Every year, the College of Science recognizes outstanding faculty and advisors for their noteworthy participation in representing and contributing to the teaching and advising mission of the University of Arizona. This year, Ted Weinert, Professor in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department, has been awarded the UA College of Science Distinguished Career Teaching Award.
‘Dr. Ted’, as his students know him, is universally loved by students and faculty alike for his creative, critical, and wonder-driven approach to science. Dr. Ted Weinert has made career-long creative efforts to inspire large numbers of undergraduate students in introductory biology, many graduate students in the graduate cell systems course, his own Ph.D. students and postdocs, and the rest of us at every rank.
Ted takes an innovative approach to teaching. For example, in teaching the honors introductory biology students, he has decided that they are more engaged and big thinking when they can apply their learning to real-world problems. He therefore rewrote the entire curriculum to understand HIV infection and AIDS. This allows the students to not just comprehend the central dogma of molecular biology and cell biology, but to be able to apply the molecular and cellular biology to a well-known virus and associated disease. This is an example of his fearless approach to make learning engaging. In addition, he can often be found chatting with students/postdocs/faculty from many different labs about their experiments in the lobby or hallways, always in a helpful mentoring mode.
"Ted Weinert is a great choice for this award. He is the consummate teacher in every fiber of his being.” Joyce Schroeder, Ph.D., Professor and Department Head, Molecular and Cellular Biology
“Dr. Ted is a creative and remarkable professor; his love for science is unparalleled. For me personally, taking his class in my first semester of college inspired a passion for science and a need to continuously search for 'aha moments'. His excitement for biology is continuously instilled in his students. It happened with me, and I can see it happening with the students I preceptor for as well.” Keerthi Kurian, BS Neuroscience & Cognitive Science
Congratulations, Dr. Ted Weinert!