BY UCLA TODAY STAFF WRITERS

Law, mathematics, English, medicine and biochemistry -- the recipients of the 2001-'02 Distinguished Teaching Awards, given annually by the Academic Senate Committee on Teaching in conjunction with the Office of Instructional Development, run the gamut in terms of expertise. What these winners share, however, is the admiration and respect of students, colleagues, department chairs and alumni.

Grant Nelson

This year's recipients -- Grant Nelson of law; Chris Anderson of mathematics; Anne Mellor of English; Lee Todd Miller of medicine; and Steven Clarke of chemistry and biochemistry -- seem to enjoy teaching as much as their students enjoy learning from them.

"Teaching is my life," said Nelson, described by law students as a "walking outline" for his organizational skills and the "master of the hypothetical."

Nelson, who teaches property law, real estate finance law and remedies, said he is like "a safari leader going through the jungle, clearing the brush to make the most difficult the most understandable." Students have shown their appreciation: More than half of the graduating classes since Nelson began at UCLA have selected him to hood them at graduation.

Christopher Anderson

Anderson was interested in math, physics, chemistry and engineering in college, but finally chose math because it was the most difficult. Once mastered, success would follow in the other subjects, he concluded.

That theory has paid off for Anderson's students, who praise him for making math relevant to their research areas within biophysics and chemical and electrical engineering.

Said Anderson: "I enjoy providing insight to the students, explaining why they are learning what they are learning and what the 'big picture' is."

Students in Mellor's classes in Romantic literature can expect a heavy load of reading and high-energy lectures, densely packed with information. So how does that explain the perfect scores students give her on evaluation forms?

Anne Mellor

Because, say her colleagues, Mellor's arduous preparation, enthusiasm for her students and material and her ability to integrate her groundbreaking work as a scholar into a classroom "offers at once excitement and clarity."

"I care passionately about literature, about the ways in which literary texts both illuminate the past and help us to live more ethical lives in the present," said Mellor, winner of the graduate teaching award. "And I care about my students -- I want them to gain as much personal insight and knowledge from these literary texts as I can possibly give them."

Lee Todd Miller

Miller, based at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, takes under his wing UCLA pediatric residents as well as third-year medical students on pediatric rotation. Nine times he's won the American Medical Student Association Teacher of the Year Award and the Golden Apple Award for Outstanding Teaching, the medical school's top teaching award. In fact, Miller won the Golden Apple so many times that in 1998 the medical school created the Platinum Apple Award to honor him as "The Master Teacher."

His bedside lessons, known affectionately as "Miller Rounds," are legendary. "We try to make them as warm, interactive -- and, hopefully, non-threatening -- as possible," he said.

Steven Clarke

Students in Clarke's biochemistry classes are not the only ones to give him high praise. So do his colleagues. "Steve is singular in having taught virtually every class in the biochemistry curriculum several times," said Professor William Gelbart, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Winner of the Eby Award for the Art of Teaching, Clarke said, "There is a psychological reward in watching your students develop, but there is also a second reward: learning from your students. The more effort you put into teaching, the more that reward comes back to you."

Winners among non-Senate faculty and teaching assistants will be announced later.