DATE: April 15, 2008
CONTACT:
Daniel Benjamin, (864) 656-3964
wahoo@clemson.edu
WRITER:
Angela Nixon, (864) 656-0382
anixon@clemson.edu
Benjamin named 2008 Alumni Master Teacher
CLEMSON – Clemson University students have selected Daniel Benjamin, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Economics, as the 2008 Alumni Master Teacher.
The Alumni Master Teacher Award is presented for outstanding undergraduate classroom instruction to a faculty member nominated by the student body and selected by the Student Alumni Council. Benjamin received a $2,500 stipend and will be presented with a plaque at Commencement May 9.
Benjamin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia and earned his master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow. He has taught at the University of Washington and has been a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a Visiting Distinguished Scholar at the University of Liverpool in England, a visiting professor at Cardiff University in Wales and Caird Honorary Research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. He is a Senior Fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Montana.
Benjamin has served as a staff economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, as deputy assistant secretary of labor and as chief of staff at the United States Department of Labor. He is the author or editor of 12 books and has published numerous scholarly articles. He has been associate editor of the scholarly journal Economic Inquiry and served on the executive committee of the Western Economic Association.
In 2002, Clemson awarded him the Class of 1940 Douglas W. Bradbury Award for Outstanding Teaching, and in 2006 he was named Alumni Distinguished Professor at Clemson.
Student nominators wrote that he challenged, enlightened and educated them in an enjoyable class setting. One student described him as “extremely passionate” and another wrote, “Dr. Benjamin has unknowingly influenced my change of major to economics and has been my favorite professor here at Clemson.”
Benjamin said that he never thought this was an award he would win at Clemson, and that he is delighted to receive it.
“Clemson students are incredibly excited about being here. This award is important to me because it gives me the sense I have played a role in making Clemson special for them,” he said. “This is an incredible capstone to my career.”
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