Linda Holm Bearinger
Professor and Director of the Center for Adolescent Nursing
School of Nursing and Medical School
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
 “In my teaching, I strive to innovate pedagogy, promote learner engagement, and pursue diverse means for mentoring and enriching my students--all with the understanding that the fruits of these efforts may be apparent years in the future.”
Adolescent health nursing professor Linda Bearinger works diligently to connect her students with opportunities for their growth and professional development. She involves them in her research and scholarship, and, in fact, more than 80 percent of her publications have one or more students as authors.
Her influence also reaches beyond the U. One former student notes that Bearinger “is the nation’s foremost developer of interdisciplinary curricular and leadership training in adolescent nursing.” A colleague remarks, “Her pioneering leadership in adolescent health, nationally and internationally, has broken new ground and set new standards in…postbaccalaureate, graduate, and professional education.
Despite this national reputation, one student describes Bearinger as “an engaging and naturally talented teacher, using innovative teaching techniques to enable students to explore issues that are often challenging personally and professionally.”
Adds another, “Lyn’s teaching style utilizes her intuitive gift for first reading her students, then customizing the way she presents material based on the needs and energy of her learners. Now, after years of my own teaching experience, there is not one lecture that goes by that I don’t include at least one teaching or presentation skill learned from Lyn.”
“It is one thing to get high marks in student evaluations immediately after a course or seminar,” a colleague points out, “but to leave an indelible mark is the sign of a brilliant teacher. Lyn is a brilliant teacher.”
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Alvin J. Beitz
Professor
Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
 “Excellence in instruction depends on…an ability to create a critical learning environment, an ability to challenge students’ preconceived assumptions, a willingness to incorporate innovative approaches into one’s teaching armamentarium, and a deep passion for the subject being taught.”
Alvin Beitz (Ph.D. ’76) learned the hard way what kind of a teacher he did not want to be. “As an undergraduate student I experienced on a daily basis a professor who stood in front of the class reading his lecture word by word from index cards without looking even once at students. This memory served as my inspiration…” Beitz says.
That inspiration has benefitted hundreds of students of the College of Veterinary Medicine, where Beitz has taught since 1982. A prodigious scholar of neuroscience and anatomy, Beitz exudes the same enthusiasm for engaging students as he does for conducting research. He has served as the major adviser for 10 Ph.D., 6 master’s degree, and 13 post-doctoral students, and on more than 70 examining committees.
Says a former student who is now a research scientist, “Al has a unique understanding of the mentoring process. He knows when to afford a student enough leeway to make the necessary mistakes that will teach the scientific process of trial and error,…always striking a delicate balance [that allows] experience and self confidence to form within the young investigator.”
As a senior faculty member, Beitz demonstrates the same devotion to his younger colleagues as he does to his students by mentoring them and participating in peer review. A colleague calls him “a wonderful
collegiate citizen” and notes, “He is a highly ethical individual who always places the integrity, the good of the college, as his first priority.”
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Kang Ling James
Professor
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Swenson College of Science and Engineering
University of Minnesota, Duluth
 “During my 20 years at UMD, I have advised or co-advised over 45 graduate students…. They are all doing well, and many of them become my good friends. This is the most rewarding part about being a teacher.”
For Kang James, being a professor goes well beyond teaching. Advising and mentoring are two of James main focal points when directing and working with her students.
This approach has led many of her students into Ph.D. programs at universities with superb standing. As one former student says, “Her confidence in my abilities instilled confidence in myself and helped me reach my potential…. She was attuned with what is needed to succeed in the corporate, as well as the academic, world.”
James pays close attention to the needs of her students, making sure the material she provides them is presented in a relevant manner that motivates the students to learn. A former student and current biostatistics professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York states, “Kang has the ability of making a difficult concept easy to understand and interesting to learn. She has the best notes in school: I still keep them with me.”
With her superior teaching and mentoring skills, Dr. James seems to have acquired the gift to help her students excel not only within the classroom but also beyond. She advises her students emulating the kindness and generosity once shown to her by one of her own professors.
As another former student notes, “We fondly referred to Dr. James as our ‘mother’ in the department. On several occasions, I sought her advice about things happening in my life… which I will be forever grateful for.”
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Ruth Mazo Karras
Professor
Department of History
Director of the Center for Medieval Studies
College of Liberal Arts
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
 “I have excellent rapport with my advisees, but I also drive them fairly hard…. They are not disciples but independent scholars whom it is my job to encourage.”
The specter of a dissertation defense and a job hunt may strike fear in the hearts of graduate students, but Ruth Karras dispenses the best antidote.
One of the great Medieval social historians of her generation, Karras keeps her graduate students on course through biweekly sessions where they discuss progress and problems, share research and writings, and generally give each other the practice and feedback that all but guarantees a successful dissertation defense or job search. She also encourages her students to use new teaching technologies and write lectures and research proposals, just as history professors do. In short, they live the lives of scholars from day one.
And she never sends them into the world unprepared.
“…Ruth met periodically with her advisees to show us examples of documents in Latin, Middle English, and Old French, in the original hand of the scribe, to teach us how to read the documents we would encounter in the archives when we undertook our own research,” says one former graduate student. “These sessions…proved precious when I began to read London wills in fourteenth-century Latin script.”
Other history graduate students also have reaped the benefits of her work. For example, while director of graduate studies, Karras implemented a program to guarantee five years of funding coupled with more intense advising. In less than a decade, the percentage of students reaching the dissertation phase of study rose from 27 to 90.
