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Harold Hirth Retires
After 42 Years of Service at the U of U |
During his 42 years at the University, Harry has contributed most remarkably to the general education of our undergraduates and students in foreign universities. Over the past several years, he has taught an average of 550 students annually in subjects such as general biology and evolution. He has also instructed courses on ethology, animal ecology, human ecology, marine biology, and honors biology. Harry has consistently received very high teaching evaluation scores from his students who praise him for his fun and interesting lectures, excitement for biology, for making the subject matter applicable to everyday life, wanting the students to learn and succeed, and his sense of humor. Because he interacts closely with a very large number of students, Harry has also written a large number of letters of evaluation for students applying to professional graduate and graduate schools and to our BioURP program. Harry has spent his scientific lifetime studying the ecology and migration of marine turtles sea turtles in eighteen countries all over the world. He has published a total of 53 papers (with one more in preparation), which include a 120-page biological data synopsis on the green turtle published in 1997. Over the years, Harry has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission, the FAO, RESA, FWS, and the New York Zoological Society. During 2001-2002, Harry received a Fulbright Scholarship to study Persian Gulf turtles in Qatar. Harry has the rare distinction of being the recipient of three Fulbright Scholarships, these being used to teach as well as carry out research at the Universities of Qatar, Papua New Guinea, and Khartoum. Harry has been invited to present his work on turtles at eleven (mainly international) meetings. The latest of which was in 2002 in Doha, Qatar at the UNESCO Symposium. Harry's service record to the University and scientific community has also been exceptional. During his time at the University of Utah, Harry has graduated seven M.S. students and four Ph.D. students, all of whom speak at least one foreign language. He has also played an unusually extensive and important role in mentoring students both locally and internationally, in which he has carried out his studies. These have included students in his formal courses and students who have accompanied him in his research working on small, specific projects in the laboratory or on more general, global projects. At this University, Harry is also noted for the exceptional effort he puts into tutoring teaching assistants (35 in the last year) who work with him, particularly in the area of assessing their performance. Additionally, he has served as a member of over 50 graduate thesis committees. Harry's service to the scientific community includes extensive reviewing of scientific papers and grant proposals (about 25 a year) and elected membership of prestigious international committees. It can easily be said that Harry's contributions to the Department of Biology and the University of Utah have been invaluable and much appreciated by the faculty, administration and students. We wish him our best as he continues researching and writing about his work on marine turtles as an Emeritus faculty member in the Department of Biology. |
