NIU Honors Dr. Changnon for Teaching Excellence

NIU Meteorology's own Dr. Changnon was awarded the prestigious Presidential Teaching Professorship for 2008. Congrats Dr. C!

The Presidential Teaching Professorships "recognize and support faculty who excel in the practice of teaching. Recipients of this award have demonstrated over time their commitment to and success in the many activities associated with outstanding teaching. After four years as a Presidential Teaching Professor, each of these eminent faculty members is designated a Distinguished Teaching Professor."

The Northern Today has a nice piece on Dr. C and the other two professors who were awarded this professorship in 2008. We've reproduced Dr. C's portion of the article below for our blog audience. As you will see, Dr. C is well deserving of this high honor!

Excerpt below from Northern Today, 7 April 2008, by Joe King and Tom Parisi

Captivating climatologist

Students who know him best might describe Meteorology Professor David Changnon in a word: wooshkie.

It’s a term used often among NIU meteorology students and one Changnon coined himself to express his excitement over something wonderful, such as an “aha moment” that a student experiences when a difficult concept suddenly makes sense.

Enthusiastic, challenging, helpful, knowledgeable – that’s how students describe their mentor. Animated and funny, too.

“He definitely uses his comedic skills to make the class laid back,” says graduate student Jenni Prell, who took several of Changnon’s undergraduate courses. She has seen the demonstrative professor spin around, sit on the floor and kiss the blackboard in order to get a learning point across.

“You can’t help but be upbeat around him,” she says. “But he’s also a structured grader, and his courses are very challenging. What sets Dr. Changnon apart is that he really cares about students and goes above and beyond to make sure they understand the material.”

Changnon earned his a Ph.D. in climatology from Colorado State University in 1991 and came to NIU a year later. Even as a rookie professor he knew that he wanted to give students something that was absent from his undergraduate experience at another university.

“I didn’t feel that connectedness with my professors. In a sense, I felt like a number,” he says.

“At NIU, I want to help students succeed, not only by helping them to finish their degrees but also by identifying ways they can challenge themselves – by getting into the honors program, conducting research or publishing a research paper.”

By all accounts, Changnon has been successful. His teaching reputation is such that he was appointed earlier this year to lead an NIU task force exploring ways to improve teaching across the university.

Students credit him with connecting textbooks to their life experiences and inspiring their meteorology careers. An accomplished scholar, Changnon has published dozens of research articles that demonstrate how the science of climatology can be applied to real life, from developing insect migration forecasts for farmers to predicting how El Niño weather patterns will impact businesses and agriculture.

More than a third of his research papers have been co-authored with NIU students.

“I have never met anyone as successful as Dave in integrating scholarship with teaching,” says Andrew Krmenec, chair in NIU’s Department of Geography, which oversees the meteorology program. “Not only are students actively involved in his research projects, but many become lead authors on scientific publications with Dave.”

Changnon also connects students with top professionals in the field. For years, he has provided a stream of interns to one of the nation’s top meteorologists – WGN’s Tom Skilling.

In the mid-1990s, Changnon won a prestigious grant to develop an applied climatology course that also has resulted in students working alongside professionals, winning internships and landing jobs. Students in the course conduct research that helps businesses such as Allstate Insurance, Del Monte Foods and United Airlines make better-informed, weather-sensitive decisions.

Mike Ritsche first met Changnon on a visit to the geography department in 1994. Changnon’s enthusiasm convinced Ritsche to attend NIU, a decision he never regretted.

Ritsche took numerous Changnon courses, published a paper with his professor and now works for Argonne National Laboratory’s Environmental Science Division, traveling the world collecting weather data for climate-change research.

“He’s so positive about everything,” Ritsche says. “Dr. Changnon has encouraged me and others to meet challenges we would have never before thought possible.”