NTID Science Professor Wins Teaching Award

Todd Pagano, assistant professor in the Laboratory Science Technology (LST) program at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, has received the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from Rochester Institute of Technology.

The award provides recognition and encouragement by peers and students to a faculty member with three years or less teaching experience, who has made a distinct difference in such areas as model classroom teaching, campus leadership, pioneering teaching methodology, creative course development, or instructional support.

Pagano, of Rochester, joined NTID three years ago and has been instrumental in developing the LST program, which appeals to students interested in careers related to the environment, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food analysis, and forensics.

Pagano’s personal love of science has led to one of his most widely-known teaching strategies, which is to challenge students to participate in his class before they write off the field of science.

“I met Professor Pagano during summer orientation, and he asked me if I liked science,” said LST student Anita Kurian. “He guaranteed I would if I came to his class. We did different activities and sure enough, I fell in love with the program.”

Pagano, who has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the State University of New York at Oswego and a master's in the same field from Tufts University, has served as advisor to the NTID/RIT College Bowl team and coach to a student flag football team. He also guides and advises students in undergraduate research projects and is active in the American Chemical Society.

NTID is the first and largest technological college in the world for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. One of eight colleges of RIT, NTID offers educational programs and access and support services to the 1,100 deaf and hard-of-hearing students from around the world who study, live, and socialize with 14,400 hearing students on RIT’s Rochester, N.Y., campus. Web address: http://www.rit.edu/NTID.

For more NTID news visit http://www.rit.edu/ntid/newsroom


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