The Observer, April 28, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 26
Carl F. Wittke Award given to outstanding professors
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On Monday, Robert Brown and Laura Tartakoff were chosen from a field of 64 nominees as the winners of the Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
Brown, a physics professor, was described by his nominator as "the epitome of what professors should be and how we should advertise our faculty to the world." Tartakoff, a political science professor, inspired her nominator to write, "My academic studies at Case have shown me that a passion for learning is invaluable, and I will never forget the passion for learning that Professor Tartakoff has inspired in me."
This is not the first time these professors have been nominated for the award. Brown's first nomination was in 1974, and he has had several nominations since. "When I was young, I would tell the people on the Wittke committee to give the award to the senior folks who had put in many years of teaching and deserved it more. Then in recent years I found myself telling them they should give it to the younger teachers who could use it to bolster their CV and tenure credentials," said Brown. "Now I say I was right the first time!"
Tartakoff has been nominated every year since 2002. "The thought of deserving an award does not enter my mind," said Tartakoff. "Each time I have been nominated for the Wittke, I have been deeply moved to realize that students decided to nominate me."
Excellence in teaching is something that both Tartakoff and Brown strive for in their classes. "I present the subject in a clear, thorough, and well-organized manner and hope to inspire a love of learning in students," said Tartakoff. "I use the Socratic method and only accept opinions supported by cogent reasoning and concrete examples. Students are encouraged to confront reality and to avoid the dangers of idealism, cynicism, and radical relativism."
Her efforts have paid off. "Throughout 12 years of teaching at Case, I have witnessed students with conflicting political or philosophical inclinations discuss, debate, and influence each other," said Tartakoff.
"The exciting thing I want to tell everyone," said Brown, "is that teaching has become more interesting and fulfilling than ever before. Can you imagine having taught for 36 years and coming to the point where, instead of stagnancy and boredom, you find your next class an exciting new adventure?"
Tartakoff is a Cuban-born American raised in Puerto Rico who spent many years in Geneva, Switzerland before coming to Cleveland. She has been a member of Case's political science department since 1994. Other honors she has received are the Teaching Excellence Award in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 1997; Top Prof awards in 1997 and 2002; Alpha Phi Professor of the Year in 2000; and the Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award in 2005. She was a nominee for the Bruce Jackson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring in 2003 and 2004.
Brown's accumulated honors are Case Undergraduate Teaching Awards in 1992 and 1997, a Department of Energy national award for an undergraduate teaching module on chaos theory in 1997, being named Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1999, the Case Diekhoff award for graduate teaching in 2003, a national American Association of Physics Teachers award for undergraduate teaching in 2004, and finalist standing for the Robert Cherry Great Teaching Award in 2005.
