Two devoted UC Davis lecturers -- one who strives to bring Latin alive for her students and another known for making physics exciting for nonmajors -- will receive the Academic Federation's 1999 Excellence in Teaching Awards. Latin and classics lecturer Charlayne Allan and physics lecturer Randy Harris will be honored Tuesday, June 8, during the federation's annual award presentation and lecture at the University Club. In announcing the awards, the federation described Allan and Harris as dedicated instructors who have gone extra lengths to make their subjects understandable and relevant to students' lives. In addition, both lecturers have worked to improve curriculum in their fields, taken on heavy teaching loads and devoted countless hours to mentoring undergraduate students. Enrollment in Latin has doubled since Allan joined UC Davis in fall 1990, according to classics program director Lynn Roller. There is often a waiting list in the fall for Latin I. "Her course on ancient mythology, Classics 10, which enrolls 200-plus students, has become almost legendary, cited by The California Aggie as one of the 'must-take' courses at Davis," Spanish and classics professor Roller wrote in nominating Allan for the teaching award. A former student, in endorsing Allen's nomination, said the instructor's word-of-mouth reputation among students is uniformly high. "In all of those candid conversations, I have never met from a serious student anything but enthusiastic, specific, excited praise of this outstanding instructor," the student wrote. Allan, who has a master's degree in teaching Latin from Vanderbilt University, is coordinator of the Latin program, where she teaches six of the seven lower-division sections. She also is principal instructor for General Education courses in the classics. She averages 1,600 student-credit hours a year, roughly twice the workload expected of lecturers. In addition, she recruits and supervises tutors for the first-year Latin program, gives evening presentations at campus residence halls about women in the ancient world and organizes student trips to conferences. She is also past president of the California Classical Association, which promotes the teaching of Latin in California secondary schools, colleges and universities. "One of the most challenging aspects of my work is leading students to understand that the past, even the very ancient past, is still a part of us and relevant to our lives and our world," Allan wrote in a statement describing her teaching philosophy. "I believe fervently that the study of antiquity is deadly only if we instructors fail to recapture its liveliness and immediacy." Harris, who teaches large introductory-physics courses for non-majors, typically receives higher ratings from student than do faculty members who teach upper-division major courses, according to physics department chair Winston Ko and vice chair Wendell Potter. "What makes the student evaluations of Dr. Harris remarkable is that he demands as much, if not more, from his students as other instructors do," Ko and Potter wrote in nominating him. A strong believer in the power of demonstrations, Harris uses props from crystal radios to holograms to make physics principles clearer to students. Dissatisfied with the quality of physics textbooks, he spent six years writing his own, Nonclassical Physics: Beyond Newton's View, which has been adopted by several campuses across the country. Some years ago, Harris changed the approach in Physics 9 discussion sessions, having students work in groups at the blackboards on problems rather than teaching assistants taking them through the solutions. The sessions were so successful, he was asked by a department committee to develop a twice-weekly lab and discussion portion of a Physics 9 honors series started last year. "He never makes us feel stupid or think less of ourselves for not knowing how to solve a problem or not understanding a concept," one student wrote. "Rather, he patiently and reassuringly nudges us toward the right direction until all is clear." Harris also is faculty adviser to the campus Physics Club and the unofficial "ambassador" for his department, guiding prospective students on tours of labs and facilities. Harris, who earned both his master's and doctoral degrees in physics here, said he tries to remember while teaching what it was like to be a college student. "While I might have been impressed by the scientific knowledge of an instructor who talked over my head, it was the teachers who knew how to help me understand the science, and obviously enjoyed doing so, who became heroes to me -- and they still are," he wrote in a statement about his teaching. "I feel profoundly fortunate and privileged to have the job that I do," he said. "Few things in my life give me as much satisfaction. At UC Davis, I have some of the most capable and enthusiastic students anywhere, and I am in a position to have an important impact on their lives and careers while receiving immediate and lasting satisfaction for myself when the job is done well."