Floreancig, Glass Win Bellet Teaching Awards

The University of Pittsburgh’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences has named Paul Floreancig, professor in the Department of Chemistry, and Michael R. Glass, lecturer in the Urban Studies Program, winners of the 2015 Tina and David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award.

The awardees will be honored during a reception and dinner on April 14 at Pitt’s University Club.

The Bellet Awards were established in 1998 and endowed in 2008 with a $1.5 million gift from Dietrich School alumnus David Bellet (A&S ’67) and his wife, Tina, to recognize outstanding and innovative undergraduate teaching in the Dietrich School. 

A Dietrich School committee evaluates teaching skills based on student teaching and peer evaluations, student testimonials, and dossiers submitted by the nominees. Full-time faculty members who have taught in the Dietrich School during the past three years are eligible. Each award recipient receives $5,000.

Paul Floreancig has taught the Honors Organic Chemistry sequence for the past four years as well as other organic chemistry courses. He said he seeks to provide students with a fundamental knowledge of organic chemistry principles and an understanding of the subject’s relevancy. In addition, said Floreancig, he presents a study strategy intended to lower the science subject’s “intimidation” factor. 

Floreancig, who joined Pitt in 1999 as an assistant professor of chemistry, received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Indiana University, a master’s from Yale, and a PhD from Stanford.  He was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at California Institute of Technology.

Michael R. Glass is a lecturer in the Urban Studies Program, and his course list comprises urban politics and economic geography as well as several urban research seminars. He is the faculty director for the Urban Studies Program’s Integrated Field Trip Abroad to Singapore and Malaysia. In addition, he is a Faculty Fellow in the University Honors College. 

Glass received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geography from the University of Auckland and his PhD from Penn State. He joined Pitt in 2008 as an adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.