Chandra Turpen has been named a University of Maryland Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year for 2025.

The award recognizes faculty members who have made exceptional contributions to a student’s graduate experience. It both acknowledges outstanding mentoring provided by individual faculty and reminds the university community of the importance of mentoring to graduate studies.Xiechen Zheng, Kellen O'Brien, Stephanie Williams, Chandra Turpen, Yan Li, Patrick Banner and Donna Hammer at the awards ceremony.

 “I am consistently amazed at how thoughtful Chandra is as a mentor to her students,” said Physics graduate student Patrick Banner, who organized the nomination. “Whether it's developing our professional skills, advocating for our work to her colleagues, or building up our self-efficacy and confidence in our work, Chandra is a considerate, creative, and careful mentor. Everyone who works with her is so lucky!”

After studying physics and chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Turpen earned her Ph.D. in physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Western Michigan University, she joined the University of Maryland in 2011.  She was named an Assistant Research Professor in 2016, and promoted to Associate Research Professor in 2024. Turpen studies the process of learning physics and applies this research to inform the design of curriculum and instruction.  She previously co-chaired a Department of Physics committee devoted to improving the teaching of quantum mechanics. In recent semesters, Turpen has taught PHYS 401 (Quantum Physics 1) and PHYS 371 (Modern Physics). 

Turpen was one of six Graduate Faculty Mentors selected from 33 nominees for this award in 2025.  A campus-wide selection committee of graduate students and past Mentor of the Year Award recipients evaluated the nominations.  

"Dr. Turpen is an incredible mentor, and I am deeply thankful for her guidance throughout my career; she encouraged me to consider graduate school, consistently shares opportunities for growth, and connects me with other scholars,” said Stephanie Williams of the department’s Office of Student and Education Services. “I admire how she shares her own continual growth journey with me, and the ways she has evolved in supporting physics students in the last few years. Anyone would be lucky to know Chandra, and even luckier to have her as a mentor."

The award carries an honorarium of $1,000 to support mentoring activities. Turpen and the other awardees were honored at the Graduate School’s Fellowship and Award Celebration on May 13.