The School of Arts and Sciences has announced the following recipients of 2025 SAS teaching awards. These honors will be presented on Thursday, May 1 at a reception that is open to the University community. The event will take place at 4 p.m. at the Penn Museum.

Listed below are the School of Arts and Sciences recipients of its 2025 teaching awards:

Ira H. Abrams Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching

This year’s recipients of SAS’s highest teaching honor are Brendan O’Leary, the Lauder Professor of Political Science, and David W. Christianson, the Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor in Chemistry and Chemical Biology. The Ira H. Abrams Award was established in 1983 and recognizes teaching that is intellectually challenging and exceptionally coherent. The award honors faculty who embody high standards of integrity and fairness, have a strong commitment to learning, and are open to new ideas.

In the words of one of his students, “Professor O’Leary is one of the best Penn has to offer.” Citing his brilliance as a scholar, his eloquence as a teacher, and his boundless energy as an advisor, the department of political science strongly recommended Dr. O’Leary, while his undergraduate students credit Dr. O’Leary with sharpening their critical thinking skills and challenging them with critical and honest feedback. “This might be the hardest course you take at Penn,” one student wrote of Dr. O’Leary’s course Power Sharing in Deeply Divided Spaces, “but boy, is it worth it.”

A member of the department of chemistry for over thirty years, David Christianson does not seek to rest on his laurels; rather, he seeks innovation. His students report that he sets a high bar and motivates them with energy and verve. Reminiscing on their time, one student wrote that the entire class was “enchanted by Dr. Christianson’s excitement for biochemistry and its applications. Dr. Christianson took great care in cultivating our minds for critical thinking and careers in science.”

Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching

James F. English, the John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, is the 2025 recipient of the Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching. This award, which is named after Dennis DeTurck the Robert A. Fox Leadership Professor and former dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, recognizes exceptional creativity and innovation in instruction.

Dr. English is the founder of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities, where he served as faculty director from 2015 to 2024. He also directed the Penn Humanities Forum from 2011 to 2018 and oversaw its relaunch as the Wolf Humanities Center. Students and colleagues praise Dr. English for his novel teaching, including an audiobook class—“no reading!”—and Novel of the Year, where students learn about what goes into the selection of a literary prize winner. As one student said, “he is an educator who wants to push his students towards fulfilling their academic potential and is someone who does not only encourage academic pursuits but actively helps students accomplish their goals.”

Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research

This year’s Mentorship of Undergraduate Research Award goes to Arnold Mathijssen, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy. The award is given in recognition of faculty members who have excelled in nurturing undergraduate students’ desires and abilities to conduct meaningful research. Students and colleagues describe Dr. Mathijssen as “generous with his time,” engaged in outreach, and committed to broadening participation in science, including encouraging students with no prior laboratory experience to engage in research. He was instrumental in securing Penn’s participation in the American Physical Society’s Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics. As director of the “Kitchen Science” outreach series, he has organized monthly events at local Philadelphia high schools, hosted student visits to Penn, and led cooking workshops with local chefs.

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by an Assistant Professor

This award recognizes a member of the junior faculty who demonstrates unusual promise as an educator. This year SAS honors Secil Yilmaz, an assistant professor of history, who studies the sexuality, gender, and medicine of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey.

“Professor Yilmaz’s teaching methodology was revolutionary in how it wove together multiple forms of historical documentation,” one student said. She showed the class how to look at historical moments not just through textbooks, but also through songs, films, oral histories, and everyday objects. In the end, Dr. Yilmaz “fundamentally transformed not just my understanding of history, but my approach to knowledge itself,” the student said.

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Affiliated Faculty

Alyssa Bohen, a lecturer in chemistry, and Melissa Jensen, a lecturer in English, are the recipients of this award, which recognizes contributions to undergraduate education made by the school’s non-standing faculty.

Alyssa Bohen joined the chemistry department just as the University was returning to in-person instruction after the shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We could not have found a better person for the job,” her colleagues have reported, as Dr. Bohen offers experimental organic chemistry within a well-structured format for undergraduates.

As an author of children’s books, Melissa Jensen adds a unique perspective to teaching and learning at Penn. Students praise Ms. Jensen’s dedication, experience, and her commitment to students, saying that she both encouraged them and showed them how to improve.

Liberal & Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs

Clay Colmon is the director of curriculum design in the College of Liberal & Professional Studies, using his skills in instructional design to help faculty to develop strong asynchronous online classes and develop and teach his own classes across three different subject designations: Digital Strategies and Culture, Social Difference, and English Literature. Students say that Dr. Colmon “teaches in a way that is engaging, thought-provoking and very hands on” and is “calming” and “engaging,” discussing challenging but rewarding material.

Liberal & Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Professional Graduate Programs

Nazlı Bhatia is an associate professor of practice who researches and teaches negotiation and organizational behavior. Colleagues praise Dr. Bhatia as “an excellent educator and mentor” with “expertise, enthusiasm and teaching talent.” One student reported that Dr. Bhatia “made even the driest academic theories feel like a Netflix thriller” and used Dr. Bhatia’s teaching in practice to secure higher wages in her own job negotiations. 

Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students

This award recognizes graduate students for teaching that is intellectually rigorous and has a considerable impact on undergraduate students. This year’s awardees are:

• Krishan M. Canzius, Mathematics
• Jordan Carrick, Classical Studies
• Christy Dickman, Political Science
• James Paul Mesiti, Spanish and Portuguese
• Jacob K. Nielsen, English
• Henry Wright Noe, Chemistry
• Tyler Colby Re, Philosophy
• Gwendalynn Carlene Roebke, Philosophy
• Julian Noah Tash, History
• Andres Villatoro, Sociology