Floyd Receives Professional Society's Highest Award
Gary L. Floyd, former dean of the College of Biological Sciences and professor emeritus, plant biology, received his professional society's highest honor on June 18, 2003, at its annual national meeting in Oregon. Floyd is the recipient of the 2003 Phycological Society of America's Award of Excellence. This prestigious award is given only to select individuals who have demonstrated sustained scholarly contributions in, and impact on, all fields of research/teaching on algae over their professional career. Floyd's nomination and support letters were provided by prominent scholars working in diverse fields of phycology, all of whom were former graduate students or postdoctoral researcher's in Floyd's lab. They attest not only to his groundbreaking scholarly activity in the field of cell ultrastructure and algal phylogeny, but his outstanding teaching and mentoring skills and his exemplary record of leadership and service to his department, college, university and professional societies. His nominator said, "His impact on the field of phycology is equaled by his impact on the lives of those who were fortunate students and colleagues and by his service to Ohio State University and the Phycological Society of America." She goes on to say, "A prolific researcher...he produced numerous papers that helped to build the foundation of modern green algal systematics..." Another supporter had this to say: "Dr. Gary L. Floyd has had a phenomenal impact on shaping the current paradigm theorizing the origin of land plants from the green algae, and has for over three decades provided compelling data to support various patterns of phylogeny among the green algae. In the early 1970s, Gary and his colleagues at that time, recognized the significance of the correlation of three functionally unrelated characteristics of green algae; e.g., mitotic and cell division mechanisms, flagella insertion patterns, and the presence or absence of peroxisomes with their associated enzymes. Gary, with a stroke of genius, brought systematic and strategic thinking to the laboratory as he experimented with green algae and began to interpret the data emerging from biochemical and ultrastructural studies....The three functionally unrelated characteristics were found to be correlated in the green algae and this pattern laid the foundation for an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the role of the green algae among plants."
Floyd served as dean of the College of Biological Sciences from 1990 - 96. He is one of the few people to have won both of Ohio State's most prestigious faculty awards: the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching and the University's Distinguished Scholar Award.
Originally published Summer 2003
