Get to know Dr. Charles Weaver, Baylor Master Teacher

Earning the designation as a Master Teacher is a rare honor — one of the highest a Baylor professor can receive. In March, President Linda Livingstone announced that three Baylor professors have earned the title, increasing the roll of Master Teachers who had earned this designation to 29 since the honor was first bestowed almost 40 years ago.

One of the three new Master Teachers is Dr. Charles A. Weaver III, BS ’84, professor and chair of Baylor’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. After graduating from Baylor in 1984, Weaver earned his master’s and doctorate in psychology from Colorado, then returned to the Baylor faculty in 1989.

“I decided to pursue a career in academia because I had never known that one could study memory and cognition as a science,” says Weaver. “It’s the most fascinating field imaginable, and it’s a joy to be able to share it with students.”

Part of Weaver’s interests lie with flashbulb memory, a highly detailed, vivid “snapshot” of a moment or circumstances. During his tenure, he and his students have studied the effects of many significant events, including the onset of Desert Storm in 1991, the tragic events of 9/11, and the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Weaver also specializes in other areas of memory and language, the relationship between confidence and memory, and eyewitness identification. His expertise has led him to serve as a forensic expert in civil and criminal cases in more than 30 states.

Throughout his career, Weaver has published two books, dozens of scientific articles, and delivered more than 200 scientific presentations. He’s served on the editorial boards of five journals, including the Journal of Educational Psychology, and as associate editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. He’s sat on grant review panels for the U.S. Department of Education for more than a decade.

Weaver has been recognized as a Fellow by both the Association for Psychological Science and the Psychonomic Society, and he was named a Baylor Fellow in 2012.

But even after all that, “to be designated Master Teacher is the highlight of my Baylor career,” says Weaver. “I consider it an honor simply to be mentioned along with those who are my academic heroes; they defined Baylor’s commitment to teaching excellence.”

Sic ’em, Dr. Weaver!