SUNY Plattsburgh Geologist named SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor

May 15, 2013

The State University of New York Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of SUNY Plattsburgh faculty member Dr. Mary Roden-Tice to the rank of distinguished teaching professor.

Roden-Tice was one of only five faculty members from the 64 campuses in the SUNY system to be appointed to this rank this year.

In her recommendation to the board of trustees, Chancellor Nancy Zimpher said of Roden-Tice, “Dr. Mary Roden-Tice has been a dedicated and tireless teacher, prodigious and creative scholar and a generous and caring member of the college community at SUNY Plattsburgh for 19 years.

“Dr. Roden-Tice sets high standards for her students and herself, but she never leaves anyone behind. She is a world-class scholar who involves her students in every aspect of her work, first by instilling a sense of curiosity and wonder, and then by carefully mentoring them through the intricacies of the research.”

The rank of distinguished teaching professor is one of the four designations that constitute the highest system tribute conferred upon SUNY instructional faculty. The other three designations are the distinguished service professor, distinguished librarian and the distinguished professor.

‘High Level of Professional Competence’

“Dr. Roden-Tice continues to demonstrate a high level of professional competence as a productive teacher and scholar since receiving the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2001,” said Dr. John Ettling, SUNY Plattsburgh president. “She is a leader in undergraduate research at SUNY Plattsburgh and has engaged a number of students in significant research in the area of geology.”

Her major areas of scholarly expertise include geochronology, fission track dating, thermochronology, geochemistry, isotope geology, and igneous and metamorphic petrology. Her accomplishments include 15 grants and contracts, five of which are from the National Science Foundation. These grants, which generated nearly $370,000, have provided opportunities for her undergraduate students to be involved either as research assistants or through independent studies.

She is the author and co-author of numerous published articles in refereed journals, author and co-author of five field trip guidebook articles. In addition, she and two of her students have a manuscript under review with the Geological Society of America Bulletin.

Roden-Tice was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and full professor in 2005. She received her bachelor’s degree in geology from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., her master’s in geology from Kansas State University, and her Ph.D. in geology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y.

Teaching ‘A Rewarding Experience’

“I am honored to be promoted to distinguished teaching professor,” Roden-Tice said. “Teaching geology at SUNY Plattsburgh has been a very rewarding experience. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all my students to help them grow individually and intellectually and to experience doing science as well as learning it.”

Roden-Tice’s promotion brings the number of current distinguished teaching professors in the Center for Earth and Environmental Science to two: Roden-Tice and Dr. David Franzi. Dr. James Dawson and Dr. Bryan Higgins hold the rank of distinguished service professor in that department.

Roden-Tice’s portrait will hang along with the other SUNY distinguished professors in the gallery at Feinberg Library. An unveiling ceremony will be held in the fall.