The Mallinson Legacy

This fall, the nation’s largest doctoral program for science education will reach its 10-year anniversary. The George G. Mallinson Institute for Science Education offers graduate and doctoral degrees at WMU.

The Mallinsons established the science education graduate program in the 1960’s and played significant roles in sustaining and guiding science education locally, nationally, and internationally. The program became an institute in 2002 and continues to flourishes because of the Mallinson’s dedication and financial contributions.

The Institute boasts 23 doctoral and roughly 50 masters’ students along with 12 faculty members who all hold joint appointments in science departments across the College of Arts and Sciences. In comparison, similar programs around the country have about half as many Ph.D. students and faculty.  

In 2007, The Chronicle of Higher Education ranked WMU’s Mallinson Institute third out of 375 institutions for doctoral science education.

In addition to the highly ranked faculty, the program’s alumni have carried on the Mallinson’s legacy locally and around the world to educate the next generation of scientists.

“Our graduates usually go on to teach at community colleges, teaching oriented universities, or other science education departments,” said Mallinson Institute Director and professor, Dr. Bill Cobern. “We have alumni all over and the great work they do is a testament to what the Mallinsons created.”

One of the best examples of the Institute’s alumni impact is from 2009 graduate Dr. Betty Udongo. She came to WMU from Uganda to study science education, because it was her dream to increase educational opportunities for children in her war-torn country. After graduating she became head of the Biology Department at Gulu University in Uganda and continued work with a secondary school she founded in 2002.

In March 2012, Dr. Udongo received the Presidential Nalubale Medal of Honor for her efforts to inspire and educate a new generation of children in Uganda.

Other alumni, like Dr. David DeGraaf, who went on to a teaching career in Michigan, credits the Mallinsons for his success.

“George and Jackie Mallinson were great role models for me in my development as a science educator,” said DeGraaf. “I was part of a tight-knit doctoral group in the late 70's who had the pleasure of working with them—and they treated us all like family.”

To learn more about the Mallinson Institute, please follow the link below:

WMICH.EDU— MALLINSON INSTITUTE

The Mallinsons are pictured at left