Chemistry Faculty Receive Top Teaching and Advising Awards
The Department of Chemistry prides itself on faculty who attain an admirable balance between their research and scholarship and their commitment to teaching and advising. Two of our faculty, Professor Sean Elliott and Professor John Caradonna, both renowned researchers, were singularly honored by the College of Arts and Sciences with undergraduate advising and teaching awards.
Sean Elliott received a 2008 Templeton Prize for Excellence in Student Advising. Student recommendations for Professor Elliott were notable for their length and enthusiasm, commenting on how he inspires students and “adds a personal touch to every appointment with his jokes and his clear and present attentiveness.” Prof. Elliott is one of the inaugural recipients of this award, which was endowed by John and Josephine Templeton as a measure of their appreciation for the dedication of members of the Boston University faculty in advising, teaching, and nurturing undergraduates.
John Caradonna received the College of Arts and Sciences’ highest teaching award in 2008, the Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching. The department’s exit interviews with the graduating majors of the class of 2008 listed him as among the top two professors in the department, and the majority picked his inorganic chemistry course as the very best experience of their undergraduate careers. The Gitner Award for Distinguished Teaching is given every year on Class Day to faculty members 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.