CONGRATULATIONS to our Spring 2020 recipients of the John S. Swenton Award for Outstanding Teaching: Jeremiah Stevens and Greg Jameson. Both of these graduate students have gone above and beyond as GTAs for CBC courses this semester, demonstrating the highest level of dedication to student learning during the difficult transition to remote teaching mid-semester. Both winners will be receiving a $250 monetary award in addition to a certificate recognizing their achievement.

Please join us in congratulating Jeremiah and Greg on their awards, and in offering many thanks to them and to ALL our Spring 2020 GTAs for their service to the department during the abrupt transition to online learning this semester!

Jeremiah Stevens was a GTA for Chemistry 1920H, the second semester of Honors General Chemistry, in Spring 2020.  He played a pivotal role in the transition of the course to online format, including making course materials accessible, facilitating online support mechanisms for his students, developing online quizzes in Carmen, and helping to develop new questions for open book exams.  One of his nominators writes “he anticipates needs, volunteers, and executes tasks quickly and efficiently in a manner that I have not previously observed in any TA.” And another nominator describes his approachable and knowledgeable nature and his positive interactions with his students, attesting that “he is patient and encouraging, while being fair and consistent in how he treats his students.”

Greg Jameson was a GTA for two graduate level courses in Spring 2020:  Chem 7520 (Advanced Quantum Mechanics and Spectroscopy) and Chem 7550 (Statistical Thermodynamics). In addition to performing his regularly expected TA duties at an excellent level, Greg also held frequent office hours for both courses on both a scheduled and ad-hoc basis, going above and beyond to help students that were struggling with the material in these difficult courses.  Greg’s strong background in mathematics and computer programming served him well in both courses, and he spent countless hours instructing students on how to write and execute effective and elegant computer code.  One of his nominators describes Greg as “an outstanding and high-quality teacher.” The other nominator writes, “Greg is a role model as a graduate teaching assistant…based on the fact that he understands the complex course material extremely well and his willingness to go out of his way to enhance the learning experience of our students.”