The 2024-25 Outstanding Teaching Awards: Anastasia Hauser

Anastasia Hauser, Ph.D., a lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering in the University of Kentucky Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, is one of nine winners to receive UK’s 2024-25 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

These awards identify and recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching. Hauser is one of three Category 2 winners, which honors lecturers and clinical title series faculty.

A native of Lexington, Hauser received her B.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UK in 2012 and 2016, respectively. During her time as a graduate student, she received multiple recognitions and accolades including being an NSF IGERT Fellow, an NSF Graduate Student Fellow and was part of the NIH Cancer and Nanotechnology Trainee program. After earning her degrees, she worked in the pharmaceutical industry for three years with U.S. WorldMeds, where she worked on the design and development of new drug products and formulations. She joined the UK Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering in 2020.

“I am very honored to have been selected to receive the Outstanding Teaching Award,” Hauser said. “As a student at UK, I was fortunate to learn from amazing teachers who have impacted how I teach today. Now, I am grateful to have the opportunity to work alongside some of those same faculty members. In the classroom, I emphasize the importance of collaboration and teamwork in the engineering profession. I enjoy working with students to identify their career interests, helping them achieve their goals and instilling a desire for life-long learning.”

Capitalizing on her design experience, Hauser took over the role of teaching the department’s capstone design sequence. In this process, she helped modernize the content to include topics such as engineering teamwork, economic analysis, process design and expanding into product design concepts. She has also started a multi-institutional research project in engineering teamwork, which will enhance her teaching approaches in capstone design.

Beyond the classroom, Hauser is also co-principal investigator of the department’s REU program, which serves as an important feeder to the college’s graduate program in chemical and materials engineering.

“[Hauser’s] teaching style is one of personal attention and friendliness, while also holding students to high expectations,” said Thomas Dziubla, professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering. “She takes great care to foster an environment of mutual respect and caring, that brings students together in a way that is quite hard to maintain. I think it is largely appreciated and respected by students because it’s clear she doesn’t just hold them to these standards but herself as well. She carefully considers students feedback and incorporates trends in industry to update her approach and course content to keep information timely, and relevant.”

In addition to this award, Hauser has received her department’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2022 and 2023, which is selected by juniors and seniors in studying chemical engineering at UK. In 2023, Hauser received the Pigman College of Engineering’s Herny Mason Lutes Excellence in Teaching Award. She was also selected for UK CELT’s Teaching Innovation Institute for the 2023-24.

***

This year’s Outstanding Teaching Awards were given to six faculty and three graduate teaching assistants. Each winner received an award certificate, a commemorative engraved gift and a cash award in recognition of their teaching excellence at a campus ceremony on April 25. Read more here.