The Distinguished Teaching Awards are given to University faculty who show a mastery of their subject matter, intellectual rigor, lively curiosity, a commitment to research and a passion for teaching. Awardees receive $5,000.
Guozhong Cao - Materials Science and Engineering
Back in January 1997 the odds that Guozhong Cao would be named one of the University's distinguished teachers just over three years later had to be extraordinarily long.
Guozhong Cao
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Walking into a UW classroom that winter, the young assistant professor of materials science and engineering remembers not knowing what to expect as he prepared to teach a class for the first time in his life.
"My impressions of what a classroom would be like came from watching American movies and TV," he recalls. "I had gotten advice from other faculty members, but my hands were totally cold and my voice was shaking. When the class was over I realized that I had been so nervous that I didn't even give my own name."
Cao certainly could be forgiven his jitters. His achievements already had outstripped his humble beginnings in a rural Chinese home north of Shanghai where books were rare. He was the first member of his family to graduate from high school and his intellect and love of knowledge propelled him to college, first in China and then in the Netherlands where he earned his doctorate.
But when he stepped into that UW engineering classroom, he had been in the United States less than two years.
"Lots of folks have exciting ideas about how we might create new, exciting and effective educational experiences for our students," says Gretchen Kalonji, a professor of materials science and engineering. "Unfortunately, the students end up disdaining a great deal of what we as faculty find charming. This is where my respect for Professor Cao is really unbounded. He actually realizes experiences which are rigorous, intellectually deep and which the students adore."
"Guozhong brings an unbounded energy to his teaching that is contagious," adds Raj Bordia, chairman of materials science and engineering. "He sets the highest standards for the students, demands that the students put effort into a course, and by making the subject matter interesting, gets it."
Cao's success in the classroom and the adroit manner in which he has assumed the role of teacher stems from a genuine respect for his students, hard work and his innovative research efforts.
"It is important to treat students with respect," he says. "I consult with my students and I care that they are learning. I'm always open to do anything different to help students learn. Many of the students in my classes will become scientists and they are capable of challenging me if I make a mistake."
Learning has been a passion with Cao, a slight, modest man, since his childhood in China's Jiangsu province. Although his parents were illiterate, he had a love for learning as a small boy. "We didn't have any books at home so I would read anything I could grab, even a dictionary, many times. Raised during the turbulent times of the Cultural Revolution, Cao, like most Chinese, was exposed to Chairman's Mao's Little Red Book, and from it developed an interest in history, politics and the world beyond China. The Cultural Revolution also opened the door to college for him and he earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Chinese universities in Shanghai.
After earning his doctorate at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, Cao worked at two other Dutch universities as a research associate. Then he moved to the United States, hoping to find a faculty position, and eventually was one of 200 candidates who applied for an opening at the UW in 1996.
"I was lucky to be hired and I hope I have done a good job for this University," he says quietly.
The answer has to be very loud in the affirmative for a man, who in such a short time has twice won faculty of the year awards from the undergraduate students in his department and now joins the University's finest who have been honored with the distinguished teaching award.
Joel Schwarz, News & Information
University Week
The faculty and staff publication of the University of Washington
uweek@u.washington.edu
May 25, 2000