The Missouri National Education Association (MNEA) has awarded Kirkwood High School chemistry teacher Robert Becker the 2012 Horace Mann Friend of Education Award. The award is given to teachers who have exhibited outstanding performance as an educator and is a model for other educators to follow. As a recipient of the award, Becker will be nominated for the NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence. Becker will be recognized during the MNEA Spring Assembly at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Becker, who holds a master’s degree in education from Washington University and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Yale University, teaches honors chemistry at Kirkwood High School and sponsors the Kirkwood Youth Service Club. He has taught in the Kirkwood district for 22 of his 28 years in education.

As an educator, Becker has been recognized nationally with the 2010-11 Missouri Teacher of the Year, James Conant Bryant Award for Excellence in Chemistry Teaching and the Tandy Technology Scholar Award. Locally, he has earned the American Chemistry Society’s Midwest Regional Award and the Saint Louis Sectional Award. The Chemical Manufacturing Association presented him the Regional Catalyst Award.