Seven faculty members from the College of Letters & Science have been chosen to receive this year’s Distinguished Teaching Awards.
Interim Chancellor David Ward will present the awards at a ceremony on March 19 at the Pyle Center. A reception hosted by the Wisconsin Alumni Association will follow; to attend, register here.
The awards, chosen by a committee, honor "faculty members whose teaching is of such quality that it merits recognition and award." In all, 10 University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members were chosen. The recipients from the College of Letters & Science are:
William Aylward, professor of classics, Chancellor’s Award
Aylward
William Aylward says the opportunities for international fieldwork he received as a student compelled him to extend similar research experiences to the students he now teaches at UW-Madison.
"Most rewarding is the chance to witness the transformation of students into professionals and to share in this effort with distinguished colleagues at a world-class university," Aylward says.
Aylward joined the Department of Classics as an assistant professor in 2000 upon receiving his Ph.D. in classical archaeology from the University of Cincinnati. He was promoted to associate professor in 2006 and then to full professor in 2011. Aylward has made invaluable contributions to the education of undergraduate students in a broad range of venues, from large lecture courses to hands-on archaeological field training abroad.
This summer, 11 graduate and undergraduate students will accompany him to Troy as part of the next UW-Madison expedition to study the site.
The success of his former students is one mark of success as a teacher, says Laura McClure, professor and chair of classics. Aylward’s research collaborations with undergraduates have resulted in several Hilldale Undergraduate Research Awards, with many of his former students going on to attend graduate programs at Columbia, Brown, Harvard and Stanford.
"Professor Aylward is an exceptional teacher who has created exceptional opportunities for Wisconsin students, as well as introduced a large number of our undergraduates to the mysteries, and the thrills, of ancient civilizations," McClure says.
Seth Blair, professor of zoology, Chancellor’s Award
Blair
Seth Blair follows in the teaching footsteps of his parents — his father was a physics professor and his mother was a substitute teacher. His sister now teaches high school students.
"There must be some family predilection for the job. We certainly loved our learning," Blair says. "Once you start teaching, though, it is really the students that make you want to be a better teacher."
Blair came to UW-Madison in 1989 and has been a full professor since 2001. He is the director for Biology 151/153-152, the biggest of introductory biology classes on campus.
He demonstrates a dedication to both undergraduate and graduate students by teaching introductory courses and upper-level classes, and leading graduate seminars on advanced topics in developmental biology and genetics.
"Seth’s courses get excellent reviews, and his evaluations demonstrate that Seth can clearly connect to students," says professor Jeff Hardin, chair of zoology.
Being an innovative teacher has been key to Blair’s classes. He demonstrates experiments upon which the science is based, teaching students not only the techniques of modern biology, but also the experimental support upon which science depends, Hardin says.
For several years, Blair has served as the co-chair of the biology major, currently the single largest major on campus.
He also has maintained his important role in undergraduate education while continuing to run a very active and productive research lab. He is an internationally recognized leader in research into the genetics and molecular biology of embryonic development, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. He also continues to mentor undergraduate research.
Stefania Buccini, professor of French and Italian, Chancellor’s Award
Buccini
As a child, Stefania Buccini’s father used to call her "professor," a title that would later be quite fitting.
"I never had a flash of enlightenment concerning vocation, nor did I decide to be a teacher. Becoming a teacher wasn't a rational choice," Buccini says. "It was the natural progression of an instinct that I felt very early in life."
Buccini has taught at UW-Madison for 24 years, becoming a full professor in 1999. During the past two decades, she has taught subjects ranging from Italian language courses through graduate seminars with phenomenal success. She has earned a reputation as an outstanding professor for her dynamic, inspiring interactions with students in the classroom and for the extraordinary time and attention she devotes to responding to students' work and engaging students in didactic activities outside of the classroom.
She also has developed and sustained important educational opportunities for both undergraduates and graduate students in international settings, through her leadership in study-abroad programs; her contributions to UW-Madison's Italian language immersion program "Piazza Italia," housed in the campus’s International Learning Community; and her innovations for international seminars.
"Professor Buccini is profoundly Italian, while at the same time an American citizen fascinated by this, her second country and culture," says Patrick Rumble, professor and chair of French and Italian. "The result is an enlightening body of work revealing a deep understanding of the intersection of the two."
Rajiv Rao, assistant professor Spanish and Portuguese, Emil Steiger Award
Rao
Rajiv Rao joined UW-Madison in 2009. His research focuses on the study of phonetics and phonology (the sound system of language). Within these fields of linguistics, he does research in the specific areas of intonation and prosody in varieties of Spanish.
