Alumni honor nine with Brown Superior Teaching award

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Each year, the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching honors top Rice professors as determined by the votes of alumni who graduated two and five years ago. This year nine faculty received the award. Below are the recipients and their comments about teaching at Rice.

	WALTER CHAPMAN

Walter Chapman, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, this year taught the core undergraduate Phase and Chemical Equilibrium Thermodynamics course in chemical and biomolecular engineering. He also usually teaches both undergraduate and graduate thermodynamics as well as a graduate-level course, Applications of Statistical Mechanics and Molecular Simulation.

“There are many things that I like about teaching at Rice. I enjoy the students with their enthusiasm, intellect, creativity and wide range of interests. I also enjoy my colleagues who are dedicated to providing a quality educational experience in addition to being outstanding researchers. In teaching, I particularly enjoy showing the students how engineering principles help them understand the world around them in addition to applications in their careers. Creating links of these engineering principles with systems the students observe everyday helps with understanding and retention of these concepts.”

KENNETH COX

Kenneth Cox, professor in the practice of chemical and biomolecular engineering, taught five courses this year: Chemical Engineering Lab II, Design Fundamentals, Introduction to Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemical Engineering Lab I and Product and Process Design.

“I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work closely with the superb students we find at Rice. As an adviser, I get to watch them grow through their Rice experience. As a teacher of the upper-level undergraduate courses, I get to observe the fruits of our labors as the students take their final steps to transition into the real world.

“I believe I have been charged with the fun part of teaching. By the time the students reach my class, they have progressed in their problem solving from individuals bound to rules presented in textbooks to independent thinkers who create the rules. They have grown in maturity to the point they can interact effectively on project teams. They have grown to the point they no longer take from the instructor simple sets of facts and rules for problem solving that define the past, but rather they absorb the thirst for knowledge and the spirit of adventure that inspire us to advance technology. On the first day of my design class, I tell the students that the course will call upon all the skills they have learned since kindergarten. With our brilliant and highly motivated Rice students, this all comes together in exciting and truly remarkable ways.”

	DEBORAH HARTER

Deborah Harter, associate professor of French studies, was on leave this year, but last year taught a graduate seminar in French on Baudelaire, Hugo and the Modern; an upper division course on post-revolutionary French poetry and prose; and also Humanities 102: Civilization & Power: Readings from Machiavelli to Martin Luther King. She described one of her favorite teaching moments:

“I walked into one of my classes having just heard some very tough news. A student raised his hand, and, mimicking something I had once asked him, told me that I looked awful — was there something I wanted to say that I was not saying? I smiled at the heartfelt query and found myself replying that I’d had some difficult news and that the only thing that could make me feel better would be to hear from others about the terrible moments in their lives and how they had handled them. There ensued an astonishing sharing of personal agonies — moments of enormous grief, of struggles with drugs, of coming out to one’s parents only to be kicked out of the house. In the entire group of 18, only one was quiet, and when I returned to my office, she had already left me a note. She was so sorry she had been unable to come up with something truly miserable for me, but was sure that she could if I would just give her till morning. She’d write it down and drop it off.”

BRENT HOUCHENS

Brent Houchens, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, this year taught courses in fluid mechanics, mechanical engineering problems, classical thermodynamics, mechanical engineering research projects, capstone design and independent study (ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry).

“I would say that my favorite memory from this year has been living for a week in the Portable Off-Grid Habitat (P.O.S.H.) that one of my capstone teams designed and built. This was a very ambitious project and the students put in tremendous effort to bring it to fruition. P.O.S.H. provides residents with water purification, solar power, climate control and hygiene facilities. The students have successfully demonstrated that disaster-relief habitats can pack compactly, be cost-effective and energy-sustainable.”

	MICHAEL MAAS

Michael Maas, professor of history, has been on leave all year with a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. He is currently doing research at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.

“There are several things I like about teaching at Rice. My students are very bright and eager to explore new ideas. They take pleasure in learning, and that makes teaching them very rewarding. Many of them have a great interest in ancient history, and I have always enjoyed introducing them to the material and to methods of research and analysis. Another highlight of teaching here has been meeting first-year students in freshman seminars. Their imaginations and sense of intellectual adventure can really take off in these small classes.”

JOSE NARBONA

Jose Narbona, lecturer in the Center for the Study of Languages, taught advanced Spanish, commercial Spanish, scientific Spanish and the art and mechanics of translation (which he co-taught with Elizabeth Cummins-Munoz).

“As an instructor, I like all the different opportunities to interact with the students I have at Rice, allowing me to get acquainted with their interests and needs better. It makes me feel very happy when I know I have been able to help one of my students with a question or a problem, and this can happen in class, during a casual conversation or after replying to an email late at night.”

	WILLIAM PARSONS

William Parsons, associate professor of religious studies, this year taught courses in religion and culture, religion and the social sciences and a course in mysticism and spirituality. He also guided a number of students who took independent studies and a few who decided to write a senior honor thesis.

“I will particularly remember this year in that an unusual number of religious studies majors who I have taught for the past four years ended up in two of my seminars (one in the fall and one in the spring) while a few others chose me to guide their honors thesis. It became crystal clear how they’ve matured intellectually, and seeing that is a great joy — it’s why we teach. In one of my courses and in the honors essays I also had a chance to work very closely with two of my colleagues — David Cook and Jeff Kripal. It was a total kick for us and especially, I think, for the students. What can I say? The Reli Department rocks.”

YOUSIF SHAMOO

Yousif Shamoo, associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology, taught both semesters of biochemistry, BIOC 301 and BIOC 302, with Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology John Olson. Shamoo said:

“Most of my students are interested in medicine and they get a bad rap on campus for being intense and competitive, but I like them. I think that matters. They are dedicated and hard-working — What more could I want? They expect a lot out of me and I expect a lot out of them. I think the fact that I like them helps me to teach effectively.

“I really enjoy the times after class and evening review sessions when students hang out and ask questions about why I became a scientist and they tell me their stories about why they want to go to grad school or med school. I like to emphasize that life is not usually a straight walk but kind of zigs and zags in unseen ways that can often seem bad but you just never know when today’s setback will set the table for a big opportunity tomorrow. Sometimes we get very philosophical. That’s the part of being a prof that is really cool — actually imparting some learned wisdom!”

	JOHN ZAMMITO

John Zammito, professor of history, served as director of undergraduate studies for the History Department this year and also taught HIST 101: Modern Europe, 1450-1789 and HIST 575: Introduction to Doctoral Studies in the fall and HIST 370: European Intellectual History: Bacon to Hegel in the spring.

“What I like about teaching at Rice is the freedom to design and teach whatever courses interest me, but most of all, I like the students: their brightness, their energy, their willingness to achieve what I ask of them, no matter how much.”