Patricia Muisener Honored for Excellence in Teaching, Mentorship and Innovation

For Patricia Muisener, teaching professor and associate chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Stevens Institute of Technology, the 2024–2025 academic year has been one for the record books. A chemical engineer by training, she enjoys making an impact on Stevens students through education, curriculum development and mentorship.  In addition to celebrating her tenth year teaching chemistry at the university, she has been recognized with several distinguished honors for her significant impact on Stevens students.

“I try every day to be the kind of teacher and mentor I would want,” said Patricia Muisener, who recently was named a Stevens Distinguished Teacher-Mentor.

This past spring semester, Muisener received the prestigious Stevens Distinguished Teacher-Mentor (DTM) Award, the university’s highest recognition for faculty who excel in classroom teaching, educational scholarship, mentoring and related innovation. The three-year honor includes annual discretionary funds to support educational research; the opportunity to present her provost lecture on teaching and learning in Fall 2025; and the title of Stevens Distinguished Teacher-Mentor for the next three years.

“I’m deeply honored to receive this award,” Muisener said. “I’ve had amazing mentors, especially here at Stevens, and I’ve always believed mentorship is key to success. I’m also excited that this award includes funding to support educational research and projects — especially as we explore new ways to teach with tools like AI.”

The award highlights Muisener’s efforts to continue to raise the quality of education, including her previous work on the Stevens Foundations grant funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF). This comprehensive initiative helped revitalize the General Chemistry I and II courses and create innovative digital learning resources. At Stevens, she’s taught, redesigned or developed eight undergraduate and graduate courses, weaving in active learning, peer instruction, team teaching and other innovative approaches.

She has served as co-principal investigator and co-director for an NSF Interdisciplinary Research Experience for Undergraduates/Teachers (REU/RET) in Sustainable Energy and Bioengineering from 2021 to 2023, engaging 26 undergraduate students, eight high school teachers and a multidisciplinary team of mentors.

In addition, she is a faculty mentor in the NSF-funded ADAPT S-STEM Scholars Program; a mentor for faculty through the SES Academic Teaching and Mentoring (ATEAM) initiative; and a longtime leader of the Health Professions Advisory Committee, helping students prepare competitive applications to study medical, dental and other health professions and establishing support programs including clinical experiences.

Muisener works with her colleagues to champion and lead program-level undergraduate education success, including this year’s successful review and approval of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology degrees for American Chemical Society certification, which happens every six years.

The kudos keep on coming

Muisener received three additional honors this spring:

Patricia Muisener received the Distinguished Teacher Mentor award this spring 2025. Presenting the award was David Zeng, Professor and Senior Vice Provost for Academic Innovation and Faculty Affairs, Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering.

• The 2024–2025 Stevens Employee Excellence Award for Student Success Champion, which celebrates exceptional contributions to enhancing the student experience and achievements.

• A $5,000 SEED grant from the Teaching and Learning Center — with Wei Zheng, associate professor, and Haoying Xu, assistant professor, from the Stevens School of Business and Yu Tao, associate professor, in The School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences — to support their work studying effective teaching and active learning strategies for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses.

• The inaugural $10,000 Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science (SES) Promoting Innovative Education Research (PIER) Program Award with Woo Lee, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology; Emily Atieh, associate director of the Teaching and Learning Center; Valerie Guerroro Williamson, director of University Culture and Engagement; and Jeffrey Lam, academic advisor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Their project will explore how the structured career exploration and reflection activities in the Diverse Career Pathways course have supported first-year student success and self-efficacy.

Bringing mentorship to life

This past year, Muisener mentored two students through the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology capstone senior research project course. Douglas Luke, a chemistry student in the Class of 2025, won the David and GG Farber Societal Impact Award at the SES Innovation Expo for his research on biodegradable polymers. T Jacob Freed, ’25, a chemical biology major, piloted a virtual reality teaching module with the Stevens XR lab. Muisener and her collaborators plan to test it in a section of General Chemistry.

Mentorship begins at home for Patricia Muisener, whose children Claire and Christian were on hand to celebrate her Distinguished Teacher-Mentor honors.

She also co-taught and helped redesign two key courses in the department’s research spine. She and Lam modified the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Seminar to introduce students to five research focus areas through expert guest talks, AI tools, ethics and interactive group work. The Research Proposals course with Sesha Alluri, senior lecturer, now integrates sessions on literature analysis and AI tools for research.

Over the summer, Muisener will be diving into professional development, preparing her Provost lecture, attending conferences and taking time to relax, read, garden and travel.

This fall, she will teach General Chemistry I and First-Year Experience courses. She’ll also be collaborating with the Teaching and Learning Center on a seminar with fellow DTM recipients Jan Cannizzo, teaching associate professor and associate chair for undergraduate studies in the Department of Mathematical Sciences; and Kevin Ryan, teaching professor in the School of Business.

She finds joy and fulfillment in helping students gain the academic and life skills they need to achieve their dreams. Her advice to them is both fundamental and profound.

“Find activities you enjoy,” she noted. “You’ll be most successful doing what you love. Embrace opportunities and challenges and find mentors to inspire you. Learn as much as you can, build your problem-solving skills and enjoy the collaboration.”

On International Women in Engineering Day and every day, we at Stevens are proud to celebrate the work and achievements of our current and future women engineers.