University of Montana Professor Doug Emlen has been named the 2015 Montana Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Emlen was one of 35 educators selected nationwide from nearly 400 top professors nominated.

"I was put forward by the University of Montana," Emlen said. "A lot of people worked very hard to gather letters of recommendation in order to nominate me, for which I'm very grateful, and this year the University of Montana won, so I got to go out to the ceremony in Washington D.C. and meet some of the finest professors in their respective disciplines, and it was a blast!"

Emlen said science is one aspect of instruction at the University of Montana that is drawing students to the school in Missoula.

"It is, and we take a lot of pride in that," he said. "People don't expect to find a collection of world-class people tucked away in Missoula, Montana, but that's what you've got here. There are some phenomenal biologists here, arguably one of the best biology programs in he world. Just about everybody I know here, though they may be card-carrying researcher scientists first, they love teaching. Here, people take a lot of pride in teaching, and we like to think we're becoming an increasing draw for  students both in and out of the state."

Emlen co-wrote “Evolution: Making Sense of Life,” a genetics and evolution textbook, in 2013. His 2014 book, “Animal Weapons: The Evolution of Battle,” recently won the 2015 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.

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