The transformative education offered at the University of Chicago begins in the classroom, with the teachers who inspire, engage and inform their students.
UChicago annually recognizes faculty for their incredible teaching and mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students through the Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards, believed to be the nation’s oldest prize for undergraduate teaching; and the Faculty Awards for Excellence in Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring, which honor faculty for their work with graduate students.
Learn more about this year’s recipients below:
- Quantrell Awards: Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Ryan Coyne, Nick Feamster and Alexander J. Ruthenburg
- Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring Awards: Fernando Alvarez, Pradeep Chintagunta, Jeffrey Stackert and Wei Wei
Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards
Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Associate Professor in History
It’s important to Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, PhD’05, that students look beyond the here and now.
“One of the things that worries me the most is the dismissal of the past,” said the environmental historian. “If you forget about the past, then it’s easy to be seduced by simplistic accounts of what human nature is.”
In his research, Albritton Jonsson bridges social science and environmental studies, investigating how and why environmental changes have occurred in the past.
At UChicago, he has helped establish the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization as well as the “Energy in World Civilizations” core sequence, with Asst. Prof. Elizabeth Chatterjee, which explores the historical roots of climate change and postulates on futures beyond fossil fuel dependence.
Broadening perspectives also lies at the heart of his pedagogical practice. Albritton Jonsson makes a point of teaching “to the whole room.” For him, a good class means everyone gets to weigh in—undergraduates and graduate students with a multitude “of viewpoints, of experience, of ideology.”
“There's nothing quite like the adrenaline kick of a good class,” he said.
“Professor Albritton Jonsson works incredibly hard and is one of the only teachers, in my opinion, who has a perfect course sequence at UChicago,” said one student. “Hands down the best teacher I have ever witnessed.”
For him, teaching is sharing “the joy of grappling” with rigorous arguments and intelligent thinkers. He even pressure tests his own arguments in the classroom. For years, he has taught iterations of his forthcoming book Pandora’s Box: The First Fossil Fuel Economy, which traces the rise of fossil fuel use in Britain.
“I can honestly say the undergraduates in the classroom have done an incredible favor in helping me hone and make much sharper my arguments in my books,” he said.
Despite the potential doom and gloom of his field, Albritton Jonsson wants his students to walk away from his courses feeling inspired rather than pacified.
“I don’t want them to give up hope,” he said.
After 20 years of teaching undergraduates, he says receiving a Quantrell award means the world to him. “I consider this the greatest honor of my life.”
Ryan Coyne, Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology and in the College
For Ryan Coyne, teaching begins not with delivering knowledge, but with creating the conditions for discovery.
“Above all, I want the course material to come alive for the students,” he said. “I can only create conditions in which the students do this for themselves.”
Coyne, who studies philosophy of religion and critical theory, approaches the classroom as a space of shared inquiry. Rather than emphasizing the accumulation of information, he encourages what he calls “the power of free inquiry”—a capacity students cultivate by asking and pursuing their own questions.
That approach is especially striking in courses built around demanding texts. In his undergraduate course on Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time, students confront one of the most challenging works of 20th-century philosophy. Yet, as one student wrote, Coyne’s lectures were “eloquently put and clearly well prepared,” helping transform the difficulty of parsing the text into “an extremely rewarding process.”
Coyne sees those moments of transformation not as mastery, but as a shift in how students engage one another.
“I find it rewarding when students stop guarding convictions and start asking questions together,” he said. “Seminar discussions flow when students… work hard to see the world from others’ perspectives.”
That work, he notes, requires intellectual flexibility and a willingness to confront one’s own assumptions. It is also what students often remember most, along with Coyne’s engagement beyond the classroom. Coyne is described by students as a professor who takes their ideas seriously, supports their academic ambitions, and connects them with broader intellectual communities.
Coyne’s teaching is closely tied to his research, grounded in careful attention to texts.
“Testing ideas means scrutinizing textual evidence—in teaching, as in research,” he said. “The devil is always in the details.”
For his students, that scrutiny becomes a foundation for creative and independent thought, one that extends well beyond the classroom.
Nick Feamster, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science
Nick Feamster learned a lot of things from his mentors that he took to heart, but one of them was this: to treat his class and classroom as a simulation of the real world.
“I want to try to give you problems to think about, and projects to work on, that are a simulation of what you would see when you leave,” he said. That extends to the way he designs exams, too. “In the real world, when you have a problem to solve, you turn to your friend or colleague and ask for help.”
It also means that when he teaches technical skills in his computer science classes, he considers what students will take away even if they don’t go into the field.
