TODAY news - July 25, 2002 - Graduate School news

Thursday, July 25, 2002 TODAY

Graduate School news

Professor named alumnus of the year at Columbia Union College

Ronald Carter, PhD, professor, and chair of the Graduate School’s department of natural sciences, displays his Alumnus of the Year Award. Dr. Carter was named alumnus of the year at Columbia Union College on May 4, 2002.

Ronald Carter, PhD, professor, and chair of the Graduate School's department of natural sciences was named alumnus of the year at Columbia Union College (CUC), on May 4, 2002.

Dr. Carter received the award because of his many years of experience and leadership in Adventist higher education, his contributions to conservation biology--particularly with endangered iguanas"and for his contribution to issues in science and faith.

The award was given at the alumni banquet cruise, held on a riverboat that sailed the Potomac River.

"We were passing by the memorials and landmarks of Washington, D.C., when Randy Wisbey, the president of the college, handed me the award," recalls Dr. Carter. "It was a special moment."

Also special to Dr. Carter are the reasons why he was given recognition as alumnus of the year from CUC. "I feel awed and undeserving because there are so many others in higher education that deserve this as much or more than I do," he states. "I feel like I was asked to represent these others in receiving this award.

"It is a tremendous validation of all alumni who have made careers in higher education," he continues. "I"m proud to be able to represent them in a small way."

Dr. Carter attended CUC, located in Takoma Park, Maryland, from 1968 to 1969.

"In college, I had a hard time deciding if I wanted to be a biologist or a minister," he remembers. "I ended up graduating from CUC with a degree in biology and minors in chemistry and religion.

"I wasn"t your typical biology major," he smiles. "I was attracted to it for its philosophical aspects and challenged by the Scriptural world view versus the scientific world view. I really fell in love with biology as a science when I was in graduate school."

This love for biology and Scripture has led Dr. Carter many places. He has taught at Walla Walla College, College Place, Washington; Southern Adventist University, Collegedale, Tennessee; La Sierra University, Riverside; and Loma Linda University, where he has taught for the last 12 years. He has also pastored at the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church in Riverside and was chaplain at Walla Walla College.

"Dr. Carter is a valued contributor to our campus," says W. Barton Rippon, PhD, dean of the Graduate School. "He has had several job offers in the past 12 months, so we are blessed that he has chosen to stay with us."

One of the many contributions Dr. Carter has made to Loma Linda University includes helping to establish the recently implemented master's degree in religion and science, offered by the Faculty of Religion and led by Richard Rice, PhD, professor of religion. "This new degree is, in many ways, a culmination of my academic interests,'says Dr. Carter.

Conservation science is also an area of interest to Dr. Carter. Along with William Hayes, PhD, associate professor of the department of natural sciences, he has performed years of research with endangered iguanas in the Caribbean and with marine iguanas in the Galapagos Islands.

For the future, Dr. Carter plans to continue his research on iguanas, focusing on population genetics, habitat restoration, and conservation education. For fun, he intends to spend increasing amounts of time working with Dr. Rice in the new degree program in religion and science.

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