Martin Feinberg wins alumni award for distinguished teaching

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Dean Williams congrats Feinberg on Teaching Award
Dean David Williams presents Martin Feinberg with the award while President Alutto looks on.

To students sitting in Professor Martin Feinberg’s 2420 Transport Phenomena I class at 2:00 pm Wednesday, March 5, 2014, it might have been just another day of lecture.

But Feinberg and the class of 130-some students were surprised when Interim President Joseph Alutto, Dean David Williams, CBE Chairman Stuart Cooper, Alumni Office representative Mark Beebe, and a small consort of well-wishers and media personnel walked in.

President Alutto greeted Professor Feinberg with a handshake and announced: “We’re here to present Professor Feinberg with the 2014 Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. In a nutshell, we’re giving him this award because he can make very complicated things easy to understand.”

Alutto presented Feinberg with an “apple for the teacher” as students clapped and smiled, filling the room with a sense of joyful pride.

Feinberg didn’t skip a beat. Turning to President Alutto, he quipped, “Well, thank you very much, but to you I need to say -- I need better chalk!”

Alutto laughed and responded with a joke of his own. “Sure -- is there anything else you want?”

“Yes. I’m sure the students want you to leave now, because they have an exam tomorrow!”

After this bit of levity, Feinberg’s voice gained a sense of conviction and emphasis. “Indeed, I am very humbled by this award,” he said, his demeanor making this abundantly clear.

“The fact is, I love coming here every day. I’ve taught at several different schools and visited numerous institutions, and Ohio State students are simply the best.”

Feinberg, who has been teaching at Ohio State since 1997, is one of those rare engineers who combine innovative research breakthroughs, which influence a whole field of research, with superior teaching and tools. His pioneering Chemical Reaction Network Toolbox has had a major impact on hundreds of students and chemical engineers. His work embraces huge categories of extremely complex reaction networks and ties reactor behavior to reaction network structure in a new and innovative way.

Before Feinberg’s arrival at Ohio State, a theoretical component was badly lacking and he developed and transformed several courses to offer more significant theoretical content. Undergraduate and graduate level students have indicated that the addition of a coherent conceptual framework now gives their courses much greater clarity. He is considered to be a world leader in the application of mathematics to chemical engineering problems.

Students notice.

“Excellent professor. By far the best I’ve had at Ohio State,” one student wrote.

“The hilarious stories/real-life examples make my day…Fantastic teacher.” 

“One of my all-time favorite professors…an amazing professor - absolutely incredible job taking us through the material and making it easy to understand.” 

“I will not forget the way he taught us to think about problems.”

“I loved his teaching style. The course made me think not only about linear algebra, but also about the world, chemical engineering, and much more! I simply loved it.”

“His use of the chalkboard and showing things in real time has transformed the way I take notes. I can reconstruct exactly what went on in lecture from what I’ve written down.”

“Martin Feinberg = boss!”

Feinberg was one of ten individuals campus-wide to receive this year’s award, which is Ohio State’s most prestigious award for teaching. Recipients are inducted into the university’s Academy of Teaching, which provides leadership for the improvement of teaching at Ohio State.

He has also received the Ohio State Charles MacQuigg Award for Outstanding Teaching, the Clara M. and Peter L. Scott Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, and was recognized by Mortar Board for his influence on chemical engineering students, in addition to other awards for outstanding research, including Ohio State’s Distinguished Scholar Award. While at the University of Rochester, he received the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Undergraduate Teaching, which is given to only one faculty member each year.

Feinberg is not the only CBE faculty member who has won the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching at Ohio State. In 2002, David L. Tomasko won it, and in 1996, James Rathman was selected. Excellence in teaching has been a long-standing tradition within CBE that has received other recognition over the years: faculty have received numerous awards for teaching, scholarship, and innovation.  Earlier in Ohio State’s history, there was a university-wide departmental award for teaching (now discontinued), and Ohio State Chemical Engineering was the second recipient. 

We’re very proud of Professor Feinberg! Please join us in congratulating him.

 

Feinberg students clap
Categories: FacultyAlumni