BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Illinois Wesleyan University students recently voted James House the 2011 Professor of the Year in the annual election coordinated by Student Senate.
House, who taught at Illinois State for over 30 years, has been with the Illinois Wesleyan Chemistry Department as an adjunct professor since 1997. Since then, House has contributed to his field by publishing many textbooks including Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry (Brooks Cole, 2001) and Inorganic Chemistry (Academic Press, 2008).
House, who studied for eight years in a one-room-schoolhouse in Benton, Ill., has been interested in chemistry since the fourth grade when he stumbled across a picture of a molecular structure in an encyclopedia. While in school, he also developed a desire to educate and credits the schoolhouse teacher with setting an example of how to teach with passion.