Senior Chemistry Lecturer Wendy L. Keeney-Kennicutt and Professor of Ecosystem Science and Management X. Ben Wu are the 2009 winners of the Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence Award at Texas A&M University, announced President Elsa Murano.

With stipends of $25,000 each, these awards are believed to be the highest in monetary value of their type in the nation.

The award, established in 2003 to underscore the importance of teaching at a major research university, includes the title of “Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence,” with the recipient retaining that title for the remainder of his or her career.

Nominations for the award are made by students, faculty members and deans in each of the university’s colleges and schools. Only one nomination can be made by each of the eligible groups – academic colleges, the Center for Teaching Excellence, Student Government Association and the Graduate Student Council.

“The foundation of any university is its faculty, and we here at Texas A&M are fortunate indeed to have a faculty that is highly dedicated and distinguished in addition to being highly esteemed both nationally and internationally,” Murano said. “It all begins with an unwavering commitment to teaching, and Drs. Keeney-Kennicutt and Wu obviously live out that commitment all the time – to the great benefit of their students, our great university and the state of Texas.”

In addition to being a senior lecturer, Dr. Keeney-Kennicutt serves as associate director for the first-year chemistry program. She has taught chemistry to an estimated 18,000 Aggies during her 25-year career at Texas A&M.

She describes her teaching philosophy as “straightforward.”

“Teach your students as you would want to be taught – with enthusiasm, and with a passion for the subject combined with respect and understanding for the student. My aim for each of the 25 years I’ve taught first-year chemistry is to give each student the opportunity to do her or his best in learning chemistry despite the large classroom settings,” she has been quoted as saying.

“Chemistry is a subject that I have studied, practiced, taught and enjoyed over the last 40-plus years. Effective teaching involves time, dedication, patience, understanding, firmness and a sense of humor. True learning incorporates active participation by the student, inside as well as outside of the classroom. To that end, I have tried to provide a student-centered classroom,” she added.

Dr. Keeney-Kennicutt has received numerous national awards for teaching, including the ChemLuminary Award for an Outstanding Ongoing National Chemistry Week Event, and has been named a “distinguished member” of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. Also, she is a recipient of the American Association of University Women’s Ida M. Green Endowed Fellowship. Her university-level awards include The Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching and being named the Outstanding Panhellenic Professor.

She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Queen’s University in Canada and Ph.D. in oceanography from Texas A&M in 1982.

Dr. Wu joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1995, moved up the academic ranks to professor and now also serves as associate head for graduate programs in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management. He also is the Cuiying Guest Professor in the Key Lab of Arid and Grassland Ecology at Lanzhou University in China and an adjunct professor in the Research Center of Plant Ecology and Conservation Biology with the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Science.

He has summarized his teaching philosophy as having “a passion for teaching, genuine care for students, and well-designed materials and approaches to foster effective learning. The passion of a teacher for teaching and the subject not only drives the teacher’s pursuit of teaching excellence but also promotes students’ interest in the subject and their desire to learn. . . . I attempt to relate to my students as a fellow human being who is eager to help them in their learning.”

Dr. Wu is active in programs conducted by the Center for Teaching Excellence. He has taught and mentored hundreds of graduate teaching assistants, helping them to thrive in their new setting, colleagues note. In addition, he has recruited a diverse and highly qualified group of graduate students to Texas A&M and has served as a mentor to graduate students pursuing the Graduate Teaching Academy Certificate within the Center for Teaching Excellence.

He has received numerous awards and honors for his teaching and scholarship, including The Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Teaching, the Dick Kleberg, Jr. Endowed Lectureship at the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and the Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Graduate Teaching.

Dr. Wu earned his degrees from Lanzhou University in China and the University of Tennessee . He also completed postdoctoral research at The Ohio State University.

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