Center for Teaching Excellence taps prof as Montague scholar

For active, constructive engagement with his students, Jun-Hyun Kim, an assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University, was named a 2014-15 [Montague – Center for Teaching Excellence Scholar] (http://cte.tamu.edu/content/montague-cte-scholars) .

The award, presented annually by the center to one tenure-track faculty member from each college who exhibits early career excellence in undergraduate teaching, is accompanied by a $6,500 grant.

Kim encourages interaction in his landscape architecture studios by building trust and mutual respect among his students. He believes landscape architecture is best learned by creating designs for a variety of sites and he uses evidence-based knowledge to inform student projects and assignments.

“This is especially important in design studios,” he said, “because it allows students to cross-link knowledge from their other classes, which helps them to provide creative solutions.”

Kim said he plans to use the Montague grant to fund field trips and purchase new equipment to aid students.

Also in 2014, Kim earned an Outstanding Instructor Award from the [Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu/) .

He holds a [Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Sciences] (http://laup.arch.tamu.edu/academics/graduate/ursc/) earned in 2010 at Texas A&M, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in landscape architecture from Korea’s Sungkyunkwan
University.

Kim’s research and teaching interests
include sustainable, healthy communities, landscape spatial patterns and human behavior, community
design for active living, low-impact development and landscape ecology.

Since 2013, he has served as a regional director for the [Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture] (http://www.thecela.org/) .

The Montague scholar program, established in 1991, is named in honor of Kenneth Montague ’37, who had a long and storied career in the Texas oil industry and was a distinguished alumnus and outstanding trustee of the [Texas A&M Foundation] (http://txamfoundation.com/s/1436/gid3give/2014/start.aspx?gid=3&pgid=61) .