Professor David Levitsky has been named the 2016 Louis and Edith Edgerton Career Teaching Award winner for his distinguished and dedicated commitment to his students.
Established in 1980, the award honors faculty members of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences who have provided continually outstanding teaching and advising to students. The award is given to professors with at least 25 years of teaching at Cornell.
Levitsky arrived at Cornell in 1968 as a post-doctoral fellow before becoming an assistant professor two years later. He earned the title of full professor in 1986.
During his distinguished career, Levitsky has focused his research on the effect of nutrition on brain development and on the control of food intake and the prevention of weight gain. His insights over 48 years have made him a preeminent figure in the study of eating and diet.
While his research has provided insights into the environmental mechanism that control human food intake and body weight, it’s his interactions working directly with students that drives him.
“I love teaching nutrition,” he said. “It represents my philosophy of world understanding: to really understand a subject, you must be able to view it from various perspectives.”
The study of nutrition involves human biology with deep knowledge of underlying social sciences, spanning psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics and political science, according to Levitsky.
Even after more than two decades of teaching introductory nutrition he said he still feels the same level of excitement walking into the classroom. “It is wonderful to witness the eyes of these bright Cornell undergraduates open as they begin to see how nutrition and our lifestyle affects our bodies and determines our health. I consider this course to be the only health course these students will take at Cornell where they will learn the most recent knowledge about health and disease,” he said.
He applies that same enthusiasm to his role as an adviser for students. “I tell my advisees that I am not only their adviser, but the advocate and their friend,” he said. He provides counsel and encouragement at all times as he helps guide students towards their interests in college and beyond.
Patrick Stover, director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell, credited Levitsky for his dedication to his student and their learning. “David is among the University’s very finest teachers, and we are fortunate to have him as a colleague,” he said.
Levitsky will receive his honor at the Dean’s Awards Dinner, held April 18 in the Statler Ballroom.
