ACADEMIC STAFF: MID-CAREER AWARD
Four academic staff members, including Department of Chemistry director of Undergraduate Organic Laboratory Nick Hill, won the L&S Academic Staff Mid-Career Award. All winners have at least eight years (including the current year) of experience as outstanding leaders with substantial professional competency and the promise of continuing contributions.
Nick has revolutionized the department’s undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory courses, which serve more than 500 undergraduates each semester. His changes have given students access to modern chemistry techniques and cutting-edge scientific discoveries — including those from UW-Madison faculty!
“The organic laboratory curriculum that he oversees is of the highest possible quality and is well ahead of programs at peer institutions in its commitment to engage students with the most authentic data analysis possible,” says organic chemistry lecturer Brian Esselman.
Nick has also drastically improved TA preparation and support, and he’s been an integral part of planning for the new Chemistry Building, which will allow the department to offer organic chemistry lab to a larger group of students.
“His insights into how labs of the future will run have allowed us to design a facility that should be considered modern for quite a long time,” says Matt Sanders, the department’s executive director.
Other winners include David Macasaet, senior information processing consultant for L&S Learning Support Services; Gabriele Meyer, senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics; and Laura Monahan, senior academic curator at the UW Zoological Museum and Department of Integrative Biology.
First published by UW-Madison College of Letters & Science. Read the original/complete post here.