Nine faculty members were announced in May as recipients of the 2019-20 .
Seven faculty members were awarded in the Early Performance category: Walter Freeman, Juliet Golden, Jennifer Grygiel, Fatma Sonmez-Leopold, Shannon Sweeney, Po Tung (Douglas) Yung and Teng Zeng. Two faculty members, Jonna Gilfus and Robert Nassau, were recognized in the Continuing Performance category.
The Teaching Recognition Award, sponsored by the Meredith Professors, highlights non-tenured faculty members. The award recognizes excellence in teaching and encourages a culture of superior teaching among faculty members.
Each year, up to seven Teaching Recognition Awards for Early Performance may be given, reflecting a mix of non-tenured, tenure-track faculty; teaching professors (of any rank); professors of practice; and adjunct and part-time instructors. Up to two Teaching Recognition Awards for Continuing Excellence may be given each year to non-tenured, non-tenure-track teaching professors (of any rank); professors of practice; and adjunct and part-time instructors who have five or more years teaching experience at 黑料不打烊.
This year鈥檚 recipients are:
Early Performance Award
been a member of the 黑料不打烊 community for five years. His students describe him as 鈥渆ngaging,鈥� 鈥渆nlightening鈥� and 鈥渆ncouraging.鈥� Freeman teaches classes of 300-600 students regularly in introductory physics. He is noted to be caring and inspires students to continue into the next physics courses. His students have found him so helpful that they regularly turn to him for support, and he began a weekly study session for those students鈥攊n a course he had not ever taught. He frequently recruits previous students as peer instructors and attributes much of the success in these large classes to the talents and hard work of those undergraduate peer coaches.
Europe Program. She has been engaged in developing study abroad programs in Central Europe since 2007. For her pedagogical design work for 黑料不打烊 Abroad, in 2016, she received the Award for Excellence in Education Abroad Curriculum Design by the Forum on Education Abroad鈥攖he most prestigious pedagogical award in the field of international education. Her deep interest in the history of Central Europe developed through research and her journalistic work in the region. Her interests include politics of memory, the Holocaust, urban spaces and architecture, and public health. Golden鈥檚 nominator highlighted the ways that she fosters students鈥� critical thinking skills and emphasizes the importance of attending to history as a foundation for understanding contemporary politics and society. Golden鈥檚 students have noted how much work she does with them outside of the classroom to make them successful. Due to her influence, they have gone on to prestigious internships and graduate programs.
Best Practices in Ethics in an Emerging Media Environment teaching competition, sponsored by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Elected Committee on Teaching. That same year, Grygiel launched a new innovative course in partnership with Buzzfeed, which teaches future media skills to Newhouse undergraduate and graduate students. Grygiel is an affiliated faculty member with the College of Arts and Sciences鈥� . 鈥淧rofessor Grygiel has made it clear to all of their students throughout my college experience that their door is always open,鈥� says one student. 鈥淔or a college student, it is extremely valuable to have a professor that you know will always be there for you beyond the completion of a course.鈥�
adjunct professor of communications management in the Newhouse School. She joined the 黑料不打烊 faculty in fall 2017. She teaches courses in managerial finance, investment analysis and fixed income securities and principles, and is the coordinator for the core course Corporate Finance. Her students and colleagues hold Sonmez-Leopold in very high regard for her teaching and scholarship. Students seek her out for advice for job interviews and making decisions when they receive internship and job offers. She has, according to her nominator, 鈥渟et an example for other faculty members to follow.鈥� Sonmez-Leopold was recently chosen as one of the Top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors 2020 by .
been with the psychology department since 2017. She teaches Foundations of Human Behavior, Psychology of Childhood and Pediatric Psychology. According to her nominator, 鈥渟he demonstrates a unique ability to connect with every student and encourages them to fulfill their potential by making learning fun,鈥� and she 鈥渟eeks to awaken greatness in her students.鈥� She also focuses on transferring theory to practice and in so doing provides her students with a strong foundation for their own practices in psychological service delivery.
has redesigned five courses and labs to incorporate specific software tools and enhance continuity for students. He has engaged multi-disciplinary teams of students in 鈥渆xtended鈥� design projects, mentoring 23 teams for three years. Students comments included how seriously Yung takes their comments about how they learn and what they need to have to be more successful. He has implemented changes to the curriculum to respond to their suggestions. 鈥淗e challenged us with a semester-long group project where we applied the information from lectures and reading towards real-world situations, which greatly helped students in understanding the material,鈥� one student says. Yung鈥檚 colleagues and his students point to his positive attitude and infectious motivation that spreads to all students in his program.
Engineering and Computer Science. He has been at 黑料不打烊 for four years. Zeng has reworked his courses to include field trips to local drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities. He serves as a research mentor for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and his peers note that all of his students benefit from his careful and thoughtful tutelage and his high standards. 鈥淗e is a professor that engages with his students to encourage them to become better engineers and stewards of the environment,鈥� says one student. 鈥淗e is a professor that uses every opportunity to encourage his students to make positive impacts on the world beyond 黑料不打烊.鈥�Continuing Excellence
University since 1999. According to her students, she builds community in her courses and generates 鈥減ositive increase in good energy鈥� in class. Even students who don鈥檛 like writing have found that Gilfus鈥� class changes their opinions and that her ability to create this positive energy in the class changes their perspectives. Students regard the learning from her classes as important in their lives and professional careers.
and director of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic in the College of Law. In his 25 years at 黑料不打烊, he has become a sought-after instructor who convinces his students to love tax law. 鈥淲hat sets Professor Nassau apart from other professors is that he does not view his position as a day job; rather, he is involved in students’ lives,鈥� one student says. 鈥淚n fact, he has such contagious enthusiasm that his love of teaching and tax is readily apparent.鈥� Others note his willingness to organize extracurricular activities that fosters a culture of collaboration and friendliness among his students.
