Four outstanding science education professionals were honored at the 2017 NARST Awards Luncheon on Monday, April 24^th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Antonio, TX. Each recipient was named individually and presented with a plaque.

Dr. Anita Schuchardt, Department of Biology Teaching and Learning, College of Biological Sciences, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, received the 2017 Outstanding Doctoral Research Award. This honor indicates that Dr. Schuchardt’s dissertation was judged by colleagues on the ODRA selection committee to have the greatest significance in the field of science education from among all dissertations nominated for the award in 2017. Her Learning Sciences and Policy dissertation entitled, Learning Biology through Connecting Mathematics to Scientific mechanisms: Student Outcomes and Teacher Supports, was completed with Dr. Christian Schunn in the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) at University of Pittsburgh. This Dr. Schuchardt’s second Ph.D. Her first, awarded by Columbia University in 1994, is a Ph.D. in Human Genetics and Development.

Two NARST professionals received the 2017 Early Career Research award. Dr. Ying-Chih Chen received this recognition for his outstanding professional accomplishments as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Teacher Preparation of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University (ASU). Dr. Chen’s research agenda focuses on how talk and writing can be synergistically adapted as epistemic tools to foster students’ knowledge development, social negotiation, and reasoning abilities and their influence on academic achievement. His research, though situated in science education, has implications for an even broader audience. In only a few years since beginning his academic career, Dr. Chen has published 18 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals such as Journal of Research in Science Teaching, Science Education, Research in Science Education, and Cognition and Instruction. His research and teaching have had a significant impact on knowledge and research in education, both nationally and internationally. He also has been highly successful in securing grant funding to support his research.

Dr. David Stroupe received the 2017 Early Career Research award for his exemplary professional accomplishments as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University (MSU). He is also the Associate Director of STEM Teacher Education in the CREATE for STEM Institute at MSU. Dr. Stroupe’s research connects to and focuses on design research for better science teacher education with three goals: (1) consider opportunities for students to co-develop science practices across time; (2) investigate how preservice teachers learn to provide rigorous and equitable learning opportunities for all through ambitious science teaching practices; and (3) better understand how preservice teachers learn such science teaching practices to empower their students to engage in science practices. Dr. Stroupe’s research is already making an impact on the field. He has published 11 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals, including the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Cognition and Instruction, and has edited a book, Reframing Science Teaching and Learning: Students and Educators Co-Developing Science Practices in and out of School.

Dr. Avi Hofstein, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, received the 2017 Distinguished Contributions to Science Education Through Research Award, for his meritorious 51-year career in science education, filled with impressive milestones in research leadership that have left a global footprint and resulted in significant impact. From a high school chemistry teaching position in 1965, he rose to be a full professor in one of the world’s leading research institutions, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Dr. Hofstein has been an active member of NARST for 35 years. His research in science education focuses on attitude and interest in science, practical work, and inquiry learning and the development of high-order learning skills in the science laboratory and laboratory learning environments. More recently, his research group developed strategies to investigate students’ ability to develop argumentative and metacognitive skills. Within these arenas, he has sustained his research efforts for over 30 years, impacting theory and practice in approximately 40 countries in all regions of the world, especially through leadership on European Union and UNESCO-sponsored efforts. Over the course of the past 33 years, Dr. Hofstein also has supervised the doctoral and masters research of 26 students, mentoring not only them, but many others, to develop influential scholarly careers in science education.