Professor, Chemistry, College of Engineering and Science
2016
Bio:
Dr. Mark Benvenuto joined the Chemistry Department at Detroit Mercy in 1993 and achieved full professor status in 2006. Since 2001, he has served as chairman of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Professor Benvenuto serves as an inspiration in teaching, scholarship, and service to his students and his colleagues.
Benvenuto is an exemplary educator who encourages students to be independent thinkers. His teaching style and method may be unconventional; he taught a class titled Bullets, bombs and explosions in the movies; the course was filled to capacity. One of his students states the Professor Benvenuto “has always been the professor drawing students into lecture halls and laboratories by the drove; even the well hated 8 o’clock recitations. Seats are always filled because of his larger than life personality, over the moon enthusiasm, and his ability to personalize with every student he comes across.” He guides students in undergraduate and graduate research. He has been awarded the Detroit Mercy Science Teacher of the Year in 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2013, a total of seven times.
Professor Benvenuto has the talent to create a continuous progression between teaching and scholarship. He has integrated a research component in freshman and sophomore courses, and encourages his students to present their work at Detroit Mercy symposia and at regional and national American Chemical Society (ACS) meetings. In 2015, he had four books published. Since 2011, he has had 45 posters published, with undergraduate and graduate students as co-authors. His students are transformed into professionals under his tutelage.
Benvenuto has served the University extensively on a number of departmental, college and university committees, and served the greater community through his work on a number of local and national ACS committees. In 2015 Mark was awarded the prestigious ACS Fellow Award. He has recruited students to participate in campus organizations and inspires them to volunteer time to city outreach groups. His work in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry goes beyond classroom education.
What is special about Dr. Mark Benvenuto? He has successfully established a unique modus operandi by weaving together teaching and research, and by encouraging the professional progress of students, faculty, and collaborators. He supports the uniqueness of each of his colleagues and offers them the opportunity to use their unique gifts; he has created a warm atmosphere in the Department. In the process, he has also respected and enhanced the Mission of the University of Detroit Mercy. He has truly built his students and colleagues a boundless future.
Dr. Benvenuto was presented by Dr. Gary Kuleck, Dean, College of Engineering & Science and the Faculty Excellence Award was conferred by Dr. Antoine M. Garibaldi, President of University of Detroit Mercy on November 4, 2016.