Distinguished Professor Award, 2023
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences
Chris Bauer personifies “Distinguished Professor.” He is a remarkable teacher, sage mentor, and eminent scholar. His dedication to serving chemistry and education extends well beyond UNH, and this has been especially impactful here in New Hampshire. After more than four decades of service at UNH, Bauer remains among the most effective, energetic, and productive chemistry faculty members in the country.
Bauer has spent his career innovating teaching and remains an instrument for improving teaching across our department, in CEPS, and university wide. Bauer pioneered the Peer Led Team Learning (PLTL) program in our department, which has since spread and is now celebrating its 25th anniversary. This approach to active learning is one facet of Bauer’s career-long devotion to inquiry-based education and is strongly coupled to UNH brand of high impact practices.
His passion and devotion go well beyond UNH. Bauer is known globally as a pioneer in chemistry education research. When he started the CER Ph.D. track in our department, it was one of the first in the country and is still regarded as one of the premier programs in the world. Bauer was also the primary advocate for a formalized center to advance science and mathematics education statewide. He served as a PI with Drs. Karen Graham, Dawn Meredith and Eleanor Abrams for the UNH IMPACT Center, which ultimately became endowed as the Leitzel Center for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education, which continues to spearhead educational reforms and professional development in the K-12 arena across the region.
About this Award
The purpose of this award is to identify and honor longstanding members of the UNH faculty. This singular university-wide award will be given each year to the faculty member whose overall record of excellent teaching, caring about students, devotion to the university community, and substantial record of scholarly achievement exemplifies what we would call a "distinguished longstanding career" at UNH. Each year there will be no more than one Distinguished Professor Award. Long-term UNH tenure-track faculty members at the rank of professor are eligible.
