Princeton Weekly Bulletin June 7, 1999
APGA honors graduate student instructors
The 1999 Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni awards for excellence in teachingwere given to graduate students Erik Gray, Daniel Magilow, Lisa Taneyhill and Stephen Wu.
Gray received his bachelor's degree at Cambridge University and spent a year at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris studying classics before joining the Princeton English Department in 1995. Says his dissertation adviser, Gray "lectures with a kind of ease and authority one rarely sees in novices. Speaking to him about teaching, one feels one is talking to a peer."
Magilow came to Germanic Languages and Literatures in 1996 from Columbia University, where he majored in comparative literature. "Dan stood out this year -- all year -- as one of the best assistants in instruction I've ever seen at Princeton, not only for his sheer energy, but for his judicious application of new technology, his concern for individual students and his commitment to improving our overall program," according to a colleague.
Taneyhill became a graduate student in Molecular Biology in 1995, coming from Western Maryland College, where she received her bachelor's degree in biochemistry. She was an assistant in instruction for the course Cell and Developmental Biology, an intensive required course for molecular biology undergraduate majors. According to one student, she was "wonderful, very helpful in clarifying class material, and made 110 percent effort to help us with any problems."
Wu joined the Economics Department in 1995 after graduating from Brown University with a degree in applied mathematics and economics. In the past two years he precepted in three undergraduate courses and taught in the Woodrow Wilson School's summer program. Of his dedication, a professor notes: "During the course of the semester, Wu had two of his front teeth knocked while playing basketball. Directly after a visit to an oral surgeon, he came onto campus to run a scheduled review session."