Two Professors Honored at Great Teachers Awards Dinner

American studies professor Andrew Delbanco and computer science professor Shree K. Nayar were honored at the 58th Great Teacher Awards Dinner Thursday night.

The award, given each year to one Columbia College professor and one School of Engineering and Applied Science professor, is bestowed by the Society of Columbia Graduates. The society's board votes after reading student evaluations and faculty and dean recommendations.

"You give the award so that people will want to get the award … to prime the pump of great teaching," said Michael Garrett, society co-chair.

Both professors said they were honored to receive the award.

"I'm very delighted," said Delbanco, Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities and director of Columbia's American studies program. "Columbia's students are tough to please. This really means something."

Nayar is the T.C. Chang Professor of Computer Science and director of Columbia Automated Vision Environment. He downplayed his accomplishment.

"It's a great evening and event [to be] remotely connected with the people, the legends on that list and it is a remarkable feeling," he said. "As a teacher what's more important is what the student ends up knowing than what the teacher knows."

Students in attendance were enthused about seeing their professors receive the awards.

"He gives very good lectures, great interaction, and he gives me a lot of research help," Jinwei Gu, SEAS '09, said.

During the awards ceremony, Nayar discussed some of the more bizarre events inside and outside his classroom--including one of his students giving SEAS Dean Zvi Galil a piggyback ride--and elaborated on his teaching philosophy.

"I've learned over the years that teaching is the most wonderful way to learn," Nayar said.

Delbanco noted the importance of not pegging oneself as a great teacher in his speech.

There is a "danger of losing that edge of self-doubt that you have to have as a prerequisite," he said.

In his speech, Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley discussed last week's Minuteman event, suggesting that it sparked intellectual inquiry and has "stumped" both students and administrators.

"It's important to keep a tradition going," Quigley said of the award.