“I put myself into the shoes of someone who won’t be doing this work in a year,” he said. “What do I hope they remember and take with them for the rest of their lives?”
Those things might include: Curiosity about the world. How to solve problems with any resource on hand. And appreciation that there are often no hard and fast answers. He likes to structure his classes around an open-ended question, and to let the students shape the discussion.
His approach has left an enduring impression on those who take his courses.
“Prof. Feamster brings an incredible amount of enthusiasm and care to his teaching, and it shows in the way he actively works with students to shape the course around how we learn best,” wrote a student who nominated him for the award. “His class felt less like a traditional lecture and more like a shared effort.”
Feamster said he was deeply affected by receiving the award.
“This is probably the honor of my life,” he said. “It’s been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career to see the impact I’ve been able to have on students. It gives my job tremendous meaning.”
Alexander J. Ruthenburg, Associate Professor, Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology
Alex Ruthenburg teaches molecular biology in the year-long Advanced Biology Fundamentals Sequence for first-year students in the College. It’s a grueling crash course in science, often a student’s first experience of what academic life is like at UChicago. The courses attract aspiring scientists and doctors who are used to acing their AP biology classes, but during 14 years of teaching in the program, Ruthenburg has seen how it can be a shock to the system.
“There's a culture of students in the program who are really passionate about biology, but they’re also just starting college,” he said. “So, there's a lot of the early challenges like how to study or how to manage their time. I'm the first part of that experience for them.”
The most important element of that transition, Ruthenburg said, is to shift students from the mentality of simply memorizing textbook terms and concepts. “The idea is to have students become practicing biologists by the end of their first year. So, it's like a warp speed, whiplash training montage to learn how to think like a biologist in all the sub-disciplines.”
The Advanced Biology sequence is a combination of interactive lectures, small groups, and labs to immerse students in these fundamentals. Ruthenburg partners with Michael Glotzer, who teaches cell biology, and Navneet Bhasin, who runs the lab sessions, along with teaching assistants who run discussion sections. The goal is to not only shift students’ manner of thinking, but also to give them what Ruthenburg calls “the skills to teach themselves.”
Invariably, the students rise to the challenge. Ruthenburg said his own enthusiasm for teaching is a natural result.
“It is a feed-forward cycle, because my course reviews say things like I'm super passionate and enthusiastic about the subject matter, or ‘how could you not get excited about biology from this?’ But I think it's actually me feeding off their energy to get all of us to that same place.”
Faculty Awards for Excellence in Ph.D. Teaching and Mentoring
Fernando Alvarez, the Charles F. Gray Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the College
According to Fernando Alvarez, most students enter Ph.D. programs with a common misconception. There is a pervasive myth, he says, that one day the clouds will clear and a shining path up a mountain will appear. At its peak—the perfect research question.
“That's really not at all how research works,” said the macroeconomist. “You're basically in these clouds all the time.”
For the past 30 years, Alvarez has guided UChicago students through the mists, advising them to stay grounded and flexible. He believes that by first reading others’ work deeply, one can then begin the “very incremental, marginal work” of improving upon it.
“Start with something,” he said. “Take it seriously.”
Inspired by his childhood in Argentina—an era of hyperinflation and severe economic downturn—Alvarez made the long journey north to the University of Minnesota to pursue a Ph.D. in economics. While there, his mentor, the equally mysterious and brilliant Nobel laureate Edward Prescott, treated his students more like colleagues.
Though he characterizes his mentorship style as less enigmatic genius and more “detail-oriented and curious,” Alvarez has continued the tradition of developing close relationships with his students.
At UChicago, Alvarez is known for his hyper-clear lectures and walking students carefully through complex problems and ideas.
“He has a rare ability to make difficult material feel natural and intuitive,” said a current student.
“Students leave not only having learned the material, but also having learned how to reason like economists,” said another.
Frequently described as humble and generous, Alvarez keeps his office as well as his home open for students, ready to support them in whatever way they need. Over his career, Alvarez has advised more than 50 doctoral theses; many of his students are now prominent economists in their own right.
This past September, dozens of them returned to campus for a celebratory conference entitled “Fernando Alvarez at 60: Celebrating his Contributions to Economics and his Friendship.” For two days, speakers recognized Alvarez’s brilliance as an economist.
But with the same frequency came stories of supportive mentorship that “demonstrated humility, attention and genuine care,” said one co-organizer, a former student and current assistant professor at Yale University.
“To be Fernando’s student is, quite simply, a privilege of a lifetime.”
