Yiwei Huang honored with two early-career teaching awards for excellence and innovation
Yiwei Huang, an associate professor of landscape architecture, earned two distinguished early-career teaching honors this past year. Recognized for her innovative teaching and dedication to student success, Huang was named the best early-career teacher by the National Teaching Awards for Food and Agricultural Sciences and will be honored at the 2026 APLU Annual Meeting. She also received the Exceptional Early Career Teaching Award from Purdue in 2025.
Huang joined the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in 2020 to contribute her expertise to the already strong faculty community.
Christine Wilson, senior associate dean and director of academic programs in the College of Agriculture, said Huang is an asset to the college and these awards are well deserved. "Dr. Huang demonstrates day in and day out what it means to be an exceptional teacher and scholar. The awards she has received are one reflection of her dedication, but it is the impact she makes on her students every day where her work truly shines. We are grateful to have her as a member of our faculty and look forward to all she will continue to accomplish during her time at Purdue."
Huang credits the college and its support for her growth as a professor. “I’m humbled to receive these awards. I feel we have a strong culture in the College of Agriculture that values good teachers. I’m standing on the shoulders of others to receive these awards. The college has done a great job cultivating new professors to become good educators,” she said.
Drawing on lessons from her professors who became lifelong mentors, Huang said she listens to students and encourages them to see their own potential. “I had wonderful mentors over the years who made me believe in myself. I try to pass that on to my students. The real reward is pouring into them and seeing them find something they love to do and that they can be proud of,” she said.
Huang hopes all the students in her classes understand the potential power in their work. “I want them to be responsible and self-aware, to know their designs will impact people for generations. It’s important to take the time to do it right and ask hard questions to create something communities can enjoy for years.”
Huang believes the true measure of her success is not awards, but seeing her students flourish and make a difference in the world.
“I get to see my students come back and really see the seeds that have grown in them and that they have sprouted into wonderful human beings,” she said. “I love to celebrate my students who are doing excellent work and work that makes a community’s life better for generations to come.”
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