I admit that I love teaching as much as I love science and truly believe that these two essential components of every chemistry professor cannot be separated, but rather complement each other. I wish to express my appreciation to my university professors and my research advisors who taught me science, who taught me what chemistry is. I feel that teaching is as much a gift as a skill to be learned, although I have never had any formal training for teaching. I was born in Russia, but my family is from Ukraine, where my grandfather was a high school and college teacher of mathematics, and my grandmother taught music at school. My mother moved to Moscow to become a professor of piano at the Gnessin State Musical College. Students often visited our house, and from my childhood, I have understood what it means to be a good teacher. Students who graduated as many as 40-50 years ago still called my mother to tell her how fortunate they were to study music with her. One of her former students, who later became a conductor and director of a music academy, wrote: “Her love and support were very important for me: she was one of the first people who believed in my talent unconditionally, and I am only now starting to understand how important it was for me at that moment!” The same atmosphere was in my grandfather’s house. As a small child, I was unable to understand why so many people on the street stopped to speak with my grandfather. When I grew up a bit, many people told me that he was the greatest teacher and the wisest man they had ever met. That was many years ago. Now, being a teacher myself, I wish to thank my grandfather and my mother for all the passion to teach that I have inherited from them. I also wish to thank my father, who was a metallurgical engineer, because he advised me to start my education with a chemical engineering degree. He said that by becoming an engineer, I will be able to choose any career path: industry, science, academia…
I believe that teaching can only happen in the context of a human relationship, and it is my desire to first create an atmosphere or learning environment in which all people in a room can connect. In the first few minutes of a lecture or a presentation, I try to establish the shared passion for chemistry as a common ground. In that territory of shared passion, the sharing of ideas or communication becomes easier. What I may think about a molecule, a reaction, a mechanism, or a topic need not be what my student thinks; rather, we think together, share our knowledge with each other, and learn together how to think better. I often use group assignments and chalkboard exercises, extended office hours, casual settings for study groups, and one-page quizzes in even the largest classes. It is my objective to maintain classes as communities of learners by keeping all constantly aware of the others’ objectives, different perspectives, and shared passions. In doing this, I attempt to teach students how to think as well as how to broaden their scientific knowledge base.