Chris Kanich earns highest UIC teaching honor
Chris Kanich earns highest UIC teaching honor
Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Chris Kanich received UIC’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for 2025-2026. The award recognizes faculty with at least 10 years of service to UIC for exceptional contributions to teaching effectiveness, including the awardee’s “profound commitment to teaching excellence, innovative practices, and the positive impact they have on the academic community.”
Kanich says his teaching philosophy is based on the idea that most learning occurs outside the classroom. He dedicates class time to providing context, motivation, and inspiration, so that students have the interest and energy needed to do the hard work of learning.
“My goal is to create a classroom environment where students feel seen and connected, which in turn inspires them to work hard and discover what they’re truly capable of achieving,” Kanich said.
Kanich starts each semester by asking students why they are taking a particular course and what they hope to get out of the class.
“There’s a lot of hard work that goes into explaining things in class and shaping the structure of the exercises that I ask students to work through, but the hardest and most important part of the whole thing is to get students excited about what they’re doing, see the value in it, and let them loose,” Kanich said. “If I can accomplish that, then I’ve been successful.”
The once-in-a-lifetime award is given to only a handful of educators university-wide and includes a $5,000 permanent increase to base salary. Recipients are nominated at the department level and selected by their peers in the College of Engineering.
“It’s a tremendous honor to receive this award, especially since it comes from my peers,” Kanich said.
Other computer science faculty who have recently earned the award include Jakob Eriksson, Mitch Theys, Barbara Di Eugenio, Pat Troy, and Dale Reed.