Every fall and spring semester, the Department of Chemistry selects a graduate student to receive the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.

Candidates for this award are TAs who are making progress toward their degrees and are in good academic standing. In general, outstanding TAs far exceed the Department's expectations on a consistent basis.

Aspects considered include, but are not limited to:

• Mastery of the material they teach
• Clear and effective communication of their knowledge and ability in helping their students to understand the material
• Great leaders who show authenticity and authority in the classroom
• Unyielding enforcement of good safety practices
• Challenging their students to develop problem solving skills and technical proficiency
• Providing a safe and supportive learning environment for their students
• Ability to bring relevance of the material to the students
• Showing sensitivity to the needs of their learners
• Demonstration of fair and consistent grading with timely and adequate feedback to students about their performance
• Showing compassion and genuine caring about the learning of their student and will do whatever it takes to assist
• Overall excellent student feedback about TA performance

The winner is chosen by a committee of faculty and staff at the Department level. At a special College of Science awards reception, the award recipients are presented with a certificate signed by the UA president and a $100 gift card to the UA Bookstore.

Recent winners include:

• Janie Salmon; 2007
• Hallena Rogers; 2006
  (We also recognize the following excellent TAs: Janie Salmon, Xioachun Chen, Kristina Orosz, Mary Steele, David Harris; Jenine Cole-Maeyer, Adam Daly)
• Elisabeth Mansfield; 2005
  (We also recognize the following excellent TAs: Ben Werner, Emily Grumbling, Peter Orto, Aaron Finke, Xiujuan Wen, Hallie Rogers, Tomika Bethea, Emily Tennenbaum, Doug Malkin, Jonathan Myers, Marilyne Stains)
• Udaya Bhaskar Tadikonda; 2004
• Danice Andrus; 2003
• Robert Kevwitch; 2002