Steven Pollock speaks in front of his Electromagnetism 2 class Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Pollock was named U.S. Professor of the Year for 2013. (Connor Dudley/CU Independent)
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education named CU physics professor Steven Pollock one of the U.S. Professors of the Year for 2013. Every year, the program celebrates professors who positively influence their students in their fields of study.
Pollock is one of four professors nationally who received this distinction.
He joined the CU faculty 20 years ago is a well-known and sought-after professor, thanks in part to his course “The Physics of Sound and Music” and his dynamic and involved teaching strategy.
“We get to teach in innovative ways,” Pollock said. “Our students get better learning environments and much more.”
Pollock is probably best known for his Learning Assistant program (LA), which he began in 2003. The LA program prepares science majors interested in teaching careers and focuses on improving the quality of science and research education.
Senior mathematics major Akaxia Cruz, an LA program participant and former student of Pollock’s, expressed her gratitude for Pollock as she introduced him at the award ceremony in Washington, D.C.
“The LA program is something that I cherish at CU because of the way that it explores new avenues for learning and understanding the concepts of physics, and I am incredibly grateful to Professor Pollock for bringing this program to our department,” Cruz said in Pollock’s student introduction.
Pollock looks forward to the future and development of the LA project on campus, and his excitement for his day job is clear.
“It’s an ongoing and growing undertaking, and I still get a lot of satisfaction helping my little corner of it to succeed,” Pollock said. “I am energized by my students. It’s true when I teach the large introductory-level classes and equally so when I teach upper-division specialty classes for majors in my department. I can’t help but convey my enthusiasm for what we’re learning.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ari Browne at Shikari.browne@colorado.edu.
