U-M chemistry professor Brian Coppola, frequently honored for his teaching talents and techniques, is one of three finalists for the 2012 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching.
Conferred biennially by Baylor University, the accolade is the only national teaching award presented by a college or university to an individual for exceptional teaching and carries a monetary reward of $250,000. The winner will be announced in spring 2012.
“I am obviously pleased and proud to have been selected as a finalist,” says Coppola, who in 2001 was named an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor — a distinction that honors faculty whose commitment to and investment in undergraduate teaching has had significant impact on students. “I think awards like this are important because, at least for a little while, our core missions of teaching and learning come into the spotlight.”
Coppola’s approach to teaching centers on the concept of learning communities, where interaction and exchange are encouraged. His primary academic field is organic chemistry, but he also publishes widely on educational philosophy, practice and assessment and has won many university, state and national awards for his work in science education.
“Most of the innovations that I have developed over the years involved partnerships where students take on increasingly larger levels of responsibility for teaching each other — and me — and working together in order to accomplish things that no individual could do alone, at least not as effectively or efficiently,” says Coppola, who co-directs the IDEA (Instructional Development and Educational Assessment) Institute, a joint project of the LSA and the School of Education.
Coppola also serves as associate chair of the Department of Chemistry and associate director for the U-M-Peking University Joint Institute in Beijing, China.
Coppola received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1978 from the University of New Hampshire and his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1984 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined the U-M faculty in 1986 and was promoted to full professor of chemistry in 2001.
Among his previous teaching honors: Selection in 2009 as the CASE/Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year (for doctoral institutions); the 2006 James Flack Norris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Teaching of Chemistry from the American Chemical Society; the 2004 CASE/Carnegie State of Michigan Professor of the Year; the 2004 Kendall-Hunt Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher Award from the Society for College Science Teachers; the 2003 Outstanding Undergraduate Science Teacher Award from the National Science Teachers Association; and the 1999 Amoco Foundation Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
The Cherry Award program, created by Baylor alumnus Robert Foster Cherry, is designed to honor outstanding teachers, to stimulate discussion in the academic world about the value of teaching and to encourage departments and institutions to value their own great teachers.
The eventual winner will receive an additional $250,000 as well as another $25,000 for his or her home department and will teach in residence at Baylor during fall 2012 or spring 2013.
