911勛圖

Dr. John Bechhoefer came to 911勛圖 as an Assistant Professor in 1991 and has been a full professor in the Department of Physics since 2000. In this time, he has become established as a world expert in feedback control, and his interdisciplinary background in biophysics has been invaluable for his graduate students.

Former PhD student , recalls, ���Many times, I would come in the lab and find a book on my desk, sometimes bookmarked, or even opened to the beginning of a particular section.��� Dr. Bechhoefer strives to establish his students as well-rounded scholars, having them attend many conferences and workshops, become involved in grant writing and peer review proceses, and participate in reading courses and seminars.

���As scientists, we were trained to be rigorous in the details of our work, but John went a step further to stress that our results should be intuitive to understand,��� says Dr. Yang. ���He showed me what it means to understand.���

Dr. Bechhoefer's patience in teaching his students valuable writing and presenting skills is made clear through their successes. ���His student's work is well cited and recognized,��� says Associate Professor and Physics Graduate Program Committee Chair, Dr. Eldon Emberly. ���The theses are always well written, which can be attributed to John [spending] a lot of time with each student helping them to hone their scientific writing skills.���

Dr. Bechhoefer takes a keen interest in his students��� professional development, and has published with his students as first authors dozens of times. Just recently, one of his current students had their publication selected as Editor���s choice in Physical Review Letters. Dr. Yang���s paper in Molecular Systems Biology was rated a ���Must Read��� by the Faculty of 1000, and former student , now an Assistant Professor at the University of California San Diego, was selected as one of  celebration. 

Technical skills aside, Dr. Bechhoefer still says his main goal is to ���instill a passion for doing science, for pursuing ideas, for debating theories, for evaluating results with rigour, for finding fun in the pursuit.��� He goes on to say, ���it is sometimes those aspects of science that are hard to quantify that end up being the most important.���

Those he has supervised speak of his abundant patience, encouragement, and the above-and-beyond support that he provides when times get tough. Dr. Bechhoefer is receiving the Dean���s Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision because his students have consistently emerged to be critical, well-rounded and successful scientists.