The Goergen Award–winning lecturer keeps students engaged with workshops and critical thinking exercises.
Lectures presented by Professor Michael Clark center on collaboration, not recitation.
“Instead of seeing myself as a messenger of knowledge, I consider teaching as an interactive process where students and I figure out things together,” says Clark, a professor of instruction in the University of Rochester’s Department of Biology. “I want students to be engaged with the material. Ideally, they should be constantly asking questions. And I want them to think like scientists. That’s my major goal.”
Clark’s interactive approach to instruction, which includes in-class discussions, workshops, and frequent office hours, earned the biologist this year’s Goergen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Nominations for the Goergen Award come from students, faculty, staff members, and administrators.
“Despite the enormous size of his classes, the students report a deep, personal connection to him,” wrote the Department of Biology’s Awards Committee in its recommendation. “He makes it very comfortable for them to ask questions, his passion rubs off on them, and he seems to have an endless supply of energy, time, and patience to devote to his students. Michael’s impact on UR undergraduates has been broad and deep.”
Inspiring curiosity in every student
Annie Ganem ’26 took high school biology over Zoom and was nervous about walking into Clark’s 8 a.m. biology class as a first-year student at URochester. Ganem sat in the last row of the packed auditorium that day, bracing for the worst.
But, Ganem recalls, “from the moment Professor Clark started his lecture, I was engaged. He made me excited to learn. His ability to explain complex, scientific concepts in a simple and digestible way is unmatched. You can feel Professor Clark’s love of biology through his lectures as well as office hours. It is also evident that he has a passion for teaching.”
Clark, who enjoys teaching large classes, has 300 students this semester in his Biology 110 courses. As is often the case, students’ experience with science varies from those who have taken several science courses to those who are taking their very first course.
“I try to make my lectures understandable to a very broad group and still challenge students who already know a lot of the material we’re covering,” says Clark. “I want them to leave my classes more excited about biology and science in general.”
Jervon Cole ’27 says many students have benefited from Clark’s enthusiasm for course content, engaging workshop problems, and plentiful office hours.
“Dr. Clark does an excellent job of explaining content in more than one way, often with visual aids, mnemonics, or physical representations like a rope with different colors of tape to represent protein foldings,” says Cole, who took Clark’s BIO 110 course in 2023. “Dr. Clark is the reason that I switched from a psychology major to a biology major, and I have not looked back since.”
From the lab to the lecture hall
For Clark, standing in front of hundreds of students in a lecture hall isn’t where he thought he would be when he secured his first postdoctoral research associate position in 1998 at the University of Chicago and his second in 2004 at URochester.
Back then, his goal was to run his own lab at a university. Yet by the time he felt comfortably qualified to do so, he realized running a lab was no longer what he wanted to do. With some hesitancy about leaving behind research, he decided to forge a new path.
Then, in what turned out to be fortuitous timing, an instructor position became available in the biology department in 2011. Clark was encouraged to apply and did so.
“In hindsight, that was the best decision I ever made,” says Clark. “I love teaching far more than I ever could have imagined.”
What URochester students say about Michael Clark
“Dr. Clark is very accessible and willing to offer his invaluable support. He has office hours available every day from Monday to Friday and we as students find them very helpful not only to get our questions answered, but also to connect and interact with the professor. To his students, he always says, ‘if my door is open, you are always welcome to knock and come in to chat, even if it’s not my office hours times.’”
—Christina Wang ’26“During my four years as an undergraduate student at the University of Rochester, I never met an instructor so dedicated, caring about his students, and passionate about biology. In fact, if I hadn’t met him, I would not have chosen to pursue biology at all. Due to his influence, I am now working in a surgery and immunology research lab at the Duke University School of Medicine.”
—Angela Park ’22“Having Dr. Clark for one of the first classes I ever took at University of Rochester set the scene for the academic rigor that I would expect for the next few years but also what it means to have an outstanding professor.”
—Alyssa Adela Cisneros ’26
