The U of T Engineering community gathered on Thursday, May 2 to recognize outstanding faculty and staff members for their leadership, innovation and contributions to the Faculty’s teaching, service and research missions at the 12th annual Celebrating Engineering Excellence reception. Among those honoured was Prof. Arthur Chan, winner of the Early Career Teaching Award. The prize recognizes outstanding performance in classroom instruction, consultation with students, and development and use of innovative teaching methods and course material.
Prof. Chan joined ChemE in 2013 and quickly became a favourite among students, who have described him as one of the most enthusiastic and knowledgeable professors they have ever encountered. He makes a point of being approachable and accessible to his students, particularly during exams and around deadlines. He attends the majority of his tutorials to answer questions and talks to students about their experience. Prof. Chan continuously solicits feedback and uses it to improve his courses. He has also embraced teaching innovation. In fact, he was one of the first professors in the Faculty to use TopHat, and he introduced a project in his economics course that links it another coure’s design project. During the development of ChemE’s most recent strategic plan, Prof. Chan took a leadership role in ensuring that “elevating teaching excellence” was a top priority.
A big congratulations to Prof. Chan!