Allison Jacobel Receives Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching

Allison Jacobel, assistant professor of earth and climate sciences and a researcher on ocean–atmosphere systems and climate change, received the Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching at a ceremony in McCardell Bicentennial Hall on April 21.

“Allison is a wonderful exemplar of the individual and collective commitment to education,” said Dean of the Faculty Roberto Lint Sagarena. “She’s a passionate advocate for active learning, and her teaching reflects both rigorous scholarship and a deep investment in student growth. It’s a genuine privilege to celebrate your work today.”

Thea Rosenzweig ’26, one of Jacobel’s students, spoke during the ceremony. The environmental policy and classical studies double major said that Jacobel’s course renewed her enthusiasm for lab science. “Since taking Professor Jacobel’s course, I now have the scientific toolbox to articulate the ocean’s importance,” said Rosenzweig. “What makes Professor Jacobel so remarkable is her ability to make a subject as vast as the ocean—spanning immense space and geologic time—feel immediate, relevant, and deeply personal. She guides discussions in a way that invites curiosity and makes even the most complex ideas feel accessible.”

Jacobel thanked her students, crediting them with helping shape her courses. “Teaching is, at its core, a relationship, one built on trust and a willingness to work together through uncertainty,” she said. “That you trust me with your time and your attention—two things that are in constant demand in this crazy world—and that you value what we’ve built together means a great deal to me.”

Jacobel reflected on the relationship between her teaching and research, noting that they are not competing priorities but rather mutually reinforcing. “My research pushes me to ask better questions, to try, to fall short, and to try again with a different approach. Those same practices shape my teaching and form the foundation of the skills I hope to cultivate in my students.”

Jacobel came to Middlebury in 2020 and, since 2024, has been the Jeanne Epp Barksdale ’48 Jr. Faculty Fellow. She earned her BA in geology from Macalester College and her MA and PhD in earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. She was a Voss Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Brown University, where she also taught, before coming to Middlebury. She holds a visiting scientist position at the University of Colorado Boulder.

At Middlebury, Jacobel teaches courses that include Earth’s Oceans and Coastlines, How to Build a Habitable Planet, Earth’s Climate History, and Sedimentary Processes and Environments.

Candidates for the Perkins Award are nominated by students. Associate Dean of Sciences Rick Bunt said that the Perkins Committee received more than 20 nominations from across the natural sciences for this year’s award. “Allison has made quite an impression on the College in the six years she has been here,” said Bunt. “She’s an excellent example of the spirit of teaching that Llewellyn and Ruth Perkins wanted to support.”

Created in 1993, the Perkins Award is provided by Professor Llewellyn R. Perkins and Dr. Ruth M. H. Perkins Memorial Research Fund and was made possible by a gift from Ruth Perkins, Middlebury Class of 1932, in memory of her husband, Llewellyn, who taught at Middlebury from 1914 through 1941.

Their children, Marion Perkins Harris ’57, a science teacher, and David Perkins, a physician, augmented the fund and expanded the scope of the award to honor their mother, Ruth, as well as their father.