For millions of people who have viewed a viral video about a fake professor on the first day of CHM 131 at the University of Rochester, Professor H is the "real" professor that appears at the very end after the impostor flees the lecture hall. The vast majority of those viewers have never been on campus or sat in on one for Professor H's chemistry classes. For students who have, they know that he's one of the best teachers of what can be a very challenging subject.

Professor H, as many of his students know him, is Ben Hafensteiner, faculty lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Rochester. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 2003 with a BA in biology and chemistry before going on to get a Ph.D. in chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in 2008. From his days as a workshop leader as an undergraduate student, he knew that he wanted to teach. With a father who taught for more than 30 years and mother who served on the school board for nearly 20 years where he grew up near Albany, it seems that teaching was in his blood.

While the subject matter he teaches to students, many of whom are freshman, is quite difficult, he relishes the opportunity to engage students in his classes and see them succeed. It's not unusual to see smiles and laughter on the faces of the 250 or so students that fill the lecture hall during his class. In part, it's that sensibility that made him the perfect person to pull off the fake professor stunt on the first day of class. Although some may have seen it as just a stunt, Hafensteiner used it as an opportunity to dispel the typical myths and fears of inevitable failure that many freshman in his classes bring with them.

The prank is just one of the many innovative ways that Hafensteiner has found to reach his students and build their interest and confidence in their abilities. Whether it's using the latest technology in the classroom to create discussion or a bit of humor, or office hours that he holds with sometimes as many as 10 or 15 students at once three times a week, he uses whatever methods will get the concepts across.

While he believes that it possible for everyone in his class to get an A in his class, it's not what grade they earn that is ultimately the most important focus for him as a teacher. "Watching somebody go from scared and intimidated at the beginning of class, even if they only end up with a C+, C range grade, seeing them do that for the entire semester makes me more happy than people getting As really because they're working hard and trying and bringing themselves out of a zero understanding point to a substantial understanding point."

Of course if the day does come when all his students get As in his class, he has promised everything from growing out his hair for a year to learning to do a backflip off the front table in the lecture hall. It's a promise he may not ever have to keep, but if it will motivate his students, he's willing to take that chance.

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