Congratulations to Dr. Christopher Bachmann! He is the recipient of the General Education Distinguished Teacher Award for 2022. Dr. Bachmann joined the faculty at JMU in 2004, after receiving his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia. Dr. Bachmann regularly teaches ISAT 113: Issues in Science and Technology in Cluster Three, which is an interdisciplinary lecture/lab course that is focused on the ways in which biology can be used to solve important problems. There are seven learning objectives in this cluster and the committee was especially impressed by how well Dr. Bachmann’s teaching and materials connect with each of these objectives.

As one of many examples regarding how Dr. Bachmann’s course articulates with the Cluster Three learning objectives, his peer-to-peer assignments not only get the students engaged with theoretical and applied topics, but the students also serve as teachers to the other students. This level of interactivity and peer-based learning exemplifies one of the goals of General Education, which is to have students “transcend the limits of specialization” and “become skilled in questioning, investigating, analyzing, evaluating, and communicating.”  

Dr. Bachmann will be the keynote speaker at the General Education Student Conference banquet in Fall 2022.

He is the eighteenth recipient of this award, which was established by the Provost’s Office in 2004. Previous Distinguished Teacher Award recipients are: Craig Abrahamson (2004); Carol A. Hurney (2005); Lynn S. Fichter (2006); Jeffrey T. Andre (2007); Michael A. Moghtader (2008); Kit Murphy (2009); John Ott (2010); Carole Nash (2011); Amanda Biesecker (2012); Kristin St. John (2013); David Daniel (2014); Deb Warnaar (2015); Kathleen Ferriaolo (2016); Geary Albright (2017); Claire Lyons (2018), Kimberly DuVall (2019), Michael Trocchia (2020), and Graceful Pivots (2021).