When students enter Jaron Hansen’s classroom, they can expect their minds to be stretched and their hands to get dirty as they work actively in the field.
As an associate professor in chemistry and biochemistry, Hansen’s main areas of research are air sampling and renewable energy. Hansen consistently involves his students in hands-on activities both in the classroom and with his research.
“[Students] go to class, and they learn these principles and theories,” Hansen said. “We need to apply ideas that we’ve learned in class to problems.”
Using the knowledge they gain in the classroom, students work with Hansen to build various instruments: Graduate students construct tools to measure the compounds of air pollution, and some students have accompanied Hansen to southern California to monitor air pollution in an effort to understand where the pollution is coming from.
“By far the best learning experience they can have [is] . . . seeing how these things are all interconnected, and actually working with them on projects so that their hands are getting dirty as they apply the things they learn,” Hansen said.
For Hansen, student participation is more than just an effective tool he has used in the classroom — their involvement is rewarding for him.
“It leaves you with a really great feeling . . . to see these students that are able to apply things that they learned in the classroom to bring to pass these great ideas that we have,” he said.
Hansen has been at BYU for just over ten years and was awarded the BYU Class of 1949 Young Faculty Award at the 2015 Annual University Conference. The award honors junior faculty who give outstanding contributions. It is awarded based on a combination of published papers and the strength of research that has been directed. It is made possible thanks to the BYU class of 1949.
“It’s a great honor,” Hansen said. “It’s a really generous award and I’m delighted to receive it.”
Hansen’s experience at BYU has been rich and rewarding because of the students he has met, taught, and worked beside.
“The undergraduate students are really talented,” Hansen said. “The graduate students that have been able to work on projects are dedicated. They believe in the mission of BYU. They believe in their research projects and it’s been a great experience on all fronts to be at BYU.”
Hansen teaches various chemistry classes, including general chemistry, a graduate-level environmental chemistry class, and a second-year analytical chemistry class and lab.