C.T. Lin will give real-world examples
in Presidential Teaching Professor seminar

by Tom Parisi

C.T. Lin practices what he preaches.

NIU's award-winning chemistry professor believes students learn best through real-world illustrations that connect chemistry with its everyday applications. Lin himself provides a shining example.

In 1999, Lin and the university launched ChemNova Technologies, Inc., a spin-off company that applies his basic-research discoveries to real-world problems. Today, by some estimates, the company is valued at about $5 million. It holds nine U.S. and international patents and has provided a working laboratory for countless NIU students.

“The research that I do not only informs my teaching but excites students, who see how theory is applied to real-life situations and learn lessons about entrepreneurship,” says Lin, who in 2001 earned NIU's top honor for teaching, the Presidential Teaching Professorship.

Lin will lead “Real-Life Examples: Connecting Learning and Research in Practical Applications,” a Presidential Teaching Professor Seminar scheduled for noon Tuesday, Feb. 21, in the Heritage Room of the Holmes Student Center.

Refreshments will be served at 11:30 a.m. All are invited.

“All teachers must be life-long learners, and with this series of Presidential Teaching Professor seminars, our hope is that NIU's very best teachers on campus will share their winning strategies,” Vice Provost Earl “Gip” Seaver says. “We hope the seminar will be well-attended as C.T. Lin provides his thoughts and insights on how to our inspire students to reach their potential.”

Lin taught in his native Taiwan and in Singapore and Brazil before coming to NIU in 1985. He has since captured all three of NIU's major faculty awards, including the Presidential Research Professorship (2004) and the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (1999).

The veteran professor of chemistry and biochemistry often relates complex chemical principles to real-world events or analogies that students can easily grasp. A warming hug, for example, helps explain heat transfer, while the Great Wall of China becomes a visual tool for teaching particle-in-a-box behavior in quantum theory. His spin-off company serves as a real-world lesson in bringing basic research to the marketplace.

During his presentation, Lin will discuss examples of technologies that students assisted in developing at ChemNova, including an environmentally friendly coating for metal that uses a chemical bond to enhance adhesion and inhibit corrosion. Lin and his students also are developing a nano-particles coating that kills bacteria and a “laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy system” that identifies different types of bacteria.

“I hope to make ChemNova an example of how spin-off companies can benefit both the university and its students,” Lin says.

Lin teaches everything from freshman chemistry to graduate courses. Over the past two decades plus, dozens of undergraduate-, graduate- and Ph.D.-level students have been involved in his research.

2-6-06