College of Sciences Newsletter Edition 17 March 1, 2003 
SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Awards
The university’s Outstanding Faculty Awards Committee sent eight names for consideration in the State Council of Higher Education Outstanding Faculty Awards Program last December. Ten faculty from Virginia were eventually selected for the honor, which included an award of $5,000. Nominees were chosen for their outstanding contributions in teaching as well as research and public service. Old Dominion honored its nominees at a luncheon on December 16, and an account of $5,000 was established with the Office of Research for each nominee to support their scholarship.
Two science faculty members were among the names sent to SCHEV. Although an associate professor in the Department of English was one of the 10 selected by SCHEV for an award, the College of Sciences was honored to be the only college at Old Dominion with two faculty members considered.
Bryan Porter, associate professor of psychology, believes that teaching is more than classroom activity, and has included more than 50 students in his research activities since joining Old Dominion University. His research on the predictors and effects of running red lights attracted wide professional and media attention. He has partnered with DRIVE SMART Hampton Roads to study local high school students and collect data on safety belts uses. He spent three years studying the prevalence and predictors of following too closely in driving (i.e. tailgating). His most recent research involves pedestrian safety interventions in Northern Virginia and safety-belt use prevalence and interventions in the Hampton Roads’ region. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, sponsor of his research, local traffic engineering departments, law enforcement agencies, media, and community traffic safety groups are regular partners in his work.
Two recent awards given by students are among Porter’s most cherished honors. The University Scholar and College of Sciences Honor Graduate of fall 2001 selected him as her most inspirational faculty member, and in 2002 he was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the Office of Student Disability Services.
Alan Savitzky, associate professor of biology, is Old Dominion’s resident expert on reptiles, including the local canebrake rattlesnake. As a herpetologist, Savitzky has brought new expertise and rigor to the Comparative Anatomy of the Chordates course, the evolution of animal structure. Of course, his signature course is Herpetology, and until recently the course had to be taught without the benefit of a modern textbook. This spurred Savitzky and five others to author a new text on the subject. One student wrote after taking Savitzky’s Conservation Biology course, “Dr. Savitzky is who I want to be when I grow up – erudite, an excellent communicator and someone who honestly cares about this field; he is a great professor!”
Recent work with a Japanese colleague, Akira Mori, has taken Savitzky in a new research direction: studying the only snake known to spray defensive compounds from glands in its skin. His research team has demonstrated that the glands lack the necessary cellular machinery to manufacture toxins. Instead, the glands have unique concentrations of blood vessels that, they believe, may transport toxic chemicals obtained from their prey and deliver the compounds to the gland. Savitzky will spend July-October 2003 at Kyoto University Museum as a visiting associate professor to continue the research on this unusual breed of snake.
