Smith-Willms Award (SS6288)

The Smith-Willms Award in Science honors the careers of two faculty members at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State University) who served with distinction in two different departments and in different periods of the institution’s history. Dr. Charles Spurgeon Smith, Professor of Biology and Dr. Charles Ronald Willms, Professor of Chemistry, dedicated their professional careers to teaching science, primarily at the undergraduate level. They served as mentors and encouragers of students and inspired those whom they deemed to have unusual scholarly potential to pursue graduate studies. Numbers of those students went on to successful careers in academia, corporations, private business, and government. Students remember them as friends and as special teachers who recognized abilities and potential that may be previously gone unnoticed.

This scholarship will be awarded to a junior undergraduate student majoring in Biology, Chemistry, or Physics to help provide financial support during the senior year. Nominees will have a record of exceptional academic achievement and will normally have completed three-quarters of the required courses in their major and minor fields. Special consideration will be given to students who have expressed an interest in graduate studies and in pursuing careers in teaching and research.

Students can initiate an application for this scholarship, but must submit a nomination letter from their department along with their application. Faculty may nominate as many people as desired. Chairs review all nominations from their department and submit only one departmental nominee for review at the College Level.