Profs Seago, Garii Honored
for Scholarly Work
One of the world’s foremost experts on the root structure of
aquatic and wetland plants and a teacher educator pursuing multiple lines of
inquiry received this year’s campus awards for scholarly and creative activity
April 23 at the Research and Sponsored Programs Activity Awards ceremony.
 James L. Seago, professor of biological sciences with a
career of more than 40 years teaching undergraduates and studying plants,
received the college’s President’s Award for Scholarly and Creative Activity
and Research. The award honors a career of significant accomplishment.
Barbara Garii, who joined Oswego’s faculty in 2005 as an assistant
professor of curriculum and instruction, received the Provost’s Award for
Scholarly and Creative Activity, which recognizes a junior faculty member’s
work. Garii is now an associate professor and associate dean of the School of Education.
Researcher of national repute
The Botanical Society of America honored Seago with its highest honor in 2004. He is the award’s only recipient
from an undergraduate college and was cited in particular for encouraging
talented students to pursue careers in botany. More recently, the society
selected him among 100 botanists to receive its Centennial Award.
Seago has published 19 peer-reviewed papers on his botanical
research in such journals as American Journal of Botany and Annals of Botany
and three more on incorporating research into teaching, all while teaching a
full load of undergraduate courses. He has presented his research
internationally in Austria, Canada, the Netherlands
and Slovakia.
While providing a window on the adaptation and evolution of
roots, Seago’s decades of study have also produced results with implications
for environmental solutions to problems of soil erosion, wetland conservation,
water purification and the spread of aggressive weeds in aquatic and wetland
habitats.
“Dr. Seago has brought great reputation to our institution
through his tireless research efforts and his work with our students,” said
Richard Back, chair of the biological sciences department, who nominated him
for the award.
Seconding Back’s nomination of Seago were three botanists
from other institutions, including Peter Raven, a U.S. Medal of Science
recipient, president of the Missouri Botanical Garden and the George Engelmann Professor
of Botany at Washington University in St.
Louis.
Raven called Seago “a prime example of a professor fully
devoted to teaching and mentoring but achieving significant research results at
the same time.” He wrote that Seago “is clearly one of the best known and most
effective instructors of undergraduates in the country. . . . His enthusiasm
and good spirit are legendary in the field.”
Beyond Oswego,
Seago’s colleagues have tapped into his expertise by choosing him to review
research proposals for the National Science Foundation and manuscripts for 12
professional journals, and to judge candidates for doctoral degrees and
candidates for tenure at six research universities.
Seago earned his doctorate in botany from the University of Illinois. He majored in biology at Knox College
as an undergraduate and received his master’s degree in botany from Miami University.
 Scholar of teaching
With research interests encompassing mathematics education
and the effects of teachers’ intercultural experiences on their teaching, Garii
has taken advantage of a number of international opportunities, including one
that merged these interests: bringing calculators to secondary classrooms in Benin.
Garii’s work on international aspects of teacher education led
to an invitation to guest edit an issue of the journal Issues in Teacher
Education. She has been an invited speaker at a research conference in Berlin and published her
work in top tier journals in her field such as Teaching and Teacher Education.
She has published eight peer-reviewed, research-based articles on her work
since coming to Oswego.
Like Seago, Garii is recognized for mentoring students
entering her field. One of them, Jason DeMauro '10, wrote of his experience with
her: “Dr. Garii would ask me terrifically difficult questions, pushing me to
delve deeper and deeper into the discourse … The culmination of our effort that
year was an invitation to the American Educational Research Association’s 2009
annual conference” to present his undergraduate research.
Garii received her bachelor’s degree in social linguistics
and communications at Wesleyan University, her master’s degree in rehabilitation
counseling at Seattle University and her doctorate in epidemiology at the University of Washington.
— Julie Harrison Blissert
PHOTO CAPTION:
James Seago, top, and Barbara Garii were honored with Research and Sponsored Programs Activity Awards April 23.
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