Future Students | Current Students | Alumni | Community & Friends

Joshua Millspaugh earns 2009 Governor's Award

Joshua Millspaugh, an associate professor of fisheries and wildlife sciences in the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, has won the 2009 Governor's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Working with wildlife ranging in size from elephants to salamanders, Millspaugh studies animals' habitat selection and their success in those habitats. One current graduate-student research project looks at black-backed woodpeckers' selection of nest sites in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Other projects investigate how the endangered black-footed ferret chooses sites on prairie dog towns and how animal-mounted environmental sensors can be improved to advance studies of wildlife.

Millspaugh's research also is directed toward understanding wildlife response to human disturbances, including forest-management activities. Millspaugh is collaborating with professors at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa to assess ecotourism's effect on elephants' stress and behavior. Here in Missouri, he works to help ensure the survival of hellbenders, large salamanders whose population is declining.

Garnering accolades

Millspaugh was one of two educators in the United States to win the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2008 Food and Agricultural Sciences Excellence in College and University Teaching Award. It's the highest honor bestowed by the USDA for university-level achievement.

In 2005, Millspaugh earned the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, which is awarded to five MU professors each year. He has received numerous other MU teaching awards, including the Provost's Outstanding Junior Faculty Teaching Award and CAFNR's Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence.

The Governor's Award, Millspaugh's latest honor, recognizes one outstanding faculty member from each participating higher-education institution in the state. It honors effective teaching and advising, service to the university community, commitment to high standards of excellence and success in nurturing student achievement.

Education and authorship

Millspaugh earned a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, a master's degree from South Dakota State University and a doctorate from the University of Washington. He joined the MU faculty in 1999.

Millspaugh is a co-author of the books Models for Planning Wildlife Conservation in Large Landscapes and Wildlife Demography: Analysis of Sex, Age and Count Data. He edited the book Radio Tracking and Animal Populations.

CAFNR faculty members have been recognized with the Governor's Award before. Jan Dauve, professor of agricultural economics, won it in 2003, and Jim Spain, then a professor of animal sciences, won it in 2002. Mark Ryan, professor of fisheries and wildlife, earned the award in 2000. Rex Campbell, rural sociology, was honored in 1999.

Posted: April 10, 2009
Story by: Randy Mertens and Karen Pojmann