Even though Huang had virtually no teaching experience, the competition among business schools to land him last year was furious (see "Gold Rush in the Ivory Tower," BW, Oct. 21, 1996). He was courted by 13 of the country's top B-schools -- including Wharton, MIT, Harvard, and Northwestern. So when the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business won Huang over, it knew it had a superstar in research. But it didn't realize he would shine as brightly in the classroom so quickly.

Based entirely on student recommendations, the annual Williams Award is an important way, say students and administrators, to recognize good teachers at Chicago, a school usually noted for its strength in research. Huang though, remains modest. "Frankly, I thought teaching was part of my job, and I wanted to do a good job on it," he says. "[The award] was a total surprise."

Huang, who spent the last decade earning a Ph.D in physics from Cornell and a Ph.D in finance at Stanford, taught "Financial Instruments," an MBA course that examines the pricing and use of derivative securities. Marked by a rigorous quantitative focus, the course "is among the more challenging classes taken by a good percentage of grads and finance grads," says John Joliet, a second-year finance student and class president.

Such an intense, analytical course moved some students, like second-year MBA student, Jerry Wiant, to question whether Huang's dearth of teaching experience would put them at risk. "There is always a potential gap between how well a professor is perceived for his research and things outside the classroom, and how well he performs in the classroom," Wiant says. "But by the end of the quarter, he had impressed me with his classroom skills and was able to get the content of the class across to a broad spectrum of the students."

As the semester progressed, Huang's popularity snowballed. MBAs appreciated Huang's efforts to meet their needs, citing his constant availability and willingness to help students one-on-one. Another hit: his Web page, which posted class notes, past exams, and related articles.