Meet Dr. Richard Zeff...
 Department of Pathology
Associate Professor
For me, teaching is one of the most enjoyable parts of my career, and I recall with pleasure receiving the Charles N. Loeser Award for Teaching from the UConn
medical and dental students. My commitment is to prepare our students for a future of success in their chosen area of health care.
I teach immunology to the first- and second-year medical, dental and graduate students, and serves as a laboratory preceptor. For me, teaching represents total
immersion in the process of sharing my involvement in immunology with interested learners. Since my graduate education emphasized training as a bench scientist, I would never have predicted
the extent to which I find fulfillment in teaching. I give much of the credit for that to the friendly, but scholarly, environment of UConn.
There is value in the different approaches to medical education, such as correlated medical problem solving, the advanced elective experience, and investigative research.
Through exposure to these different learning styles, our students highlight and broaden their medical training. In this way, students can take ownership of their education, a first step in
making independent decisions about their future as health-care professionals.
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“My commitment is to prepare our students for a future of success in their chosen area of health care.”
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The advanced immunology electives for first- and second-year medical students have been extremely enjoyable from the standpoint of fostering discussion around classic and
recently published scientific literature. During weekly classes, medical students take more of a traditional graduate school approach towards learning by probing a variety of topics in
immunology through discussion and student presentations.
It was the shared pleasures in learning and discussions that led me and several students to develop an informal literary club. The monthly meetings, which my wife and I
hold at our home, are great fun and an ongoing reminder of how much our students contribute to the scholarly atmosphere of UConn. One of the best parts of my work day? That’s simple. It’s
seeing one of my students in the hallway and hearing, "Hey, Dr. Zeff, how’s it goin?"
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