Toback Honored for Teaching Excellence
COLLEGE STATION —
Texas A&M University Associate Professor of Physics Dr. David Toback is one of six university faculty members who have been appointed to University Professorships in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence (UPUTE), announced Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Jerry Strawser.
Toback will hold the Thaman Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence, a three-year appointment that carries an annual salary supplement of $5,000 provided by the University and an annual discretionary income to support his teaching program and related professional development.
The prestigious UPUTE awards are reserved for the university’s most distinguished teachers of undergraduates — faculty who have exhibited uncommon excellence and devotion to the education of undergraduate students at Texas A&M.
“Texas A&M has long been known for its excellence in undergraduate education, and appointment of these professorship holders is intended to be indicative of the administration’s continuing support for and dedication to undergraduate education,” Strawser said.
A member of the Texas A&M faculty since 2000, Toback is a past recipient of The Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching at both the university (2007) and college levels (2004). He has worked tirelessly to improve the introductory physics courses for engineers and to develop a course on the Big Bang and Black Holes for non-scientists.
In addition to a reputation as a dynamic and motivating teacher with a knack for using comic relief to teach physics concepts at 8 a.m., Toback has developed multiple web-based systems to aid student learning. These systems were so successful that they have been adopted in all the introductory physics courses, published in a top physics education research journal and presented in invited talks on web-based learning.
Other 2008 UPUTE recipients besides Toback include: Dr. Jeffrey Conant (Marketing) and Dr. Jay Porter (Engineering Technology & Industrial Distribution), Eppright Professorships; Dr. John Crompton (Recreation, Parks and Tourism Sciences) and Dr. John Gold (Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences), Cintron Professorships; and Dr. David Vaught (History), Glasscock Professorship.
The endowment for the Cintron Professorship is provided by the Hoblitzelle Foundation of Dallas in honor of Dr. R. H. Cintron ’46. The remaining professorships are made possible through generous endowments from Melburn G. Glasscock, George and Irma Eppright, and Arthur J. and Wilhelmina Doré Thaman.
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Contact: Shana K. Hutchins, (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@science.tamu.edu