Teaching Professor and Lecturer II Mark Conger has been awarded the 2025 Matthews Underclass Teaching Award from the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. In the nomination, Conger was cited for his dedicated and impressive work fostering a highly supportive, welcoming, and tight-knit community for first-year STEM students as “the founder and sole instructor for the deeply impactful Douglass Houghton Scholars Program”. He is recognized as “a beloved figure and source of inspiration for a very large number of first- and second-year students” who “never turns away a student in need” and who “wants to inspire students and to support them in achieving their dreams.” Former students speak of Mark as “the kindest person ever,” someone who “introduced me to beautiful and amazing math problems that blew my mind” as well as to “an incredible group of friends,” and a mentor who has “shown me how I can be the best I can be.” One former student wrote that Mark is “the most caring and consistent instructor I have had the privilege to learn from” and that your “lectures and story problems are creative, engaging, and memorable.” Other former students wrote of his “ability to build a lasting community” through DHSP, his “efforts to cultivate a sense of wonder about common mathematical theories,” and his “captivating” problems that encouraged students to see “the beauty of analyzing the world around us using the tools we have at our disposal.” Congratulations Mark!