Office of University Communications 

Chemistry professor receives national teaching award

SPRINGFIELD — Dr. Mark Richter, professor of chemistry at Missouri State University, was selected as the recipient of the 2007 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Missouri Professor of the Year. He received the award Nov. 15 in Washington, D. C.

“Mark Richter has a unique gift of being able to excite and involve students in chemistry,” said Dr. Tamera Jahnke, College of Natural and Applied Sciences dean. “His enthusiasm creates a class environment where it is impossible to not want to learn more and a one-on-one mentoring approach in his research lab that gets students to work beyond all expectations.”

Sponsored by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and administered by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the awards recognize professors for their influence on teaching and their outstanding commitment to teaching undergraduate students.

The Professors of the Year were honored at a luncheon at the Willard InterContinental and at an evening reception at the Folger Shakespeare Library Exhibition Hall.

“I’m very flattered to receive this award,” Richter said. “The support I’ve received from my students, colleagues, department head and dean contributed in no small way to this recognition.”

Richter, who earned his doctorate in analytical chemistry from Washington State University in 1993, has taught at Missouri State since 1997. Some of his primary research goals are to discover new light emitting systems, study and develop new applications, and better understand the mechanisms of the light-generation and light-emission.