A recipient of the prestigious Governor's Excellence Award for Teaching was honored on April 2 by his colleagues at Southeast Missouri State University.

Dr. Michael T. Aide, the chairperson of the agriculture department, is due to receive the honor. It is given each spring only to the most outstanding of educators from each state institution, as deemed by their peers. The award didn't come as a surprise to the department because Aide was selected as the Alumni Merit Award winner last year, and that individual automatically gets this award as well.

David Mauk, an instructor in the agriculture department, talked of his superior with the highest praise.

"He has always amazed me, and any other student that you speak to, with regard to the level of knowledge that he has," Mauk said. "He can walk into a classroom,with nothing more than a piece of chalk, a cup of coffee and his mind, and he can proceed to teach. I went to school here, and Dr. Aide was a professor of mine, so my respect for him and my love for him as my teacher goes back a long way."

Aide is an educator and scientist devoted to introducing students to the disciplines of soil science and crop production, according to Cheryl Reinagel, an administrative assistant in the agriculture department. Whenever he is asked, he is quick to answer that he is primarily an educator. His major reason to accumulate knowledge, he said, is to pass that information on to his students.

Dr. Chris McGowan, the dean of the College of Science, Technology and Agriculture, spoke of Aide's tenure.

"He was an early proponent for moving the agriculture programs down south to the Sikeston, Kennett and Malden campuses," McGowan said. "That primarily enabled the students down there to attain a four-year degree without having to leave the family-run farm. Often times they can attend classes until one o'clock, and then be on a tractor."

Aide has undergraduate degrees in mathematics, chemistry and soil science from the University of Wisconsin and a graduate degree in soil chemistry from Mississippi State University.

"He's the hardest working person, bar none, on this campus," Mauk said. "He's constantly driving to make our department better, to make us better teachers and to make our students better. As teachers, as professionals, as a school, as a university, you name it. He just gives off an unmatched thirst for knowledge, and that is communicated to his students."

Aide's professional life began in 1982 when he accepted an assistant professor position in the Department of Agriculture at Southeast. Now as chair of the department, he oversees development of the department's faculty, programs and auxiliaries. The Department of Agriculture's teaching and research holdings include the David M. Barton Agriculture Research Center, the Charles Hutson Horticulture Greenhouse, the Charles Nemanick Alternative Agriculture Garden and the Biomass/Biofuels Research and Demonstration Field at Southeast's Sikeston campus.

Reinagel has known Aide for several years, and said she has seen the department grow under his leadership. He also administers the agribusiness program at Southeast's Sikeston, Malden and Kennett campuses. The program was launched in 2010 and has served as a boost to the plant and soil sciences curriculum.

Aide and Southeast's agriculture faculty support the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council in operating the Missouri Rice Research Farm and the Missouri Rice Breeding Program.

Aide's research interests are soil chemistry and rice soil fertility. He teaches courses on soils, soil fertility and plant nutrition, plant pathology, weed science and water management. He is the author of numerous grants, all of which serve the interests of the Department of Agriculture.

Recently, he had several articles published on modeling of lead speciation and surface adsorption on phyllosilicate assemblages, the soil chemistry of arsenic and its uptake patterns in rice, and nitrate mitigation in irrigation systems.

Aide is past president of the Missouri Academy of Science and an adjunct professor in the Department of Soil Science and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Missouri.