Hellstrom receives Excellence in Teaching Award
is colleagues describe his teaching as “exceptionally imaginative, inspiring, interactive and inclusive,” and call him a mentor and positive influence both in the classroom and via informal interactions with students.
Materials Science and Engineering Professor Eric E. Hellstrom brings passion and infectious enthusiasm not only to the department, but to the College of Engineering . In his classrooms, engineering truly is hands-on and with his guidance, students develop as thinking engineers. “He is the kind of person that merely by being around you feel as though you can accomplish more than you believed,” says a former student.
For his dedication to teaching, Hellstrom has been named the College of Engineering ’s 2004 recipient of the Benjamin Smith Reynolds Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Shortly after it began, Hellstrom joined UW-Madison’s Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment program, a time-consuming endeavor that helps committed faculty improve their teaching by understanding how students learn. As a result, he made a number of effective changes to all his courses to increase student participation and understanding. “Having had Eric as a teacher has been one of those key transformational experiences that we so much hope all students have at least once in their undergraduate career,” says a colleague. “He is always motivated by what is best for the student.”
Characteristic of Hellstrom’s approach to teaching is in-depth, hands-on interaction — and never time-minimization. In his introduction to materials course, students learn via “controlled destruction”: They disassemble boom boxes and study each component see how materials science enables modern technology. “He is not only introducing the concepts and skills, he is deeply committed to helping the students formulate their uncertainties and to express their ideas, both orally and in class discussion, but first of all one-on-one as the experiment takes place,” says a former student.
Hellstrom redesigned this course nearly a decade ago to become a hook for landing outstanding students to the department. Since then, the number of undergraduate students in the department has increased and their median GPA has risen from 3.0 to 3.3.
As an instructor in the college’s introduction to engineering course, and as an advisor for student presenters in the university’s ESTEAM and SOAR programs for high school students, Hellstrom opens the doors of materials science and engineering to potential students. As a result, he has drawn more and better students to the department. “He inspires students to think independently, generate useful questions, and solve problems in a team environment,” says a former student. “His ability to convey to us the excitement of the materials field was a major factor in my decision to pursue MS&E here.”
Hellstrom, who worked five years at Sandia National Laboratories, joined the department in 1985. Since then, he has taught or guest-lectured in 15 different courses and, despite the extra effort, has taught courses for faculty on sabbatical and volunteered to teach courses vacated by retirees—all with high student evaluations. “Professor Hellstrom taught me not with a PowerPoint presentation or with board and chalk,” says a former student. “Now, as a professor myself, I can say that I can partially ‘blame’ him for my decision to join the academia.”
