Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies News

Libraries Associate Professor Michael Witt Receives Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award

May 3rd, 2023

Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies is proud to announce that Michael Witt, associate professor of library science, has received a 2023 Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award. The University’s highest undergraduate teaching honor, the Murphy Award is accompanied by a $10,000 cash award and induction into Purdue’s Teaching Academy, which provides leadership for the improvement of undergraduate, graduate and outreach teaching. Witt is the first Libraries faculty member to receive this prestigious award, and an outstanding example of the positive student impact made by Libraries’ forward-thinking instructors, innovative courses, and emphasis on active learning.

Witt brings energy and joy to his popular first-year engineering courses and his leadership role in the Engineering in the World of Data Learning Community. From inviting live pythons from the Columbian Park Zoo to Coach Matt Painter from Purdue Athletics into his classroom, “I like to do things that grab my students’ attention and then channel their attention into engagement,” Witt says. “I try to take an active learning approach where students aren’t just listening to me talk through slides as much as they’re discussing and solving problems that are meaningful to them, working with data and writing code that motivates their learning.”

To learn more about Witt’s journey to becoming a Murphy Award winner, his exciting plans for the future, and how he helps his first-year students develop confidence and a sense of community that endures long past graduation, we invite you to read Witt’s feature story in The Persistent Pursuit.