Awards & Achievements
Excellence in Teaching
1999 Recipient - Tony Durst
The recipient of the 1999 University of Ottawa's Award for Excellence in Teaching, chemistry professor Tony
Durst regards research and teaching as inseparable, so much so that he spends a great deal of his time explaining the intricacies of research and scientific
life to his students. The Faculty of Science estimates that Durst has taught no fewer than 10,000 students since 1972. On some occasions, he has been
responsible for as many as 700 students in a single semester.
A former chemistry department chair and vice-dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Durst has actively taken part in the re-organization and refining of curricula. He has written a definitive laboratory manual and elaborated a course in spectroscopic techniques that is now one of the department's most popular and useful offerings.
He played a leading role in creating and directing a co-op program in chemistry; the University is now requiring other science departments to set up their own co-op programs along the same lines. In much the same fashion, he led the creation of the mentor/adviser program for first-year science students. About 20 professors and 120 students now take part in the program, which began just two years ago.
Finally, in an effort to attract the best possible students into the chemistry department, he took part in an initiative to recruit such students from high schools. The University is to sponsor internships that would make it possible for students to spend the months prior to entering the University with a research group.