On Thursday I will give a "Last Lecture" at ASU. I'm one of three faculty chosen by students to deliver a talk as if it were our last ever. Here is a news story about the event and below is the portion referring to me:
Lynch tells his students that an undergraduate degree is only the beginning of a journey of possibilities, not the determinant of a person’s future path. He’ll talk about his own journey as a young Irish scientist who came to ASU to do research and discovered a love of teaching when he was asked to teach a combined science and humanities course.
“The key to success is to take opportunities when they present themselves, no matter how they draw you outside your formal training,” says Lynch, who was named Arizona Professor of the Year two years ago by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “I’ll talk about the joys of Nietzche, the politics of evolution and pains of grading, with adventures along the way.”
Malvika Sinha, a student who nominated Lynch, says during the freshman honors Human Event class he asked difficult, challenging questions that prodded students to think about things from a completely different angle. He helped each student become a better writer and thinker, continually raising the bar higher.
Feel free to turn up if you are in the Tempe area and looking to kill an hour or two. The talks will be at 7:30pm in the Pima Room of the Memorial Union. There's a reception at seven.
Now I better get back to figuring out what I want to say!
Education & Careers
Comments
What an honor. I'll be attending in spirit!
Posted by: Doc Bill | April 21, 2009 6:21 PM
Not to descend into bad taste here, but Randy Pausch kind of raised the bar on this whole "last lecture" idea. I don't think you can compete unless you...um...well, you did specifically say this is only "nominally" your last lecture!
Posted by: Kurt | April 21, 2009 8:07 PM