Charleston, W.Va. (WVDN) – The Faculty Merit Foundation has announced that West Virginia State University’s Micheal Fultz, PhD, is the winner of the Foundation’s 2021 Professor of the Year award. The Foundation presented the award on Thursday, September 8, during a banquet held in the Great Hall of the Culture Center in Charleston. Four Professor of the Year finalists were also recognized: Linda Cowan, DMA, Music & Theater Professor, West Liberty University; Michael Groves, PhD, RN, Professor of Nursing, Shepherd University; Dan Hollis, MA, Journalism and Mass Communication Professor, Marshall University; and Paul Rakes, PhD, History, English and Creative Arts Professor, West Virginia University Institute of Technology.
Dr. Fultz is a Professor of Chemistry at West Virginia State University (WVSU) in Institute, West Virginia. In 2003, he earned his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in chemistry from the University of Tennessee at Martin. He earned his doctoral degree in organic chemistry from Indiana University in Bloomington in 2009.
Since joining West Virginia State’s faculty in 2009, Dr. Fultz has taught organic chemistry laboratory and lecture classes at the basic and advanced levels, including courses for nonmajors and freshmen. He currently serves as the Department of Chemistry Chair, a position he has held since 2018. Dr. Fultz was promoted to full professorship in August of 2021.
Dr. Fultz has been published in a wide variety of education-based and scientific journals, including International Journal of Technology and Design Education; Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research; Organic Letters; Electronic Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis; and the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He has been awarded numerous externally funded research grants and is a frequent and in-demand presenter, lecturer, guest speaker and panelist, both regionally and nationally.
In addition to the 2021 Professor of the Year honor, Dr. Fultz has been presented with the WVSU Community Impact Award (2017); WVSU Excellence in Service Award (2016); and WVSU Professor of the Year Award (2013). In 2016, he was named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.
Dr. Fultz serves as the Faculty Advisor to the West Virginia State University Chapter of the American Chemical Society. Since 2009, the student group has won 12 Green Chemistry Awards, six Outstanding Chapter Awards, and an Insight into Diversity Award from the Society.
The Faculty Merit Foundation was created in 1984 to provide a means to recognize and reward innovation and creativity among the faculties of West Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities. Through the Professor of the Year program, the outstanding achievements of those individuals are brought to the attention of the general public. A $10,000 cash award is given to the candidate selected as Professor of the Year, with smaller awards to the other finalists.
The Professor of the Year award is sponsored by: United Bank; Bowles Rice LLP; Greene Ketchum Bailey & Tweel LLP; Maier Foundation; Graystone Consulting; and The Daywood Foundation, Inc. For additional information call (304) 347-2131.
