two because the excitement that comes from a focus on an intriguing research problem can raise the energy level and enthusiasm for the general area when one is teaching, and because the studying that one does to prepare a teaching unit can lead to unexpected new ideas or approaches to take in cracking a tough research problem."

A former winner of the Gordon Hammes Graduate Teaching Award, given by biomedical graduate students at Duke, Lew has played an important role in the teaching and curriculum of interdepartmental graduate programs in genetics and cell biology, colleagues said. He led their design of the Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) flagship course and has served as director of CMB graduate studies.

"Even if Danny were in another field, I think he would still be teaching and mentoring those around him, developing other's self-confidence, preparing each person to be great," said School of Medicine Dean Dr. Nancy Andrews. "It's just what he does. He constantly challenges students to think independently, and he is dedicated to ensuring their success. Discussions with students in his lab are often lengthy because he doesn't just give answers, but he helps them learn how to ‘think like a scientist.' "

Lew said seeing students' satisfaction at grasping and applying new concepts gives him "my biggest high from teaching."

"As I teach graduate students in advanced classes, much of the material is quite cutting-edge, and having to master it to the degree necessary to teach it well means that I am ‘forced' to really learn it myself, which is also rewarding in a different way," Lew said.

"I generally assume that the specific content that I teach will be forgotten by the students in a year or less, so I mainly choose the content as a vehicle to teach skills and approaches that I hope will be internalized and have a more lasting impact,"he said. "I particularly try to foster critical thinking and creativity, which means that classes become Socratic-style discussions rather than lectures. Repeatedly having to come up with alternative hypotheses to explain observations makes one exercise the critical thinking muscles, and repeatedly being asked, after reading a new paper, what one would want to ask next makes one exercise the creativity muscles. As with physical exercise, I hope that those exercises build stronger muscles."

Click here for a list of faculty recognition awards presented today during Founder's Day.