EDINBORO, Pa. – Dr. Naod Kebede, professor in Edinboro University’s Chemistry Department, was recently recognized as 2019 Faculty Member of the Year.
The annual award, which honors a tenured professor who demonstrates outstanding excellence in teaching, was presented during Edinboro’s Academic Honors Convocation in April.
Edinboro student Leah Pilewski, who took Kebede’s course in Organic Chemistry, credits her professor for her expertise in the classroom.
“Dr. Kebede has never made me feel like an inadequate student and never judged me for asking questions,” wrote Pilewski, one of Kebede’s several nominators, in her official letter. “He pushes students to be better: questioning us, encouraging ideas and prompting discussions.”
Kebede’s research interests and publications deal with various branches of chemistry including organic, physical organic and photochemistry. Since 2017, he has coauthored two papers that were published in “Arkivoc.” Currently, he is involved in two projects: an isolation and characterization of chemicals from various sources and a computational chemistry study with faculty member Dr. Gerald Hoffman.
Kebede has delivered presentations of his research at national and regional conventions. During his most recent meeting with the American Chemical Society in 2016, he presented a study entitled “Ab Initio and DFT investigation of the phototranposition mechanism of Pyrazines.”
At Edinboro, Kebede teaches 10 different chemistry courses and serves as the primary academic advisor for all students in the Pre-Pharmacy programs. He also oversees and maintains Edinboro’s 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, the science lab version of an MRI machine, and has been asked to serve on multiple university committees including the Technology Fee Committee.
Within the last five years, Kebede’s students have presented four research posters, three of which were presented at regional research conferences, including the American Chemical Society National Meeting.
Dr. Kebede believes that a successful educator understands that students have different learning styles and lives outside of the classroom.
“Treating students as human beings rather than subjects to be analyzed as numbers on certain indices of learning assessment tools is essential in providing context to the performances on tests,” said Kebede, who joined Edinboro’s faculty in 2000. “Not every day is the same, and events happen that should be taken into consideration as to why a student is performing below a realistic expectation.”
Prior to joining Edinboro University, Kebede taught at Morgan State University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Addis Abeba University in Ethiopia (1982-1986) and his master’s degree in Eremology, a multi-disciplinary program in Desert Science, at University of Gent in Belgium (1991-1993). Kebede received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1993-1998), and then went on to complete a Postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University (1998-2000).
Additionally, Edinboro University recognized Dr. Mary Paniccia Carden (English & Philosophy) as 2019 Scholar of the Year and Diane Crandall (Art) as 2019 Advisor of the Year.
