President's Excellence in Teaching Award
Carla Riedel
Physics teaching professor Carla Riedel received the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award from Montana State University.
The award recognizes Riedel’s student-centered approach to education that transcends the classroom, including her superior mentorship and creative curriculum development in the College of Letters and Science. She will receive a $2,500 honorarium as part of the award.
Riedel, who joined the MSU faculty in 2002, instructs courses spanning the entire physics curriculum, from the physics of music to graduate-level quantum mechanics. Using her deep knowledge base, she fosters an environment where students feel comfortable approaching her for help during class and office hours. Her students said her dedication to their student experience is evident in her quality lectures and accommodation of those with extenuating circumstances.
Riedel was also awarded an Excellence in Mentorship Award from the College of Letters and Science in 2024, and three of her mentees have won student Founders Day awards in recent years.
“Professor Riedel has left me with the most confidence in my own abilities of any professor I’ve had,” wrote physics student Zachary Rice in a nomination letter. “Her curriculum is difficult in the moment, but the practical experience I’ve gained in studying her course material has been instrumental in my understanding of physics.”
“Dr. Riedel’s teaching and support have inspired my own career plans of becoming a professor and have increased my self-confidence as a researcher and a scholar,” wrote Genevieve Smith (Nelson), a fourth-year doctoral student studying condensed matter physics.
Riedel is also chair of the physics department’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, modernizing courses across four areas of study. The undertaking is a massive contribution to the success of current and future Bobcats, wrote physics department head John Neumeier.