"I've always been fascinated by languages, and I realized teaching would be one way of extending my knowledge and passion to others," Rao says. "Another one of the main reasons I got into teaching is that I realized that the transfer of knowledge is a two-way street. It would give me the opportunity to provide students with knowledge I have acquired, while learning something from them at the same time."
Since 2010, Rao has been closely engaged with the International Learning Community as faculty coordinator of the Spanish-speaking floor, Residencia de Estudiantes, a high-impact immersion program. The initiative seeks to create opportunities for students to practice their language skills, gain critical understanding of world cultures outside the conventional setting of the classroom and interact with faculty in a less-formal environment.
"Professor Rao's teaching and teaching-related activities continue to enrich the learning, research and lives of his students in the classroom and beyond," says Rubén Medina, professor and chair of Spanish and Portuguese. "He inspires students by bringing his research into the graduate and undergraduate classrooms and providing opportunities for intellectual discoveries in collaborative projects."
Karyn Riddle, assistant professor of journalism and mass communication, Class of 1955 Award
Riddle
Karyn Riddle joined the faculty in 2007 after completing her Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Students soon gave her high ratings in their teacher evaluations, ranking her first in the department among full-time faculty and instructional staff.
"Both of my parents are retired teachers; my father taught high school math and my mother taught pre-K children. My brother is a principal in Las Vegas, and my other brother is currently getting his master's in elementary education. So I guess we have education in our blood," Riddle says. "I'd say my family motivated me to become a teacher."
During class, she'll often stop mid-lecture to ask students if they agree with an industry trend or communication theory she has described, encouraging her students to be critical thinkers.
Riddle also excels in her research, which has largely focused on the effects of media and media violence, especially on children, and how long-term exposure to television effects viewers' conceptions of social reality.
"She uses new media in exciting and critical ways, and forces students to engage analytically with what might otherwise be seen as professional training," says Greg Downey, professor and director of the School of Journalism & Mass Communication. "Hers is the kind of careful and creative classroom performance that is well worth rewarding — and we hope to keep her on our faculty for a very long time."
Edwin Sibert, professor of chemistry, Chancellor’s Award
Sibert
While Edwin Sibert came to UW-Madison to pursue research, he discovered a love of teaching.
"I quickly realized how much I enjoyed working with both graduate and undergraduate students and how rewarding it was to assist students to make new connections and to see the world in a new light," Sibert says.
Sibert has been a faculty member in the chemistry department since 1986, becoming a professor in 1997. For much of his career, he has dedicated himself to improving the education of all undergraduates who enroll in general chemistry.
In 2000, he became chair of the undergraduate curriculum committee. During the next two years, he supervised efforts to recreate the chemistry major and to institute widespread changes in the introductory chemistry courses. The result created new pathways for undergraduates to become chemistry majors and offered students with different interests choices and clear ideas about how to proceed. An honors program in the major also was created, greatly increasing the number of undergraduates doing research in their early years.
Sibert was named chair of the general chemistry division in 2007, a position he held until 2011.
"No one during the last decade has had a greater influence than Ned on undergraduates enrolling in general chemistry," write award nominators James Weisshaar, professor and chair of chemistry, and Gilbert Nathanson, professor of chemistry and chair of the general chemistry division.
Tehshik Yoon, associate professor of chemistry, William Kiekhofer Award
Yoon
Tehshik Yoon has made extraordinary contributions to curricular development and pedagogical innovation at both the graduate and undergraduate levels in the chemistry department since joining it seven years ago.
"I couldn't have anticipated that the pleasure I get from teaching would be so much like the satisfaction I get in the laboratory," Yoon says. "I'm always experimenting to figure out how to deliver a concept better, to better motivate my students and to make the case to them that science is fantastically beautiful."
He regularly earns some of the strongest teaching evaluations in the department; multiple students have described him as the best teacher they've ever had.
Yoon has introduced valuable innovations in the undergraduate curriculum, focusing largely on novel uses of technology. He has pioneered the use of social media in the classroom, and he experiments with strategies to harness the community-building and real-time feedback capabilities of social-media platforms, such as blogs and Facebook, to engage students and construct virtual "learning communities" in his classes.
He also has made a unique contribution to the graduate curriculum in the department.
"Tehshik's contributions to teaching are even more remarkable in light of his success as a scholar," says James Weisshaar, professor and chair of chemistry. "The same creative, interdisciplinary spirit that Tehshik brings to his teaching innovations is also reflected in his success as a researcher."