2002, his 33rd year at UCF, is the year of biology professor Llewellyn Ehrhart. Thursday he was in Washington, D.C., to receive the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Florida Professor of the Year Award. This award, presented under the direction of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education [CASE], was given to Ehrhart at a luncheon at the National Press Club. An evening reception was scheduled on Capitol Hill.

Ehrhart is an internationally renowned researcher and champion of endangered and threatened sea turtles on Florida's east coast. He is the first UCF faculty member to receive this Carnegie/CASE award that is given in recognition of his dedication to and for the quality of his teaching.

"The hallmark of my undergraduate teaching has been the commitment to provide students with opportunities for bona fide, real-world experiences in the field," Ehrhart wrote to the CASE Professor of the Year Selection Committee. "I have been willing time and time again to devote my time and effort to expose students to the realities of field zoology. I believe that any well-educated Floridian should have some basic familiarity with Florida's natural history and biodiversity and with the environmental issues and problems that beset this beautiful state."

Earlier this year, because of his body of work, including his research and his lead role in development of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Brevard County, Ehrhart received UCF's highest honor for faculty. He was named Pegasus Professor for 2002.

Accolades for Ehrhart continued throughout 2002. He and his research team had a chapter devoted to their work included in the book, "Fire in the Turtle House." A June 25, 2002, New York Times article addressed the same subject. In October of this year, as a Distinguished Honors Professor, Ehrhart addressed 500 Burnett Honors College freshmen on the topic of preserving wilderness and wildlife. And, green turtles on the Space Coast are thriving to the degree that they may soon return to the soup pot. "A good or bad thing, depending on your perspective," he notes.

"I nominated Dr. Ehrhart for both the Pegasus Professorship and the Carnegie Foundation/CASE award because of his tireless, results-driven work in the field and in the classroom," says UCF news writer Susan Loden. "To me, he represents the quality faculty that is this university's foundation. He also stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the 'new guns', hired to strengthen UCF with their prominence as premier researchers, teachers and authorities in their fields. Dr. Ehrhart truly is one of UCF's homegrown, internationally revered experts and an exceptional, devoted teacher."

Ehrhart's career at UCF spans the tenures of four presidents. Charter President Charles Millican described Ehrhart as a "very good-hire." In a letter of support for Ehrhart's nomination for the CASE award, current President John Hitt wrote: "Dr. Ehrhart has been an inspirational teacher who imparts a reverence for the diversity of life...His passion is manifest, as well, in the student-assisted good works he has accomplished in helping sea turtles prosper, along with their habitat on central Florida's Atlantic coast line. The Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge owes its existence to Dr. Ehrhart more than any other individual."

"Acclaimed as a teacher, scholar and activist, Dr. Ehrhart has impressed generations of students with the importance of biodiversity to the physical well being of the planet and to the tranquility of mind and spirit," Hitt continued. What distinguished Dr. Ehrhart from merely good teachers is his passion for his science, most especially wildlife ecology, and for creatures that modern civilization places in harm's way, most notably sea turtles.

Kathryn Seidel, dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, in her letter of support, spoke of an "exhausting and exhilarating" weekend she spent with Dr. Ehrhart and 15 students on turtle watch in the Indian River Lagoon and patrolling the beach to observe nesting. She asked the students why they would get up at 4 a.m. and battle hordes of hungry mosquitoes. The response: "Because we love it." Seidel continued, "That kind of passion and even joy, with Professor Llewellyn always at their side, explaining what they were doing and why, is the hallmark of the kind of experience that Dr. Ehrhart offers his students."

Three former students, who today are Ehrhart's colleagues, also wrote letters in support of his nomination. Barbara Schroeder, national sea turtle coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service recalled: "His passion for field work and competence as a naturalist served to stimulate me academically and to inspire me. I learned so many things about the natural world that I had never considered before. That lit a fire within me. The skills that I learned as a student and a research assistant of Doc's are with me everyday and are the foundation upon which I built my career and from which I continue to work toward saving the best of the planet for future generations."

In 1971, George Tanner transferred to UCF as an unfocused senior with mediocre grades. He wanted to become a medical doctor. Tanner wrote: "Dr. Ehrhart immediately got my attention by asking, 'What is your second choice for a career?' Wow, honesty hurts," Today, Tanner is a professor in the University of Florida Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. "Dr. Ehrhart challenged and guided me to take a straight and narrow path of academic improvement and career development," he added.

Tanner called Ehrhart's classes "some of the most rigorous, but absolutely most enjoyable courses I have taken." He added that Ehrhart sacrificed personal time to meet with his class at night "to review frog-call identification, then to scavenge the most undeveloped campus reaches in search of the calling critters. These are the memories that count most to me and the other lucky souls who have benefited from his leadership. His professional leadership, by example, is what I remember and respect most about Dr. Ehrhart. I try to emulate that with my students."

Dean Bagley, who has spent the past 13 years as Ehrhart's student and research assistant, wrote: "It seems impossible that any one person could do as much as he does, working from early morning often through to the next morning, before getting much-need sleep."

During sea turtle nesting season, from May through September, at the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in Melbourne Beach, "Doc is always the first one up in the morning making sure that we have what we need to get our work done," Bagley said. "When we net for turtles he is always the first one in the water. He is a completely dedicated professor who has never requested a sabbatical. He prepares diligently for each class lecture, regardless of how many times he's taught the class. He inspires you to want to do a good job and to be the best you can be."

"I am very much aware of how my association with students and faculty, the Office of Research, the Division of University Relations and Marketing, President Hitt and Dean Seidel and the Burnett Honors College have brought all of these honors to me. This wouldn't have happened without the goodwill and help of all of these people," Ehrhart concludes.