This award honors an individual who has made outstanding instructional contributions to the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Scott Mensing earned his undergraduate degree and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the Department of Geography at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1993 and shifted his research focus to the Great Basin.
He has published extensively on the history of vegetation and climate change in Nevada. Over the past thirteen years, he has taught over 50 classes, including Introduction to Physical Geography, Biogeography, Geographic Information Systems, Field Methods, Geography of Arid Lands, Geography of Past Environments, Conservation of Natural Resources, and Nevada: Patterns on the Land.
He enjoys landscape photography and has a collection of photographs that he uses extensively in his classes.
During his sabbatical, he lived in San Sebastian, Spain where his wife, Donica Mensing, faculty in the Reynolds School of Journalism, taught through the University Studies Abroad Consortium. Scott is scheduled to teach with USAC in Viterbo, Italy during summer 2007.
