Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A longtime Mississippi State professor is receiving a national honor for academic advising.
Donald N. Downer is among only 10 collegiate faculty members receiving 2005 awards in competition sponsored by the Kansas-based National Academic Advising Association.
The annual honors recognize individuals and academic institutions with a demonstrated commitment to academic counseling of students.
Downer, who joined the MSU faculty in 1978, is a former biological sciences department head who returned to full-time teaching several years ago. He will receive the award during NACADA's national conference in October.
He is the latest in a continuing string of Mississippi State faculty members to formally receive high praise from the organization since it began presenting the awards in 1983.
Downer holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Mississippi and a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine.