ECC engineering professor Dr. Soma Chattopadhyay, a recipient of the newly 2025 ICCTA Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Award for best community college professor in the state of Illinois, is celebrated for her innovative teaching and research.
Chattopadhyay’s deep-seated interest in the sciences traces back to her childhood in India, where she earned dual undergraduate degrees, one in chemistry and another in chemical technology, at the University of Calcutta. She then completed her Ph.D. in physics, a discipline that would later help anchor her interdisciplinary reach.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life”.
Before arriving at ECC, she attended the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bombay, India. There, she published 16 papers in International Journals with a high impact factor while working on ferroelectric behavior, dielectric properties, and finite size effects in ferroelectric and ati-ferroelectric materials.
Now, she has published more than 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals with high impact factor and has written chapters for books on nanomaterials.
At ECC, Chattopadhyay has proven herself to be a formidable educator.
“Professor C. has a unique structure to her classes, which might differ from day to day,” said Kaya Fraszczak, freshman PHY-101 student. “She provides a different approach to things that can help you understand stuff in multiple different ways.”
Her commitment to her students has earned her the Orrin G. Thompson Teaching Excellence Award in 2025, and she had previously received that distinction in 2020 and 2017 as well.
“Super incredibly grateful,” stated Chattopadhyay when asked how she felt about being voted by students for the multiple Thompson awards she has been given. The award honors faculty who overall contribute meaningfully to ECC’s learning environment and who embody values like community engagement and inquiry.
In 2023, Chattopadhyay achieved another notable milestone.
The ECC Board of Trustees granted her tenure as Assistant Professor of Engineering, an accomplishment that reflects three years of evaluation and sustained performance in the classroom and beyond.
Most recently, her impact has been recognized at the state level, having received the Outstanding Full-Time Faculty Member Award from the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA). This honor underscores her influence not only within ECC, but across the Illinois community college ecosystem as a whole.
“None of this would have been possible without all of the other amazing faculty members and students who recommended me for this award,” she said. “I am very honored and appreciative for everything that they have done for me.”
In the community, she plays a role not only as a teacher of engineering but also as a person who can connect the theoretical to the applied, guiding students who hope to transfer to four-year institutions or enter STEM related fields. Her dual identity as a researcher-educator gives her a model of what community-college faculty can aspire to, including student-centered focuses and rigorous content.
Jayadiliya Parza, a sophomore, states that she always goes above and beyond to help those she is educating.
“Professor [C] has helped us by giving information about different universities and which would be best for us; taking into consideration our majors and studies for whenever we transfer out,” Parza said.
In announcing her 2025 ICCTA Award, ECC described her as someone “widely respected for fostering an inclusive and challenging academic environment that empowers students to thrive.”
In 2020, when accepting the Thompson award, then Vice President of Teaching Peggy Heinrich, lauded ECC’s “innovative, committed faculty members…raising the bar for community colleges across the state.”
In a college world often judged by enrollment numbers and course load, Chattopadhyay stands out by virtue of her steady commitment and quiet excellence. She is the epitome for the example that in academia, impact does not always come from flashy headlines but from consistent dedication to their students.
