<p>^ Haha!</p>
<p>Sure, allow me to enlighten you. A lot of my engineering profs at Berkeley used textbooks for supplement and taught from their own materials.</p>
<p>For example, my thermodynamics prof was John Prausnitz, known as the father of molecular thermodynamics. He incorporated a lot of his own research into the undergrad curicculum and was one of the few people to receive the National Medal of Science.</p>
<p>My biochemical engineering prof was Jay Keasling, a talented young prof whose research has even been featured on the Colbert Report:
[Jay</a> Keasling - The Colbert Report - 3/10/09 - Video Clip | Comedy Central](<a href=“The Colbert Report - TV Series | Comedy Central US”>The Colbert Report - TV Series | Comedy Central US)
He mainly taught from his own Powerpoint presentations and used a lot of info from his current research. </p>
<p>So, no, I wasn’t just taught from a textbook “making the rounds at various universities”, I was taught by the pioneering minds in their respective fields who happened to write the textbook!</p>
<p>Sure, intro chem, math and physics used textbooks as well, but we weren’t slavishly bound to them…the thing about Berkeley is you have a chance to learn from some of the best minds in their respective field. George Smoot was back teaching his undergrad physics course the day after he won the Nobel Prize: [url=<a href=“http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-photo.html]George”>http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-photo.html]George</a> F. Smoot - Photo Gallery<a href=“last%20picture”>/url</a>.</p>