Professor Sean Elliott Receives 2007 Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching

The Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching is given every year on Class Day to a faculty member whose classroom leadership and student mentoring have been judged outstanding by their departments and by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The basis of the awards is excellent and distinguished teaching in the broadest sense, including classroom performance, course and curriculum development, advising, and enhancement of the scholarship of teaching and learning. While the award emphasis is on undergraduate instruction, evidence of excellence in graduate-level teaching strengthens the nomination

The 2007 Gitner Award recipient is Prof. Sean Elliott. In nominating him the Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Prof. Guilford Jones, stated "As a chemical educator myself with more than 30 years of experience teaching, I can honestly say that Sean’s commitment to teaching, his demonstrated ability to make chemistry a key foundation in the intellectual development of his students, and his tireless efforts to find creative approaches for conveying complex and difficult concepts are very impressive. He can take the most challenging ideas, for example relating chemistry to complex biological systems, and make his undergraduate classes understand the concepts. With each level of understanding Sean helps them achieve, their confidence in their own capabilities grows and their curiosity is sparked. These are not just my views as an outside observer, but the opinions expressed by Sean’s students in their evaluations. In short Sean’s excellence as a teacher contributes to our Department’s ability to meet our teaching mission."

April 2007