Six graduate students in the Department of Chemistry have been awarded the 2013 Outstanding Teaching Award. These awards are conferred annually by the UGA Center for Teaching and Learning. The recipients, Srinivasa Murthy Koutha, Thomas Irvin, Henry Niedermaier, Kimberly Schuldt, Ali Siddiqi, and Alexander Vaughn, are recognized for their exemplary qualities as teaching assistants, and for contributions above and beyond normal expectations. Tom, Murthy and Henry all serve as teaching assistants for organic chemistry. Tom has served as a teaching assistant for the honors/majors organic chemistry course for many years, and he has been active in experiment development for the organic labs, making significant contributions to upgrading and modernizing experiments in the honors/majors sections, many of which have been introduced into the main sequence labs as well. Dr. Morrison, Director of Organic Chemistry Instruction, said, "Tom's efforts have favorably impacted the laboratory experience of thousands of students. And, he has done all of this while maintaining a friendly and professional rapport with his students, receiving very favorable evaluations”. Murthy is recognized for his expertise in all aspects of organic chemistry and his effectiveness in assisting his students. He exemplifies all of the finest qualities of teaching assistants in the organic laboratories. His organic chemistry knowledge combined with his strong skills at interacting with students leads to high praise from both students and organic professors alike. Henry also has duties as the departmental “NMR TA”, with duties ranging from teaching the laboratory component of the introductory NMR course, assisting in maintaining the NMR facilities, and serving as the backup to the NMR facility director for emergencies and equipment failures. "Besides being exceptionally responsible and technically capable, Henry goes above and beyond regularly, for instance, setting up weekly evening review sessions for students in the NMR course”, said Dr. Urbauer, instructor for the NMR course. Kim, Ali and Alex serve as teaching assistants for general chemistry. According to the lab coordinators, Kim does an outstanding job of balancing the amount of help she gives in the lab, by encouraging students to work on their own and extending extra assistance to students who may have difficulty with a particular lab. In addition, she is a strong performer in all her duties, earning excellent evaluations from students both on her tutoring in the CLC and on her excellent proctoring abilities. When Dr. Sumner saw Kim was proctoring an exam, she remarked, "I know the exam will be handled correctly and there will be no issues." Ali is a solid, stalwart TA. His knowledge of laboratory procedures and the MeasureNet instrumentation used in the labs is outstanding. He is extraordinarily adept at promoting a true understanding of laboratory procedures and goals among the students in his labs, rather than just getting the students to memorize their way through the labs. He is also given very high marks for his professionalism when dealing with students. Alex is given very high marks for his effectiveness as a teaching assistant and getting the job done. He earns very high marks for all his abilities, and, in particular for his strong “common sense” intuition in grading, illustrated by his use of the answer key simply as a guide for grading, rather than a map to be followed blindly. Like Ali, Alex is also known for his consummate professionalism when dealing with students in his labs. The Department of Chemistry has a critical teaching mission at UGA and is very proud of all of the dedicated, talented, and outstanding teaching assistants that serve in this mission.
