2004 Recipients
Frederick Hemke
Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence
Hemke received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1958); a Premiere Prix from the Paris Conservatoire de Musique (1956), a master of music from the Eastman School of Music (1962), and his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Wisconsin , Madison (1975). He currently is the Louis and Elsie Snydacker Eckstein Professor of Music.
Hemke is a world-renown saxophone performer, lecturer and teacher. His students speak of his intuitive sense of judging their needs and untapped abilities. Over and over they write about his uncanny ability to bring out the best in them, to inspire them, and motivate them to do more. They say he always seems to know when encouragement, counseling, inspiration, or criticism is necessary to achieve the highest results. Hemke's unique style of teaching where older students help younger, creates an atmosphere of learning and achievement. One student writes “Talent alone is never enough. The discipline, drive, and self-confidence that Dr. Hemke instilled in me allowed me to develop into a world-class musician.”
Hemke has served as acting dean of the School of Music ; senior associate dean of Music; and for many years Northwestern's representative to the Big Ten Athletic Conference and faculty representative to the NCAA. He has received the School of Music and Northwestern Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching award . Professionally he has performed or been artist in residence nationally and internationally including Costa Rica, Russia, Sweden, Holland, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Canada, Norway, and France.
Lawrence Henschen
Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence
Henschen received his bachelor (1966), masters (1968), and Ph.D. degrees (1971) from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He has been a member of Northwestern's faculty since 1971 where he is currently professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Henschen's students describe his teaching as clear and passionate; they say he is able to explain the most difficult concepts in ways that made them accessible. They also say he's precise and creates an atmosphere inside and outside the classroom in which students concentrate their efforts on learning while understanding the larger context of the topic. He recognizes that students come to his classes with different levels of preparation and he adjusts accordingly, giving every student a fair chance at succeeding. He makes the material interesting by including realistic examples along with humorous anecdotes which soften the mood of the class and make the class room experience very enjoyable. They find him helpful outside the classroom, as well. One student writes that “… Prof. Henschen was an invaluable help to me, as well as my fellow students, in navigating the procedural maze that a university education can unfortunately sometime entail.”
Henschen has received the McCormick School teaching award and the Illinois Gamma Chapter of Tau Beta Pi outstanding teacher award. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 articles; his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Northwestern-Motorola Center for Telecommunications, and by the Murphy Society. He has directed nearly 70 Ph.D. students.
Melissa Macauley
Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence
Macauley received her B.A. from Loyola Marymount University (1979), an M.A. from Georgetown University (1985), and Ph.D. from University of California , Berkeley (1993). She is currently associate professor of History.
Macauley's students praise her passion for Chinese history, her deep interest in her students, and her willingness to guide them in and out of class and after they have graduated. Her syllabi, some as long as six pages, and her extraordinary class handouts, reflect a teaching philosophy that focuses on student learning. Through personal anecdotes of her own time in China as well as her astounding knowledge of the subject, Macauley brings her students the history, personalities, and rich cultural relationships of China . Her students write that she helps them understand what happened and why, not merely memorize the facts. She holds her students to the highest standards while guiding their development as people, as well as novice historians, with passion and understanding. As one student wrote “Her classes were the best B+s that I have ever received (or worked for.)”
Macauley was the Wayne V. Jones Research Professor at Northwestern from 2000 to 2002. She has been a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Qing History in Beijing and has received grants to support her research from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and a Fulbright grant. Her book Social Power and Legal Culture was recognized as the 1999 CHOICE outstanding academic book.
Charles Whitaker
Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Clinical Professor
Charles Whitaker received his bachelor's (1980) and his master's (1981) in journalism from Northwestern. He is currently Clinical Assistant Professor in the Medill School of Journalism.
Whitaker's students write of his love for magazines and journalism, of his ability to make the technical and potentially dull subject of editing come alive. They say that he combines theoretical and practical information seamlessly and that students gain an amazing understanding of the magazine world. Despite the fact that by his own admission, he heaps tons of work on his students, that he is sometime brutal in his meticulous grading of their efforts, that he taxes their knowledge of grammar, spelling, civics, math, and current events, that he makes them think their through the myriad ethical and legal landmines that could ravage any article, however, well written, they relish his classes and say that the time seems to fly by. His students benefit from his freely given advice and counsel before and after graduation about professional advancement.
Whitaker's writing has been recognized with first place awards by the National Association of Education Writers and the Louisville Association of Black Communicators. Before resuming his Northwestern appointment, he was Senior Editor at Ebony magazine.