Teaching is an adventure that makes coming to work each day great fun, even when I can't find a parking place. I particularly look forward to the exhilaration of the classroom. I know instinctively when the students have been excited by the material and have learned something, and when they have not. In the latter case I jot down in my notes what to improve and how to make those improvements.

Perhaps the most important aspect of any lecture is to involve the students directly, and I do this by interacting with them as individuals rather than talking at them. I tell stories and bring in many practical demonstrations. I continually ask questions and expect students to do the same. My classes are noisy. I always leave the classroom covered in chalk.

I do not follow directly a particular course textbook or assign daily reading requirements. Rather, I expect the students to read widely from numerous sources and to rely on class notes. My goal is to empower the students in the learning process that continues lifelong beyond the classroom by demanding a more mature and less rote approach to the subject material. I rarely lose an opportunity, especially from current events, to instill in students a broad view of the roles and responsibilities of engineers in society. For example, after discussing the technical questions involved in a recent discharge of "nickel- and vanadium-tainted dust" from the Chevron refinery, our discussion moved on to issues such as society's fear of technology. These discussions both force students to integrate several technical disciplines and exhort them to think more deeply about their future roles in society.

Supervising graduate students is an equally enjoyable and important aspect of university teaching. Graduate students in our department are very talented. Some of them will go on to truly great accomplishments. After working four or five years with a graduate student, I find it hard to say good-bye. I stay in close personal contact with almost all of my former graduate students.

The Department of Chemical Engineering is populated by a large number of excellent teachers. We share ideas freely, including an exchange of detailed lecture notes. In small groups we endlessly discuss how to improve the curriculum, how to give our students the ability to practice the art of engineering, how to incorporate modern computation and design tools, how to instill speaking and writing skills, and how to motivate learning. Like me, my colleagues are here on evenings and weekends.

Outside of the classroom, my day is filled with other types of teaching: clarifying and refining individual students' understanding of course material, counseling and advising students on their academic careers and directions. These experiences too are great fun. In the evening I am dead tired, but satisfied and looking forward to all the activities of the next day. For me there really is truth in former Governor Jerry Brown's saying that one receives "psychic rewards" at the university.