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ASU Biology Honor Society Grabs Top National Award

March 09, 2011

For a record seventh time and for the third time in the last six years, Angelo State University’s Epsilon Sigma chapter of the Beta Beta Beta (Tri-Beta) biology honor society has been named the recipient of the Lloyd M. Bertholf Award as the top chapter in the nation for the 2009-10 academic year.

The ASU chapter is the first seven-time winner of the award out of the more than 550 Tri-Beta chapters in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. No other chapter has won the award more than four times. The award will be presented during the South Central Regional Convention April 1-3 at the Oklahoma University Biological Field Station in Kingston, Okla. The ASU chapter will also be recognized at the biennial Tri-Beta National Meeting May 16-20, 2012, in Puerto Rico.

“You’d think after achieving the pinnacle of success seven times, it would get less exciting for me,” said Dr. Crosby Jones, ASU biology professor and Tri-Beta faculty advisor, “but with each new academic year it is like starting over with a whole new group of members, and their enthusiasm for such success is highly infectious and motivating. We seem to get better every year. To have 44 members who want to travel all the way to Oklahoma in April to receive the award is special.”

The Bertholf Award has been presented since 1961 based on chapter activity in conducting and publishing research, participation in district and national conventions and other scientific meetings, chapter programming and activities, and orderly record keeping and communication with the Tri-Beta National Office. The winning chapter is chosen each year by a selection committee of college and university biology faculty from across the nation.

“When I addressed our chapter 32 years ago as its new faculty advisor, I informed them that my goal for the organization was to make Tri-Beta an indispensible experience for the ASU biology student,” Jones said. “A quality organization is instrumental in achieving that, and the Bertholf success is evidence of that. Our alumni also understand and appreciate that because they have experienced it themselves.”

The Beta Beta Beta organization emphasizes undergraduate research and scholarship in the biological sciences. Its national office is located at the University of North Alabama in Florence. ASU’s Epsilon Sigma chapter was formed in 1970. ASU chapter president is senior biology major Amanda Hicks of San Angelo.

For more information, call Jones at 486-6642.