Willi Braun

Master Teacher Award - Fall 1991

Professor Braun received his Doctoral Degree from the University of Tuebingen, Germany in 1958. He accepted a position with Shell Canada, Ltd. that year and moved to Calgary, Alberta where he worked for six years prior to joining the University of Saskatchewan as an Assistant Professor in 1964. He was tenured in the Department of Geological Sciences in 1966 and promoted to Full Professor in 1973.

Braun's specialty of biostratigraphy requires the accumulation and analysis of large quantities of data which is recorded in the laboratory from specimens collected in the field. He chose to build his career's research on the foundation of material that he had collected personally. As a result, the University is fortunate that he has assembled what is probably the best biostratigraphic collection of Devonian microfossils in the world. To promote an understanding of our pre-history, he spearheaded the purchase and restoration of the dinosaur skeletons now on display in the Geological Sciences Museum. Never one to preclude imparting knowledge, from the early 1970s he has lectured tirelessly to a variety of groups on topics such as the energy crisis, climatic change and environmental issues.

As a teacher, he has taken great interest in the support and intellectual structuring of his students at the undergraduate and graduate level. Two of his graduate students have won the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologist's award for the best thesis related to the oil industry in an annual Canada-wide competition. His enthusiastic promotion of his sciences, his stimulating lectures, and his lasting interest in the welfare of his students, was recognized when he was bestowed the distinction of "Professor of the Year" in 1986 and 1988.