麻豆淫院

Excellent research fuels exceptional teaching, and vice versa

Classics Professor Elspeth Dusinberre鈥檚 students get a feel for Roman architecture, literally, by forming human arches; their locked fingers serve the same stabilizing function as the keystone of a Roman arch.

Physics Professor Noah Finkelstein leads his class through a dizzying tour of quantum mechanics, charging up and down aisles, punctuating key points with physics simulations, clicker quizzes and fist pumps.

Both Dusinberre and Finkelstein are University of Colorado President鈥檚 Teaching Scholars and have amassed a string of other teaching awards. Both also have impressive lists of publications reflecting their scholarly work and research.听

Like our other tenured and tenure-track professors in the College of Arts and Sciences, they embody the fact that excellent research fuels exceptional teaching, and vice versa.

CU Boulder is one of 131 鈥淩esearch 1鈥� institutions, a group of universities with the highest levels of research activity. Producing about 5,000 peer-reviewed publications, books, chapters and creative works annually, our college鈥檚 faculty expand the frontiers of knowledge. This, in turn, manifests our campus goals of leading and innovating.

But that work is just part of the picture. Alumni sometimes ask me if there is tension between research and teaching. The implicit assumption is that one must take precedence over the other. But can we be excellent at both?听

The answer is a resounding 鈥測es.鈥� We can excel at both. And we do. While research is critically important to the university, so is teaching. Our faculty describe these activities as two sides of the same coin; they feed on each other and in turn fuel the motivation and success of our faculty and students.

That said, if I鈥檓 honest with myself and with you, there are times when research seems to overshadow teaching. Without denigrating research one iota, it is worth noting that the university of the future must take the educational lives of students ever more seriously.听

Dusinberre and Finkelstein are superb examples of our commitment to do just that. Those who dedicate themselves in equal measure to teaching and research or scholarly work not only reflect the needs of the students but also the mission of the university.

The four-campus University of Colorado system鈥檚 mission is to show 鈥渓eadership in high-quality education and professional training, public service, advancing research and knowledge, and state-of-the-art health care.鈥�

CU Boulder鈥檚 mission, grounded in state law, compels the university to be a consummate graduate research institution that offers 鈥渁 comprehensive array of undergraduate, master鈥檚 and doctoral degree programs.鈥�

Further, in 2020 and beyond, CU Boulder pledges to 鈥渟hape tomorrow鈥檚 leaders, be the top university for innovation, and to positively impact humanity.鈥� And it vows to address 鈥渢he humanitarian, social and technological challenges of the 21st century.鈥澨�

Pursuing all of these lofty goals requires both brilliant research and inspired teaching.

That鈥檚 because excellent research and teaching are synergistic. Our job is to broaden and deepen human knowledge and to convey the ability to analyze and discuss it. That idea is as stable and enduring as a fine Roman arch.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.