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Joseph A. Konstan
Distinguished McKnight University Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
College of Science and Engineering (formerly Institute of Technology)
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
 “This is a university that highly values graduate and professional education, and I aspire to live up to that value…. I feel fortunate to have been able to direct [my] talent towards the important task of making life better for graduate students, and for faculty as well….”
Joe Konstan is so well known for his work in recommender systems and the collaborative filtering mechanisms computers use to tell us, for example, what books we might like next on Amazon.com that a former student says, “Joe ‘owns’ the field of collaborative filtering.” A colleague points out that Konstan easily could have pursued a career in research or industry.
Instead, he chose to share how technology can enhance human potential. Konstan believes in using research as an opportunity to teach, and sees interaction with students as his focus and his reward.
At the U, he’s introduced systems design grounded in human factors and psychology; cocreated courses on user interface design and technology, and collaborative and social computing; and codeveloped an interdisciplinary public health course in which cross-disciplinary teams design and develop online public health interventions.
Konstan has also been director of graduate studies for computer science and software engineering, crafted a M.S. degree in software engineering, kept an eye out for students’ needs while serving on the Faculty Senate, and recruited more diverse faculty and students from industry and nontraditional and international populations.
His students learn through what one calls “a novel kind of coursework,” exploring psychology and ergonomics using metaphors and games. “I remember getting excited about the computer science that could make the lives of end users easier, richer, and more productive.”
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Rory P. Remmel
Professor
Department of Medicinal Chemistry
College of Pharmacy
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
 “I believe that people are drawn to teaching because they love to learn. It strikes me that teaching is in itself a kind of vicarious joy in learning…. I know that you don’t always remember what a teacher tells you, or everything they did. But you do always remember how it made you feel when they believed in you and challenged you to excel.”
Despite the fact that they consider his courses some of the toughest in pharmacy school, students have named Rory Remmel teacher of the year six times. “There is no better indication of the value students place on Professor Remmel,” says a colleague.
Well-known for his research on infectious disease therapy and innovative methods of measuring drug metabolism and how aging and genetic variation affect it, Remmel is just as well known for his courses. They take a patient-centered approach to pharmacotherapy, using real-life examples to teach students to think more deeply and critically about treatment options, rather than just about how drugs work.
Outside the classroom, he advised the pharmaceutical student fraternity for 18 years, helping them present STD prevention workshops to high schools, run a diabetes expo, host a camp for kids with asthma, and provide pharmacy services at a free clinic for the uninsured.
“Rory has a gift of perceiving the key talents of his graduate students and the wisdom to act on that perception in guiding [them] into a career path that utilizes those talents,” says another colleague.
A former student points out that Remmel puts a heavy grading burden on himself because of his belief in case-based exams and group-written term papers. However, the approach mimics real life, as another points out: “There usually isn’t a multiple-choice answer when making a clinical decision.”
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J. Ilja Siepmann
Distinguished McKnight University Professor
Department of Chemistry
College of Science and Engineering (formerly Institute of Technology)
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
 “One is simultaneously faced with the responsibilities as an adviser to ensure excellent research progress and as a mentor to foster, but not steer, the development of bright young people…. To the extent that I have contributed to their success, I consider this to be my greatest and most profound achievement as a faculty member.”
J. Ilja Siepmann takes great pride in his students. From his excellent instruction and development of graduate programs to his involvement of students in research, scholarships, and professional development to his superior mentoring skills, Siepmann is far from being “just” a professor.
Siepmann has a range of experience. From lecturing at UNESCO workshops in Italy to a summer school in Finland, Siepmann bestows much knowledge in his field of chemistry. This is reflected in his ability to create research groups that intrigue and push students. As a former student says, “Ilja’s dedication to his students is unwavering. One of his many strengths is recognizing the capabilities of his students and encouraging them to push their limits.”
His outstanding knowledge in the field of chemistry and his ability to teach it in an intriguing way has helped Siepmann make advances in graduate programs as well. These advances have greatly benefited students, such as new procedures for Ph.D. students to earn an M.S. along the way and new common rules for preliminary exams.
Siepmann is also recognized as a skillful mentor. Another former student states, “His guidance and insistence on provocative and important research questions, careful and appropriate methods, and cogent reporting not only assisted me in my dissertation research but also helped me in my professional development.”
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Robert L. Sorenson
Professor
Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development
Medical School
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
 “Whatever success I have achieved, much is owed to my students and colleagues. Seeing the new awareness and confidence in students that comes from acquiring new knowledge is a constant inspiration.”
In his 40 years of teaching Human Histology, Bob Sorenson (Ph.D. ’67) has taught more than 8,000 medical and dental students the underpinning of modern medicine--the types, structures, and functions of the cells that form the human body’s tissues and organs.
Remembered fondly by one former student as “the glacier of Nordic Intellect,” Sorenson has subsequently become a beloved colleague to many others, among them the dean of a certain college of biological sciences. “He is in the fullest sense,” says that dean, “my academic father.”
Many former students recall gathering with faculty around the lunch table in Sorenson’s lab and gradually gaining courage to participate in discussions on scholarship, criticism, and academic integrity. “Without knowing it,” says one, “[he] pushed and expanded [our] horizons…. He broke down our illusion of boundaries between disciplines.”
All the while, Sorenson has been a nationally-funded researcher in the field of islet biology, diabetes, and the dynamics of pregnancy and glucose metabolism; an international innovator in microscopy techniques that have enabled research; and the creator of enhanced teaching resources such as the Virtual Microscopy, a digital database of high resolution histology slides.
“Individual professors make a difference…and a community….” says a former student. “There are no metrics…to quantify the kind of contributions Bob has provided the University for decades.”
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