ESF Professor George Curry Receives Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal

09/29/2011

George W. Curry, Endowed Kennedy Chair and Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus atthe SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), was honored with the Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal which recognizes significant and sustained excellence in landscape architecture education.

Curry's academic career spans more than four decades at ESF. A pioneer in the field of cultural landscapes, his dedication to his students and profession have earned him numerous recognitions, including the 2008 New York Professor of the Year designation from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the2007 Landscape Architecture Educator of the Year award by DesignIntelligence magazine.

At ESF, Curry helped develop the college's pioneering "Off-Campus Program" that requires landscape architecture students to spend a semester working in the field on a design project they propose and develop. The Off-Campus Program also brings an international dimension to the curriculum since a majority of students choose to complete their design projects in other countries, with department faculty facilitating study-abroad opportunities and travel arrangements for groups of students. Since its inception in 1970, more than 1,000 students have participated in the program, living and learning in more than 175 locations in more than 30 countries.

Curry's involvement in cultural landscape preservation research with the National Park Service and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has been a major professional focus for the last 20 years while he continued to teach undergraduate and graduate students at ESF.

Curry has been instrumental in revitalizing a number of neighborhoods in the Syracuse area, including Syracuse's Armory Square which is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal is presented by the American Society of Landscape Architects.