Distinguished Faculty for Teaching Award 2019-2020 Dr. Yingbin Ge
Professor Ge received his doctorate in Physical Chemistry from the University of Hawaii in 2004 where he worked under Dr. John Head. Dr. Ge joined the CWU Chemistry faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2008, where he soon became renowned among students and colleagues for his ability to teach physical chemistry—a notoriously difficult quantitative and computational subject—in ways that were approachable, engaging, and highly effective for learning. Dr. Ge was promoted to full Professor in 2019. Physical chemistry’s heavy reliance on mathematics and computation can intimidate even the best students, which is why Dr. Ge’s teaching accomplishments in this area are so remarkable. Dr. Ge has taught 18 different courses across all undergraduate levels and graduate levels, from introductory General Chemistry to graduate-level Quantum and Computational Chemistry. Student evaluations of instruction are consistently well above departmental and college means, particularly for learning environment (4.84) and teaching for learning (4.63). Students frequently comment not only on Dr. Ge’s prodigious knowledge and content brilliance, but routinely highlight his sense of humor, empathy and support for students, and timely feedback. Dr. Ge’s impact is perhaps best summarized by one student’s comments, “This man blows my mind with the knowledge he throws at me.” A wealth of recommendations and peer evaluation of teaching letters uniformly corroborate student sentiments and provide additional lines of evidence that support awarding the title of Distinguished Faculty for Teaching to Dr. Ge. In addition to prolific scholarly productivity in physical and computational chemistry, Dr. Ge has published seven peer-reviewed articles in top-tier chemical education journals. His contributions include 24 student co-authors and routinely focused on how to improve teaching efficiency in physical and computational chemistry while elevating student learning success. Dr. Ge has mentored 31 undergraduate research students, served as chair for one distinguished thesis award-winning graduate student, and mentored 15 additional graduate students. A close analysis of Dr. Ge’s teaching methodology further elucidates his personal and professional values, motivation, and pedagogical skill. Referencing everyone from Joe DiMaggio to Meryl Streep, Dr. Ge provides deep insight into his mental preparation to teach, methodologies used to make complex content accessible and understandable, and how he creates an engaging and welcoming environment where student become internally motivated to learn. Simply put, Dr. Ge will use every tool imaginable to create an environment where openness, self-belief, and learning achievement occur with routine frequency. Altogether, these results show Dr. Ge to be a superbly conscientious, intellectually brilliant, pedagogically engaged instructor who is imminently qualified to receive one of the highest teaching awards Central Washington University can bestow. His beginning-to-end record illustrates a deep concern for student well-being, a willingness to bring all students into quantitative physical chemistry enlightenment, and a sustained dedication to sharing his discoveries with others in his field. Truly, Dr. Ge is a master of his craft. Perhaps Dr. Ge’s teaching accomplishment is best summarized at the end of his teaching statement:
Teaching is just so much fun. So is learning.
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