Chemistry professor Dennis Jacobs has been national
Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching and the national Council for the Advancement and Support
of Education, a trade group of college promoters and fund raisers.
He is the first Notre Dame faculty member so honored since the
program began in 1981.
Jacobs has received national acclaim in recent years for a unique
first-year general chemistry course he developed for students
entering college with lower SAT scores in math. The course emphasizes
group problem-solving and extra feedback. Studies have shown it
improves the retention rate in the course for these at-risk students
by 55 percent.
Last fall Jacobs launched a new course, Chemistry in Service
of the Community, in which students interact with neighborhood
residents to assess the threat of lead contamination in homes.
He and fellow chemistry professor Bradley D. Smith, also recently
launched an on-line survey site, TextRev.com, at which students
rate textbooks, and teachers and book publishers can analyze the
results for free.
Jacobs was named the nation's top undergraduate educator in
the category of doctoral and research universities, one of four
categories in the awards program. The award carried a $5,000 cash
prize.
