More than 2,400 volunteers pitched in to capture this spectacular image of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas–the largest domed stadium in the world.

People from across the country and around the world came together at the world’s largest domed stadium on March 23, 2013 to help make Rochester Institute of Technology’s 28^th Big Shot photograph a success. More than 2,400 volunteers, including RIT faculty, staff and students who traveled to Texas from upstate New York and alumni from the area as well as across the country, provided the primary light source for the Big Shot image while RIT photographers shot an extended exposure with Cowboys Stadium completely dark for the first time in its history.

Since RIT started its Big Shot project in 1987, university photographers have captured such landmarks as The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas; the U.S.S. Intrepid in New York City; and the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. More.

The U.S. Professors of the Year Awards Program, created in 1981, is the only national initiative specifically designed to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.

John Lippincott, president of CASE, commended this year’s award winners for their “intentional, innovative and inspirational” approach to the classroom experience.

“While our nation enjoys an extraordinary pool of talented professors, those we honor today are truly exceptional,” Lippincott said. “We applaud their belief in a learning process that involves mutual discovery and their dedication to the principle that knowledge liberates, empowers and humanizes us.”

Anthony S. Bryk, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, said today’s winners have “drawn on the best of what we know from cognitive science, learning theory and evidence-based practices in post-secondary instruction to orchestrate extraordinary opportunities for the students in their classrooms. In honoring these distinguished professors who have exhibited excellence in teaching in their disciplines and extraordinary dedication to their students, we are supporting the centrality of teaching on campus and recognizing its importance to the future of our country.”

Pagano, whose award was in the Master’s University and Colleges category, credits his success to blending two elements: his joy of teaching deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and his passion for chemistry.

“There’s a passion for both chemistry and seeing the students succeed in class, an internship or a permanent job,” he says. “Knowing my students have acquired knowledge that can make a difference in their lives by helping them obtain a job is truly rewarding.”

A campus-wide reception to honor Pagano is planned for Dec. 13 in the Dyer Arts Center in Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall.

“It’s humbling,” Pagano says. “It’s wonderful that we can provide the technical knowledge that students need to use on their jobs. I’m fortunate to work at a truly unique place, where deaf and hard-of-hearing students are taught applied knowledge, the roots of their trade, self-advocacy and lifelong learning skills.”

Pagano may have been groomed for teaching by his parents. His mother taught math and his father was a teacher and school administrator.

At his mother’s retirement party, Pagano met his second-grade teacher. She asked if he remembered what he wanted to be when he was in her class. “I guessed a baseball player, but she said, ‘No, you wanted to be a scientist’ and she had a picture I drew with a guy with beakers and a lab coat.”

Pagano, a native of nearby Victor, N.Y., earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from The State University of New York College at Oswego and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Tufts University. He wanted to return to Rochester after his studies and saw he had the credentials for a job opening at NTID. But that job required him to learn sign language.

“I took that on as a challenge,” he says. “I wanted to teach chemistry on a college level and come home to where my family was in Rochester. Here, I not only got to teach chemistry, but to help build the Laboratory Science Technology program and become its first director.”

To say Pagano engages his students is an understatement. It’s not uncommon for him to jump on a table and dance to illustrate the jitteriness of an electron. In a recent class, he had two students lock arms and walk around the classroom to illustrate a chemical bond, while tossing Koosh balls representing energy absorbed and expended.

“As a teacher, you do everything in your power to convey concepts to help students understand,” he says. “I’m a visual learner. I appreciated any time a teacher would do a visual demonstration, so I try to have at least one visual example in every single class. I’ll mix chemicals together and they do something and it leaves the students guessing for a moment why this is happening. And hopefully at the end of the class, they understand why these chemicals reacted in the way they did. Seeing that look of understanding on their faces because of the way you were able to convey an idea brings a great feeling of satisfaction.”

Students graduating from RIT/NTID’s Laboratory Science Technology program have a nearly 100 percent employment rate in jobs across the country.

NTID President Gerry Buckley, who met Pagano to answer his questions when he was applying for his first job at NTID, said Pagano’s dedication to the educational success of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in the sciences “is without equal. Through his work at RIT/NTID over the past 10 years, he has made it his mission to provide valuable mentorship and opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing students to excel in the study of chemistry. Through his efforts, our students have strong foundations in chemistry and have received awards and secured top-notch permanent jobs with companies and organizations across the United States.”

U.S. Professor of the Year was just one of many accolades Pagano has recently received. Earlier this week, he received a Forty Under 40 Award from the Rochester Business Journal. He also received the American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences. That award, sponsored by The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, came with $15,000 for RIT/NTID to help further promote students interested in science. Pagano was also named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society.

Pagano also is working on several research projects. All of his research grants are written to include student involvement. Subjects of his research include access to safe drinking water as a result of a changing climate, tracking carcinogen disposition in the lungs as a function of cigarette smoking and measuring the nutritional value of fruit to see how it impacts the migration patterns of birds.

“I want to keep a healthy balance between teaching and research in my career,” Pagano says. “I think students benefit from both aspects to help them learn and succeed in finding careers.”

