For the Love of Creepy Crawlies and Students: Professor Recognized with National Award
By Karen Clos,
Director of University Communications and Media Relations –
When Associate Professor and Department Chair, Laura Weiser Erlandson, Ph.D., accepted a teaching position in the A&M–Central Texas biology department in 2014, the university’s first building had been standing for less than five years, the second was already under construction, and a third was on the horizon.
And it was far from a garden variety university teaching position. During the original interview process, she got the message loud and clear: The university needs a founding biologist to build the program, its courses, and the labs.
In addition, she was expected to teach a full load of classes and labs while building a faculty to support a growing biology program. Until then, adjunct instructors would help ensure courses remained available to students.
Laura Weiser Erlandson never got that memo. The one about only being able to do so much. She had, of course, been offered the position and, as a part of the process, she had sat with then provost, Peg Gray-Vickrey, now emeritus provost and with the university’s inaugural president, Marc Nigliazzo. And if she were the kind of person inclined to be intimidated, she might have shaken their hands and headed straight for the parking lot.
But she didn’t. This was a different kind of university. Working adults. First-generation students. Military-affiliated students balancing service, family and education. The challenge did not frighten her. It appealed to her.
She was completely, irrevocably, and permanently in love with science, technology, engineering, and math, but specifically and especially with biology – and more precisely, bugs. Yes, that is right. When most people shudder in fear, Weiser Erlandson gets goosebumps of fascination. And more importantly, she somehow imbues her students with that enthusiasm.
Former student, AHM Zuberi Ashraf, a recent doctoral recipient at The University of Texas, credits Weiser Erlandson with doing more than simply teaching, as crucial as that is.
“Dr. Erlandson went above and beyond to make sure that every one of her students was supported with the best learning opportunities she could provide, generous one-on-one time, and the kind of advising that felt more like mentoring and professional development than meeting to select courses to fulfill a degree plan.
“Even for students whose interests were outside of entomology, she was always encouraging and open to collaboration with other institutions and disciplines,” he said adding that he remembers seeing her take students into the fields around campus for research, and it always looked like such an exciting and engaging experience.
But there was one more thing – a lot less traditional than donning lab coats, butterfly nets, and tiptoeing through Central Texas acreage with a list of non-two-legged samples to locate. There’s the unexpected because with “Dr. Laura” as she is known by students and colleagues, the unexpected is also a big part of the learning equation.
“While I was in the program, she even baked us chocolate chip cricket cookies for a biology program social event,” he said, admitting he passed on that particular sweet treat.
It was a memorable reminder that learning in Dr. Laura’s classes could be equal parts science, curiosity and surprise.
Hannah Barratang, who earned her undergraduate degree at A&M–Central Texas before completing a graduate degree in biology at Texas State University, now teaches biology at St. Edward’s University in Austin as one of the youngest biology faculty members in the state of Texas.
She entered Weiser Erlandson’s biology program when she was just 12 years old and found her niche there, working in the lab and soaking up, she says, virtually everything the program had to offer.
“Dr. Laura has always been a great inspiration to me,” she gushed enthusiastically. “She works so hard developing the biology program, and her expertise and passion for entomology allowed me to gain so much knowledge and hands-on experience during my bachelor’s. She is the kind of faculty member who inspired me to pursue a career like hers.”
Ask any teacher, any faculty member, at any college or university and they will tell you. There is nothing – absolutely nothing – like seeing former students in your chosen field who chose to pursue a career in higher education as faculty members.
The students she mentored are now researchers, graduate students and faculty members in their own right. Earlier this week, that impact received formal recognition when the Entomological Society of America’s Southwestern Branch presented Weiser Erlandson with its Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching.
More than a decade after arriving as a department of one, Weiser Erlandson accepted the award with characteristic humility, directing attention to her colleagues and the students whose success continues to define the program she helped build.
Weiser Erlandson credits the members of ESA, along with faculty colleagues Associate Professor Linh Pham, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor Chamindika Siriwardana, Ph.D., for the continued growth of the program over the past decade and the success of its alumni and university leadership for encouraging her to make the students’ learning experiences in the lab as rich as possible.
