John Hubbard

Master Teacher Award - Fall 2002

The Master Teacher Award was established to emphasize the importance of teaching at the University of Saskatchewan and to honour those faculty members who excel in teaching. The Selection Committee has chosen Professor John Hubbard of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition to be the recipient of this prestigious award at this Convocation. John Hubbard earned the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) at the University of London and the Ph.D. four years later at the same university. A member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, John was appointed Professor Pharmacy in 1982 after serving twelve years as a professor at the University of Manitoba. Recently, he has been teaching analytical pharmaceutical chemistry, bioequivalence, statistics, and metabolic transformation of xenobiotics.

For several years, the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition has used student evaluations of their teachers, and Professor Hubbard has consistently received remarkable scores above 90% for the instructor component of the evaluation. Student comments on these evaluations have been consistent: "Dr. Hubbard has a lecture style unlike any I have experienced. He puts a lot of energy into his class and tries to make the subject material appealing and interesting. He allows the student to think about the subject material and does not simply present material that must be memorized. Overall, he is the best professor I have had in university." His students have nominated him for the USSU Teaching Excellence Award four times; he won it once.

Calling him "a great ambassador for academia," several former students testify to the positive effects of John's teaching. "It was Dr. Hubbard's teaching style and personality that got me, and I'm sure many others, through this course." "He was…possibly the only professor who could make chemical structures and analytical chemistry interesting to us." "Not only could this professor grab our attention, which was a challenge as we were quite a motley crew, but he could hold us, sometimes spellbound… Indeed he magically translated concepts, bringing us to new levels of understanding…. Who will ever forget the 'Bar-Maid Theory of Acid Base Exchange'?"

John plays an important part in the development and implementation of the undergraduate pharmacy program, continually reminding Faculty of the importance and need for a program wherein teaching methods based entirely on lecturing should be replaced or at least augmented by those incorporating strategies of active learning. Graduate students benefit from Dr. Hubbard's commitment as he plays an important role in the pharmacy graduate program, serving as supervisor, co-supervisor and advisor on several committees.

Professor Hubbard is also an accomplished researcher. Over his career, he has co-authored over 120 refereed articles and 15 book chapters, most in high-profile international journals and periodicals, with research grants totaling over $5.5 million. As well, he has presented papers at over 160 academic conferences.

Professor John Hubbard "surpasses the standards of ardour and inspiration," possessing a unique devotion to teaching and research. The University of Saskatchewan is fortunate to have such an exemplary teacher on its staff. He is most deserving of this honour.