Students who know him best might describe Meteorology Professor David Changnon in a word: wooshkie.
It’s a term used often among NIU meteorology students and one Changnon coined himself to express his excitement over something wonderful, such as an “aha moment” that a student experiences when a difficult concept suddenly makes sense.
Enthusiastic, challenging, helpful, knowledgeable—that’s how students describe their mentor. Animated and funny, too.
“He definitely uses his comedic skills to make the class laid back,” graduate student Jenni Prell says. She has seen the demonstrative professor spin around, sit on the floor and kiss the blackboard in order to get a learning point across.
“What sets Dr. Changnon apart is that he really cares about students and goes above and beyond to make sure they understand the material,” she says.
Changnon frequently publishes scholarly articles with students and connects them with top professionals in the meteorology field. For many years he has provided a stream of interns to one of the nation’s top meteorologist—Tom Skilling of WGN and the Chicago Tribune.
Changnon earned his a Ph.D. in climatology from Colorado State University in 1991 and came to NIU a year later. Even as a rookie professor he knew that he wanted to give students something that was absent from his undergraduate experience at another university.
“In a sense, I felt like a number,” he says. “At NIU, I want to help students succeed, not only by helping them to finish their degrees but also by identifying ways they can challenge themselves.”