Kathyrn Johnson, a second-year Laboratory Science Technology major from Chester Springs, Pa., says Pagano always entertains his students while teaching important lessons.

“He enjoys teaching and shows a real interest in students, which inspires me,” she says. “He thinks of creative demonstrations to make the students comprehend the concepts he talks about. He doesn’t just teach and move on without ensuring students know what he has just taught. He watches and looks out for any confused or lost expressions on students’ faces and he catches them. Honestly, I wish I could have him as my professor for all of my future science courses!”

Nelsey Carcamo, a current master’s student from Kissimmee, Fla., was the first in her family to go to college when she came to RIT/NTID in 2006. She met Pagano on the first day of orientation and immediately switched her career aspirations from math to science.

“He has a powerful way of turning students on to science,” she says. “I had found my passion and also found a mentor who would go on to open many doors for me.”

Carcamo, who is introducing Pagano during the awards ceremony in Washington, said Pagano’s method of teaching, using both his voice and sign language, was a great benefit to her. He “engages students, challenges students and even entertains students in class – just ask any of his former students for details about his electron dance,” she says.

Pagano is active in the American Chemical Society and has taken about 20 of his students, including Carcamo, to regional or national conferences to present the results of their research.

“Through the research experience, he taught me more than just chemistry,” Carcamo says. “He taught me how to be brave, outgoing, confident and to speak up about my thoughts and ideas. I learned something new every day, new challenges and creative ways toward problem solving. Dr. Pagano has been an essential part of my education every step of the way. I am so grateful to have met him on that day years ago.”

When he’s not busy mixing chemicals, walking in marshes to collect water samples or grading papers, Pagano, of Chili, N.Y., enjoys Fantasy Football: he’s in first place in his league this year after developing algorithms to predict how well players will do.

About the awards:

The U.S. Professors of the Year program salutes the most outstanding undergraduate instructors in the country—those who excel in teaching and positively influence the lives and careers of students. Sponsored by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it is the only national program to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.

All undergraduate teachers in the United States, of any academic rank at any type of undergraduate institution, are eligible for the award. Entries are judged by top U.S. educators and other active participants in education.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education launched the awards program in 1981. That same year, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching began hosting the final round of judging, and in 1982, became the primary sponsor.

Annemarie Ross, assistant professor, receives the Stanley C. Israel Award from American Chemical Society President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri

Annemarie Ross, an assistant professor in Rochester Institute of Technology’s Laboratory Science Technology program, has been given the Stanley C. Israel Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences. The award recognizes individuals and/or institutions who have advanced diversity in the chemical sciences and significantly stimulated or fostered activities that promote inclusiveness within the region.

The national award was given by the American Chemical Society during its northeast regional meeting in Rochester. More.

Pagano has been recognized for his work at RIT/NTID and throughout the country. He has won several awards and recently was named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Earlier this year, Pagano was a speaker at the group’s national meeting in San Diego, where he brought two of his students to make formal presentations about their research. More.

Todd Pagano, center, with ACS President Bassam Shakhashiri (left) and Dreyfus Foundation board member Richard Zare (right).

Todd Pagano, RIT/NTID associate professor and director of the Laboratory Science Technology program, has received the American Chemical Society Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences. That award comes with $15,000 for RIT/NTID to help further promote students interested in science.

Pagano has served on the ACS’s Chemists with Disabilities national joint-board. He has taken nearly 20 of his students over the years to give presentations at national conferences. “They are the only associate degree level students presenting,” says Pagano. “They are the only deaf students presenting. And on three occasions, they’ve been recognized with research presentation awards, competing against hundreds of other students.” More.

“That is how I want to be remembered,” she says.

Currently a faculty member in the Administrative Support Technology program, Szczepanek has held several positions since joining RIT/NTID 12 years ago. She worked in NTID Alumni Relations and the NTID Vice President’s office, and then worked for five years as an NTID admissions counselor.

“I think my varied roles within the institute have helped me become an effective teacher today,” she says.

A graduate of RIT/NTID, Szczepanek earned an associate degree in Office Technologies, a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and two master’s degrees in Secondary Education and Multidisciplinary Professional Studies with concentrations in Human Resources and Management and Secondary Education.

“My professors at RIT/NTID were big influences on why I went back to school to get my teaching degree and seek a job here,” she says. “I enjoyed my experience at RIT/NTID so much that I wanted to give something back to the institute.”

Szczepanek says her students motivate and inspire her.

“They get me up and going every day,” she says. “My goal is to teach them how to be flexible and adaptable to the fast-changing technology that is all around them, and help them understand good business practices and ethics, so they can be successful when they get out in the real world.”

Szczepanek serves as the cochlear implant mentorship coordinator at RIT/NTID, and pairs students who have cochlear implants with mentors—other students, faculty and staff who also are cochlear implant users—for social events and learning experiences throughout the academic year.

In her spare time, Szczepanek enjoys doing home improvements, reading books and traveling around the United States. She hopes to travel abroad soon. She also is interested in genealogy and studying her Polish heritage and learning about her ancestors.