Students and colleagues were proud to present Ian M. Sheldon, Ohio State professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics, with the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.

This award is different from others because it allows fellow students and colleagues to nominate and choose the professors. The recipients of the award presented in May are also inducted into the Academy of Teaching. Each of the 10 professors honored with the award receives a cash gift of $3,000 and a $1,200 increase in their base salary.

“I’ve won a couple other teaching awards and typically the department nominates you but this one was done without me knowing about it. Students wrote in letters. This was a tremendous ho

“Professor Sheldon is one of the best professors I have ever had. He knew how to make those in the class achieve more than they thought they could and push them to go beyond,” said Matt Pullins, a former student of Sheldon’s.

Colleagues of Sheldon had much to say on his behalf as well.

“He cares for his students and has his own technique. Ian continually strives to change the subject matter and material to keep it fresh as well as keep up with what’s changing in academics and the frontiers of knowledge,” said Carl Zulauf, professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics. Zulauf has been a friend and colleague of Sheldon for more than 10 years.

Sheldon, a British citizen, was born and raised along the coast in Brighton, about 50 miles from London.

“I grew up in a kind of school that put a lot of pressure on students to do well academically. There was a period in high school when I didn’t want to work that hard. I wanted to hang out with my friends just like everyone else,” Sheldon said.

The lazy phase didn’t last long. With self-motivation and hard work, Sheldon continued schooling and earned his doctorate from the University of Salford, United Kingdom, and came to OSU as a visiting professor. A job opportunity opened up that Sheldon could not resist and he has been at OSU ever since.

Students are always reminded of Sheldon’s British origin whether it is by his knowledge of the economic and agricultural issues in the UK or by the tin of Altoids always at his desk.

“He brought quite a bit of experience and international flavor to the classroom. He has such extensive knowledge between the way things work in the UK and the USA,” Pullins said. “He was also very receptive in conversation outside of class. Sheldon was my advisor but he helped anyone who needed help.”

Pullins added that Sheldon’s British sense of humor took awhile to set in but was an added benefit in the classroom dynamics.

“Ian’s very effective at using humor in the classroom in a positive way. You have to be careful with humor but Ian has a wonderful sense of humor and comic timing,” Zulauf said.