This year’s Stillman Prize for Excellence in Teaching goes to an energetic physics professor who engages her students with lab pizza parties, free-reign liquid nitrogen experiments and poker nights.
Rebecca A. Surman, associate professor of physics and astronomy, and a member of the faculty since 1998, received the prize at the Opening Convocation on Tuesday.
Students cited her approachable demeanor, her ability to stimulate questions and her enthusiasm in explaining complex material.
Of bringing joy to a challenging course, Surman says, “I think the real answer here is to show students a different kind of joy – the joy of deep intellectual engagement … When I see the energetic high fives when a lab group lands their projectile in the center of their target, or hear the shouts of enthusiasm after a particularly intricate problem is finally tackled, I think they’re experiencing that joy as well.”
Surman holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She specializes in the field of gamma-ray bursts. In the last four years, she has authored 10 peer-reviewed papers and received two major grants for research programs that involve undergraduates. She has been a faculty advisor to both the physics honor society and the Society for Physics students, organizing field trips, meetings on careers and outreach programs with elementary schools.
Therese A. McCarty, dean of faculty and vice president for academic affairs, presented the prize, created by David I. Stillman ’72, Abbott Stillman ’69 and Allan Stillman in honor of Abraham Stillman, father and grandfather. It is presented annually to a faculty member to encourage outstanding teaching.