Distinguished Staff Awards are given to staff who have made outstanding contributions to the mission of their unit or the University. They respond creatively to challenges, maintain the highest standards in their work, establish productive working relationships, and promote a respectful and supportive workplace. Awardees receive $5,000.

Dave Hurley - Biology Program

"Although ethical considerations would prevent me from performing this experiment, if I could clone one human being, it would be Dave Hurley. Dave has taken a simple computer support position and converted it into an integral part of the teaching mission in biological sciences at the University of Washington," says Robin Wright, associate professor of zoology.

Among other things, Hurley oversees the computer study area in Hitchcock Hall where banks of computers and study tables are used by up to 200 students a day and he writes computer software for teachers in the biology program.

Dave Hurley

But instead of referring to him as a senior computer specialist - his official job title - many of the letters nominating him for a staff award simply called Hurley an educator.

That's because Hurley's first question when faculty ask him to help create software, Web sites or work on other projects is often, "What's the learning objective here?" His mindset is partly the result of his first UW job, five years as a science tutor in the Educational Opportunity Program, his training as a biologist and a belief that some technologies open new ways of learning.

Many biological processes are easier to visualize as 3-D images on a computer, rather than on a page of text, especially if there are many things happening at once, Hurley says. He and Biology 201 instructors worked recently to develop a simulation that allows students to visualize the sequence of events in DNA replication.

The karyotype program he developed lets students sort through and pair chromosomes and then determine such things as the sex of the individual and whether the cell is missing a chromosome or parts of chromosomes. The computer program has eliminated the laborious student exercise of using scissors to cut up glossy photos of randomly scattered chromosomes and paste them as pairs on a grid.

"There was nothing to be learned from the cutting and pasting," Hurley says. "With computers the students spend 100 percent of their time focusing on the chromosomes." The program is used by colleges and high schools across the nation, and even in some foreign countries. (See it and others at http://www.biology.washington.edu/biology/pages/student/stu_soft.html.)

"User friendly" was the way a number of letter writers described Hurley. "Dave speaks ordinary language, not 'computerese,' and he has incredible patience," wrote the director of the biology program, Professor Barbara Wakimoto. "My faculty colleagues have commented on how his warm enthusiasm and incredible creativity made what they thought was impossible for them to learn or design turn into reality.

"I will also admit that whenever I'm in need of positive therapy, I'll breeze by the Biology Study Area, see what a wonderful facility it is and pump up my enthusiasm by simply asking Dave about his latest project," Wakimoto says.

Letter writers described how, along with overseeing the study lab and writing software, Hurley also sets up hardware for laboratories, comes running to the lecture hall when the data projector is not working, holds workshops for students to learn computer basics, advises professors on the use of educational software and maintains Web sites for classes — and builds them for instructors who wish.

Letter-writer Linda Martin-Morris, a lecturer with the biology program, says that even with all these things he does, she always hears back from him the same day she places a request. She writes, "Doesn't it sound like I'm describing more than one person!?"

In a way, with programming expertise and efficiency, Hurley has "cloned" himself.

Sandra Hines, News & Information

Distinguished Staff Awards: Kellus Stone - Industrial Engineering Mahmoud Zubeidi - Copy Services Supervisor Laura Robinson - Rehabilitation Medicine Cynthia Fugate - UW Bothell Library