University of Michigan chemistry professor wins $275,000 award for teaching

By Kellie Woodhouse Higher education reporter

Posted on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 : 3:02 p.m.

University of Michigan organic chemistry professor Brian Coppola will have some extra spending money with the start of the new year.

Coppola was recently awarded a $275,000 award for outstanding teaching.

U-M professor Brian Coppola gives a lecture before an audience at Baylor University.

Coppola will receive $250,000 of the award and his unit, U-M's College of Literature, Science and Arts department of chemistry, will receive $25,000.

The award is the single-largest monetary reward for teaching and is offered by Baylor University, a Christian college in Texas. Called the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, the merit is awarded once every two years.

“A significance to this recognition is clearly related to the honoring of the act of classroom teaching, the thing that we embrace,” Coppola said in a finalist lecture he gave at Baylor in November.

Coppola also serves as the co-chair of the chemistry department and associate director for the University of Michigan-Peking University Joint Institute, in Beijing, China. According to the recently released U-M salary report, Coppola made $139,550 last year.

Watch Coppola's lecture, titled The Liberal Art of Chemistry: Stories about Human Nature, here.

Check out Coppola's 4.1 out of 5 rating on RateMyProfessor.com.

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