• Nation’s largest award for top teaching brings Missouri physics prof to Baylor

    Dr. Meera ChandrasekharEvery two years, Baylor’s Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching brings one of the nation’s best professors not already on the BU campus to Waco for a semester, allowing Baylor students to benefit from his or her excellence in the classroom. The award is our country’s only national award presented by a college or university for exceptional teaching, and carries with it an exceptional monetary reward for both the professor and his/her school — evidence of Baylor’s commitment to providing our students with top teachers.

    This week, Baylor Provost Elizabeth Davis, BBA ’84, announced that Dr. Meera Chandrasekhar, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Missouri, is the 2014 Cherry Award recipient. Chandrasekhar is expected to teach in residence at Baylor during the spring 2015 semester.

    [WATCH: Chandrasekhar’s Cherry Award finalist lecture, “Blind to Polarization: What Humans Cannot See“]

    Winner of the 1999 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the National Science Foundation, Chandrasekhar has been honored by the University of Missouri with five different awards for her teaching since she joined the MU faculty in 1978. In addition to her work at the university level, Chandrasekhar has developed hands-on physics programs for students in grades 5-12 and summer institutes for K-12 teachers, activities for which she has received several more awards.

    Sic ’em, Dr. Chandrasekhar!