Ehrhart is name Carnegie Florida Professor of the Year
Educator has rich history in sea-turtle research
Contributed to by Susan Loden

ORLANDO, May 2003 -- 2002, his 33rd year at UCF, was the year of biology professor Llewellyn Ehrhart. In November he was in Washington, D.C., to receive the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Florida Professor of the Year Award. This award, presented under the direction of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), was given to Ehrhart at a luncheon at the National Press Club. An evening reception was scheduled on Capitol Hill.

Ehrhart is an internationally renowned researcher and champion of endangered and threatened sea turtles on Florida's East Coast. He is the first UCF faculty member to receive this Carnegie/CASE award which is given in recognition of his dedication to and the quality of his teaching.

Because of his body of work, including his research and his lead role in development of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Brevard County, Ehrhart received UCF's highest honor for faculty. He was named Pegasus Professor for 2002.

Accolades for Ehrhart continued throughout 2002. He and his research team had a chapter devoted to their work included in the book, Fire in the Turtle House, by Osha Gray Davidson. A June 25, 2002, New York Times article addressed the same subject. In October 2002, as a Distinguished Honors professor, Ehrhart addressed 500 Burnett Honors College freshmen on the topic of preserving wilderness and wildlife.

"I nominated Dr. Ehrhart for both the Pegasus Professorship and the Carnegie Foundation/CASE award because of his tireless, results-driven work in the field and in the classroom," says UCF news writer Susan Loden. "To me, he represents the quality faculty that is this university's foundation. He also stands shoulder to shoulder with the 'new guns,' hired to strengthen UCF with their prominence as premier researchers, teachers and authorities in their fields. Dr. Ehrhart truly is one of UCF's homegrown, internationally revered experts and an exceptional, devoted teacher."

Ehrhart's career at UCF spans the tenure of four presidents. Charter President Charles Millican described Ehrhart as a "very good hire." In a letter of support for Ehrhart's nomination for the Carnegie/CASE award, current President John Hitt wrote: "Dr. Ehrhart has been an inspirational teacher who imparts a reverence for the diversity of life .... His passion is manifest, as well, in the student-assisted good works he has accomplished in helping sea turtles prosper, along with their habitat on Central Florida's Atlantic coastline. The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge owes its existence to Dr. Ehrhart more than any other individual."

"Acclaimed as a teacher, scholar and activist," Hitt continued, "Dr. Ehrhart has impressed generations of students with the importance of biodiversity to the physical well-being of the planet and to the tranquility of mind and spirit. What distinguished Dr. Ehrhart from merely good teachers is his passion for his science, most especially wildlife ecology, and for creatures that modern civilization places in harm's way, most notably sea turtles."

Kathryn Seidel, dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, in her letter of support, spoke of an "exhausting and exhilarating" weekend she spent with Ehrhart and 15 students on turtle watch in the Indian River Lagoon and patrolling the beach to observe nesting. She asked the students why they would get up at 4 a.m. and battle hordes of hungry mosquitoes. The response: "Because we love it." Seidel continued, "That kind of passion and even joy, with professor Llewellyn always at their side, explaining what they were doing and why, is the hallmark of the kind of experience that Dr. Ehrhart offers his students."

DATE
May 2003

CONTACT
Llewellyn Ehrhart
407-823-2970

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