Drew Gentner Receives Poorvu Family Award

Drew Gentner, assistant professor of chemical & environmental Engineering and forestry & environmental studies, has been selected as a 2016 recipient of the Poorvu Family Award for Interdisciplinary Teaching. 

While informing Gentner of the award, Dean Jonathan Holloway told him that the “honor reflects your many contributions, in a still-short space of time on our campus, to innovative teaching at Yale.” 

Jordan Peccia, Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, nominated Gentner, praising him as “an outstanding researcher and a young leader in his field” with an impressive number of journal articles in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“His interdisciplinary perspective is embedded in his teaching,” Peccia wrote. “It is engineering teaching at its best: strong fundamentals and basic science paired with a opportunities for students to develop a thoughtful perspective on the human impacts of engineering decisions and design.” 

Established by the Poorvu family to recognize and to enhance Yale’s strength in interdisciplinary teaching, the award is made to outstanding faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in teaching in interdisciplinary undergraduate programs. 

The Dean of Yale College selects recipients based on nominations from chairs and directors of interdisciplinary programs. Besides paying tribute to these junior faculty members, the $10,000 award, which is paid in the form of a research fund, allows recipients to focus during the summer months on research essential to their development as scholars and teachers.