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TUSM Professors Honored with Temple University Faculty Awards

News April 17, 2015

Each spring, Temple University honors a handful of faculty members for their teaching and research excellence. This year, two professors from the Temple University School of Medicine were chosen to receive awards.

Peter Axelrod, MD, Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, received the University’s Great Teacher Award, which recognizes an outstanding faculty member for his or her “continuous excellence and contributions to teaching.” Dr. Axelrod joined Temple in 1987 and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Dr. Axelrod’s highly effective teaching approach is praised by students and colleagues, one of whom noted that he “integrates everyday experiences to teach and refine the important concepts that permit doctors to use the tools of medical research to vet the evidence that guides diagnosis and treatment of illness.”

Walter Koch, PhD, received the Paul W. Eberman Faculty Research Award for “excellence and major contributions to one’s field.” A widely acclaimed researcher who has spent more than two decades investigating treatments to fight heart disease, Dr. Koch joined Temple in 2012 and is the William Wikoff Smith Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine, Professor and Chair of Pharmacology, and Director of the Center for Translational Medicine. He is best known for his seminal contributions to the field of cardiovascular gene therapy and the discovery that inhibiting an enzyme can play a critical role in deterring heart failure.

Prior to announcing the awards, Temple University President Neil Theobald, PhD, shared his admiration for all of the winners, commenting that “you are the people our students are referring to when they talk about their favorite professors … you are the professors I hear about all the time. I am proud to be your colleague.”