Historical instructor

REID VAN LEHN

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 5.00/5 from 13 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

CBE 311
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Prof Van Lehn was an informative and funny professor. His lectures were straightforward, although they tended to be derivation heavy with few practical examples. He provided practice problems for exams that made midterms easy to prepare for. Grading was very fair. Cons: Discussion was unhelpful and HW problems required lots of Excel/Matlab use.
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CBE 311
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Prof. Van Lehn is definitely the BEST professor I've ever had, super smart and also fun. Incredibly clear lectures and explanations, inspirational homework, and fair exams with similar practice problems provided. Taking thermo with Van Lehn = success + actually learning. I really enjoyed his class and hope he can be my professor for all classes!
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CBE 311
Quality 5/5Difficulty 5/5
He is one of the best professors I've had at UW-Madison and tied with Murphy for best in CBE. Modern class with tricky HW problems that allow derivation thermodynamic figures and datasets. Exams are extremely fair. Class is tough. I didn't know thermodynamics could be taught in such a definitive way.
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CBE 311
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Easily one of the best professors in the engineering department. He is extremely well liked by the students despite teaching notoriously difficult subjects. His class is challenging but the work load manageable.
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CBE 311
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Van Lehn is a great professor. The course is very difficult, but he does his best to actually "teach" the material. He makes his lectures very easy to participate in by having group discussion times to help with understanding. He seems like he cares about his students' learning very much.
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CBE 311
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Extraordinary professor and person, try to learn as much as possible from him! always oriented when teaching. He's got your back. It is not an easy course at all! at times you may wanna cry, but Van Lehn is your guy.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with REID VAN LEHN

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

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Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2026CBE 990Thesis-research
Spring 2026CHEM 980Seminar: Review of Current Research
Spring 2026CHEM 990Research
Fall 2025CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2025CBE 990Thesis-research
Fall 2025CHEM 980Seminar: Review of Current Research
Fall 2025CHEM 990Research
Spring 2025CBE 440Chemical Engineering Materials
Spring 2025CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2025CBE 990Thesis-research
Spring 2025CHEM 980Seminar: Review of Current Research
Spring 2025CHEM 990Research
Fall 2024CBE 311Thermodynamics of Mixtures
Fall 2024CBE 710Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
Fall 2024CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2024CBE 990Thesis-research
Fall 2024CHEM 980Seminar: Review of Current Research
Fall 2024CHEM 990Research
Spring 2024CBE 311Thermodynamics of Mixtures
Spring 2024CBE 599Special Problems
Spring 2024CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2024CBE 990Thesis-research
Spring 2024CHEM 980Seminar: Review of Current Research
Spring 2024CHEM 990Research
Fall 2023CBE 440Chemical Engineering Materials
Fall 2023CBE 562Special Topics in Chemical Engineering
Fall 2023CBE 599Special Problems
Fall 2023CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2023CBE 990Thesis-research
Spring 2023CBE 547Introduction to Colloid and Interface Science
Spring 2023CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2023CBE 990Thesis-research
Fall 2022CBE 562Special Topics in Chemical Engineering
Fall 2022CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2022CBE 990Thesis-research
Spring 2022CBE 311Thermodynamics of Mixtures
Spring 2022CBE 599Special Problems
Spring 2022CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2022CBE 990Thesis-research
Fall 2021CBE 311Thermodynamics of Mixtures
Fall 2021CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2021CBE 990Thesis-research
Fall 2020CBE 562Special Topics in Chemical Engineering
Fall 2020CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2020CBE 961Seminar-chemical Engineering
Fall 2020CBE 990Thesis-research
Spring 2020CBE 599Special Problems
Spring 2020CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2020CBE 961Seminar-chemical Engineering
Spring 2020CBE 990Thesis-research
Fall 2019CBE 599Special Problems
Fall 2019CBE 710Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
Fall 2019CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2019CBE 990Thesis-research
Spring 2019CBE 547Introduction to Colloid and Interface Science
Spring 2019CBE 599Special Problems
Spring 2019CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2019CBE 990Thesis-research
Fall 2018CBE 599Special Problems
Fall 2018CBE 710Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
Fall 2018CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2018CBE 311Thermodynamics of Mixtures
Spring 2018CBE 599Special Problems
Spring 2018CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2017CBE 599Special Problems
Fall 2017CBE 710Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
Fall 2017CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Spring 2017CBE 311Thermodynamics of Mixtures
Spring 2017CBE 599Special Problems
Spring 2017CBE 890Pre-dissertator's Research
Fall 2016CBE 599Special Problems
Fall 2016CBE 710Advanced Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
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