Student advocacy, industry experience, and rigorous theoretical knowledge earned him URochester’s highest award for teaching.
Professor David Foster ’99 (PhD) from the University of Rochester’s Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering first fell in love with teaching while he was a graduate student at URochester in the 1990s, but he never envisioned a career as a professor. He was in the midst of a decorated career at Eastman Kodak Company as one of the principal research scientists responsible for the components used in thermal printing, discovering numerous new materials, and in the process of securing more than 50 patents to his name.
But teaching kept calling him, first when he offered a class in photographic chemistry at Kodak and again in 2001 when he was invited by the department to serve as an adjunct professor. He dove into teaching fully in 2013 as an instructional track professor.
Foster’s devotion to the craft earned him this year’s Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the University’s highest award for teaching.
“Dave is universally admired—loved is not too strong a word—by our students and alumni,” says department chair Darren Lipomi. “He goes out of his way to make their experience in our program special. He advocates strongly for students and trains them to excel in scholarly conferences and presentations. He raises funds for our annual trip to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers meeting, and our students without fail come home with awards for their presentations.”
Industry insights in the classroom
Foster’s teaching style, rooted in industry experience, has evolved to keep up with the times. While he started out on blackboards, he was an early adopter of iPads in the classroom and loves how the Slack channels he sets up for his classes allow him to stay in touch with both students and alumni. He recently was excited when a student who took his course six years earlier messaged him to seek advice.
“We know all of our students by name, and it’s great when they keep in touch with us and we get to hear how successful they are,” says Foster. “Our students go to the best grad schools in the world and the first question I always ask them is ‘how prepared are you compared to your peers?’ And every single one of them tells me no one is better prepared than they are, which is the ultimate compliment.”
From textbook to classroom
His students also appreciate that he literally wrote the book Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat, and Mass Transfer. Foster was invited to contribute to the most recent editions of the widely adopted textbook after he submitted particularly constructive feedback to the editor.
“This textbook has become a staple in chemical engineering programs across the country and has, in many ways, made Professor Foster the most well-known member of our faculty,” says Lipomi. “His authorship brings tremendous visibility to our department and enhances our reputation for instructional excellence.”
Chemical engineering students typically take Foster’s foundational courses Fluid Dynamics in the spring of their second year and Separation Processes in the spring of their third. He says one of the most rewarding experiences as a professor is seeing how his students grow and mature over that time.
“The students who come here are excellent to begin with—highly motivated and very smart, which makes teaching these courses much easier,” says Foster. “What I like to do is listen to what they’re doing and what they want to achieve, and then try to create a system and atmosphere that can satisfy those goals. Allowing them to evolve on their own and come up with the conclusions that are best for them is the key.”
What URochester students say about David Foster
“His approach to advising gave me the freedom I needed to develop my skills in problem solving while simultaneously giving me the guidance and encouragement I needed to excel. Anytime, for any student after class, in the elevator, or at a poster session, he is there to provide help and advice.”
—Paul Williams ’24, ’25 (MS), a chemical engineering PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign“Professor Foster is a remarkable teacher because he connects the technical to the tangible, and he makes you care about it. Every aspect of my professional and personal life is better because of him. I aim to be for other people what Professor Foster was for me—a teacher who inspires, uplifts, and makes you excited about the world around you.”
—Hailey Baker ’22, a process engineer at Javlyn Process Systems
