CSUN Biology Professor Emeritus Steve Oppenheimer was among those honored at the CSUN Volunteer Service Awards last Friday, receiving the Dean Ed Peckham Award for Emeritus Service in recognition of his work in education, cancer research, and outreach over five decades with the university.
The citation for the Peckham Award cites Oppenheimer’s record of some 300 publications with 700 students, and more than $7million of research and training grant funding since he joined the faculty of what was then the San Fernando Valley State College in 1971. It also notes his continuing work with the New Journal of Student Research, which publishes abstracts of science projects by K-12 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and his receipt of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Barack Obama in 2010.
“But the key is the students,” Oppenheimer said in his remarks at the awards ceremony. “So many great students. They’re the ones who do the work. I always say, ‘They do the work, I tell the jokes.’ Working with the students is what I love to do.”
Image: Steven Oppenheimer (second from right) with fellow awardees Earl Enzer, Bonnie Faherty, and Edward Feldman, and CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison and Alumni Association President Cindy Chernow at the Volunteer Service Awards. (Photo via CSUN Today.)