Pradeep Chintagunta, the Joseph T. and Bernice S. Lewis Distinguished Service Professor of Marketing at Chicago Booth
Pradeep Chintagunta’s teaching centers on one key goal: helping his graduate students develop their unique talents.
“My role is to recognize the variety of skills of different students and direct them in ways that are tailor-made for them,” he said. “I want to make sure that the student is able to discover themselves in the most effective way.”
For him, this means being available to help his mentees whenever and however they need. Current and former students appreciate his completely “open-door” policy, where students may drop in unannounced.
“What I most appreciate is that [he] will physically step away from his computer, sit at his table, and give us his complete attention, even during these impromptu drop-ins,” one student said.
While Chintagunta knows that these spontaneous conversations are important, he believes conversations between students themselves are often the most impactful part of the learning process.
“Students develop through collaborative conversation, each trying to get the best out of each other,” he said, adding their thoughts and contributions “are not just for themselves but for their peers as well.”
He’s also found these conversations aren’t just productive for students, but for him as well.
“Having great students in the class brings out the best in me as a teacher,” he said.
Chintagunta’s ultimate goal for his students is to help them become “producers” rather than “consumers” of research material. He says the key requirement for this transition is developing a framework for how to analyze a problem for themselves.
Playing a role in this development and seeing former students succeed in their fields has been one of the most meaningful aspects of Chintagunta’s career.
His investment has not gone unnoticed, with former students saying that his mentorship has been “instrumental” in their success. Critically, the mentorship and support he offers extend beyond the classroom, with many highlighting his “unwavering care” for his students’ overall well-being.
“He puts the student first, and does everything in his power, whether it is research help, funding or life advice, to make sure his advisee succeeds,” a former student said.
Jeffrey Stackert, Caroline E. Haskell Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Divinity School and in the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures and in the College
Jeffrey Stackert approaches teaching with a principle that might seem counterintuitive: rigor is a form of care.
“A way of being generous is to be exacting,” he says. “We’re going to push you really, really hard. And we’re going to support you as best we can.”
That philosophy shapes both his classroom and his advising. Stackert works closely with students, often one-on-one, guiding them through the technical demands of philology, argumentation, and interpretation. The result, students say, is a style of mentorship that is as challenging as it is transformative.
As one student shared: “He offered critical yet supportive feedback on [my work]…his guidance and critical questions have shaped me as a scholar.”
Stackert has helped build the Divinity School’s Hebrew Bible program into a leading center for the field, with a distinctive emphasis on languages, method, and early engagement with primary texts. At the core of that approach is a deceptively simple goal: teaching students how to recognize excellence.
“The first thing students need to learn is where to set their expectations,” he explains. “What does it mean to work at a high level?”
That standard is reinforced through detailed, sustained feedback. As one former student recalls, Stackert’s comments do more than evaluate; they teach. He “demonstrates which arguments are successful and which are not,” offering tools to refine ideas and strengthen evidence-based claims.
For Stackert, the work does not end with the dissertation. He views doctoral education as preparation for a career and remains closely involved as students enter the job market and beyond. “We’re training them for a career, not just a dissertation,” he says.
That long-term investment extends well beyond graduation and often evolves into collaboration, as former students become colleagues, an outcome that reflects both his meticulous training style and the durability of his mentorship.
“I feel very responsible to help these students in any way that I can,” Stackert says.
Wei Wei, Professor of Neurobiology
When Wei Wei was training as a neuroscientist, she thought the best part of getting a faculty position would be the long-term freedom to pursue her research interests.
“I was looking forward to starting my lab at UChicago, because I thought the best part of the job is to be in an environment where I can have academic freedom to make discoveries,” she said. “And then I realized that what's even better is not making discoveries alone, but instead, having a team of talented graduate students to work on problems together.”
Wei, whose research focuses on how neural circuits in the retina process visual inputs, tries to cultivate a collaborative and engaging environment in her lab where students brainstorm and troubleshoot projects together. This culture of mutual support in turn builds enthusiasm and makes the science stronger.
“Every student brings new ideas to the lab, and that allows my group's research to take a trajectory that is really shaped by the students,” she said. That active participation and positive feedback loop makes her job as both a scientist and a mentor easier.
“This is really a shared honor. The reason I’m receiving this award is because I’ve had the privilege to get to know such an exceptional group of students. I had so much pleasure working with them. The award is just as much theirs as mine.”
—With contributions by Tori Lee, Louise Lerner, Erin Scott, Julian Veenstra-VanderWeele and Matt Wood.
