- Burnett School College of Medicine Faculty News
Dr. Ken Teter, associate professor at the College of Medicine’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, is the winner of a UCF Teaching Incentive Program (TIP) award.
In announcing the award, Dr. Deborah German, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the College of Medicine, said, “The TIP Selection Committee reviewed a number of excellent applications. Dr. Teter excelled in his commitment to instruction and innovation in teaching.”
An infectious disease specialist, Dr. Teter said his role as a teacher is to share his enthusiasm for science and research. “I have always loved science and knowing how things work,” he said. “But if you make a discovery and have no one to share it with, it’s really not a discovery.”
Dr. Teter said he will use the award to help fund a master’s-degree student who will aid in his research lab. The lab is examining how bacterial toxins enter and then destroy cells. By understanding these avenues, Dr. Teter’s team hopes to design therapies that keep bacterial toxins from actually entering their target cells.
“Toxins are trespassers,” he said. “Our question is how are they getting over the fence?”
In discussing Dr. Teter’s award, Dr. German talked of the College of Medicine’s “so many outstanding educators on our faculty.” Dr. Teter echoed those sentiments, saying, “We have an outstanding group of faculty teaching students at the college. To be picked from that talented group is indeed an honor.”