In the early 1990s, funding for White's laboratory research waned, but he
was awarded a National Science Foundation education grant. It forever
changed his career path.
Devotion to teaching "seems like something normal to me, but it's not
something every faculty does," White said. "You get promoted as a
researcher; you don't get promoted on your teaching."
As a scientist, he wasn't trained to be an educator. In graduate
school and later, the emphasis for most scientists is on research, grant
funding and publication. At the university level, it's simply expected
that someone who understands the subject well can teach it, White said.
"He's had an interesting career because he decided to devote himself
to teaching at a certain point," said Steve Bernhardt, the UD professor
of English who nominated White for the award. "That's a tough decision
in our environment if you're expected to be a research scientist."
For the past 16 years, White has been director of the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute undergraduate science education program at UD. He is a
member of the Education and Professional Development Committee of the
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and of
UD's Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education (ITUE).
He has won numerous teaching awards prior to CASE's professor of the
year and in April 2014 will accept a teaching award from the ASBMB,
giving a talk at its annual conference.
"Whenever I have campus visitors I make sure they visit one of Hal's
biochemistry classes," said Bernhardt, who is also director of the ITUE.
"He's just an inspiration."
The two have known each other since Bernhardt came to UD 13 years ago
and they began working together on issues in education. White was
attending monthly lunches on campus devoted to education. He learned the
issues were the same, regardless of whether they were in science or
English.
"Students were bored," White said. "They were just memorizing."
He sought to change the way students learned. He was on the forefront
of an approach known as problem-based learning, where students work to
solve a problem and in the process research the subject, learn the
material and ask the questions.
"One of my goals is to get students to think more broadly," White said. "I want to help change their frame of mind."
On a recent morning, White had just come from teaching both his
graduate course and his biochemistry class for non-majors. He still rode
his bike in, despite snowy, wet conditions.
His graduate course brings together teaching assistants from biology
and chemistry to help them learn to work together in an
interdisciplinary way. His method uses relatable issues to teach his
undergraduates biochemistry.
That day, he began the class by asking how many had ever gone two
days without food. Starvation became his platform for teaching the
students about oxidation, ketoacidosis and carbohydrate metabolism.
"I don't think I consciously said, 'I want to be a teacher,' but it
was a foregone conclusion," said White, who comes from a family of
educators.
It was easy to get people to write strong letters of support for the
nomination, Bernhardt said, especially from White's former
undergraduates. Many of them have gone on to prestigious graduate
programs and accomplished careers.
Bernhardt believes White is deserving of the award and that it shows in his students.
"What's remarkable is they really understand — they talk like
biochemists," Bernhardt said. "They understand how to read the
literature and how to read and think and talk like a scientist."