Ray Bard
Professor of Chemistry

“I’ve taught all sorts of chemistry here — organic, polymer, corrosion, general, nuclear, instrumental techniques — and what I want most from my students is for them to explore things, to explore ideas. All teachers have their basic subjects but all teachers are really trying to get their students to ask piercing questions, to think creatively, to find methods, to find solutions themselves — not to lean on other peoples’ solutions. You’ve got to learn to ask penetrating questions. No questions, no answers, in every aspect of your life. I want my students to get used to going beyond what they’re told. And I want them to never ever never quit.

“I try to teach chemistry by connecting it to their lives. I mean, are there people you can’t stand? Well, those are repulsive interactions. And relationships that just don’t gel? Those are insoluble compounds.

“Now, for me, the greatest kick as a teacher is not the great student doing well. Great students will do well no matter what I do — you’d have to be a pretty bad teacher to hold a great kid back. It’s the struggling student getting it that I love. That’s where I feel I’ve done my work well. A kid from whom the fog lifts — now that’s fun. And those are the kids who come back years later to tell me they remember getting over the hill, and from there they went on to be doctors or whatever. That’s a crucially important thing we do here, at this university, helping that kind of kid get over that kind of hill. Those are the kids I remember best. Those are the ones you don’t forget.”