Tevfik Aktekin

Excellence in Teaching, 2015

Decision Sciences

I am delighted that Assistant Professor Tevfik Aktekin from Decision Sciences at Paul College of Business and Economics is being recognized with the Excellence in Teaching Award. This is actually his second award in 2015; he was also recognized by the full-time MBA class with their teaching excellence award.

Over the past five years at Paul College Tevfik has earned his faculty colleagues' respect and appreciation for his deep engagement and commitment to teaching. His department chair refers to him as a "shining star" among our faculty. Tevfik teaches in an area where it can be difficult to shine. His courses are highly quantitative and often challenging for both undergraduate and graduate students. And yet his courses are always filled to capacity with waiting lists.

Students report that he not only makes his complex material accessible and exciting, he also inspires them and in many cases transforms them.

One student shared how he had originally changed his major to avoid taking calculus thinking that he was "irrevocably bad at math." Then, after taking Tevfik's Statistics course, he not only came to love math but became a resource for other students needing help.

Another student shared how the analytic skills he had developed during his term project in Tevfik's class enabled him to secure a high level internship at Liberty Mutual Insurance. This student then parlayed that internship into a great job at PwC. This is just what we hope for our students.

What stands out most about Tevfik is the infectious joy and passion he brings to his teaching and his work with students. And he does all of this while being prolific in his research and generous of his time for service. On behalf of Paul College, I congratulate Tevfik and extend our warm appreciation.

By: Deborah Merrill-Sands, Dean, Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics