Making It Click
In the age of AI and powerful search engines, when students can find answers to complex problems with a few clicks, the University of Pittsburgh’s Hseen Baled is guided by a belief in making the material he teaches relatable.
“The most important thing for me is to relate the content to real life, so my students can make connections—so that they want to learn,” said Baled, associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.
For his ability to reach his students and to make challenging concepts click, Baled has received the 2025 James Pommersheim Award for Excellence in Teaching Chemical Engineering. James M. Pommersheim, who received his BA, MS, and PhD in chemical engineering from Pitt, founded the award with the Department of Chemical Engineering to celebrate faculty whose teaching, research, and mentorship change the lives of students and elevate the program.
Baled’s path to Pitt classrooms has covered many miles. He grew up in Libya and after high school earned a scholarship to study chemical engineering at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. In 2012, at the Swanson School of Engineering, he earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering and received the Coull Award for Outstanding Chemical Engineering PhD Student.
After working as a postdoctoral researcher at Pitt, he took a position as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Research Associate at the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
In 2017, the opportunity to return to his alma mater and the classroom led Baled back to Benedum Hall, where he has been inspiring the next generation of chemical and petroleum engineers since. As he said, “I had great teachers at Pitt, and the environment and the community around teaching here is very supportive.”
“Hseen has been a tremendous asset to our department and to the Swanson School,” said Steven Little, Distinguished Professor and Department Chair of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. “Beyond his versatility, his scholarship, and his work developing our program—including the new GRO program—is his commitment to our students. He is an exceptional teacher who inspires his students and always makes time for them. He is most deserving of this recognition.”
“I am honored to receive this award,” said Baled. “One of the greatest joys is getting to work with students who are struggling to understand something, and teaching it in different ways to make it more understandable—and then seeing when it clicks. This is an amazing feeling.”