Influential 2009: Robert Spencer

At 9 p.m. Monday, Mark Ashamalla is shoving his way into room 703 of the Silver Center alongside hundreds of his classmates. He scrambles to find an open seat; when he does, the seats behind him fill within minutes, row by row.

"It's like a 'Harry Potter' book opening," the CAS senior said, shaking his head and laughing.

Ashamalla, like all 300 students in the room, is on the pre-med track and taking organic chemistry, a notoriously difficult course.

Tonight, they have help. They're here for a Robert Spencer review session.

Spencer is a first-year graduate student. He's also one of the most popular teachers at NYU.

Since fall 2007, Spencer has voluntarily led review sessions for NYU's organic chemistry students. His teaching methods, which include clear language, music and fluorescent chalk, turned him into a word-of-mouth phenomenon. Every semester he's held them, his reviews have grown in popularity. Now, they're an institution.

Like many students who come to almost every one of Spencer's completely optional review sessions, Imke Wasserman arrived early.

"We got here at 4 p.m. and sat through the lecture before it to get these seats," she said, while sitting with friends in the front row of the room.

What makes Spencer's reviews worth the wait?

"Well, he predicted four out of five questions on one of the tests," she said.

It was clear: You can't not attend these reviews.

According to recent changes to university rules, Spencer is not even eligible to officially teach at NYU — only doctoral students can do that. But with chemistry professor Maitland Jones' permission, he hasn't had to stop his reviews. He holds two or three for every test in the class.

"What I'm doing is optional reviews," Spencer said. "I'm getting my friends together — 300 friends — and holding review sessions."

Spencer, a former recitation leader, remains humble about the reviews and his other accomplishments.

"I was really hesitant to take the job as a recitation leader because I wasn't sure that I knew enough chemistry," he said, chuckling. "But I really enjoyed teaching it."

Now in his second year as an organic chemistry researcher, Spencer remembers his own orgo class as a trying experience.

"I took this course at a terrible time," he said. "My grandmother died of lung cancer while I was taking it. I actually did terribly on my first test because of it. She was a huge part of my life."

Partly due to the memory of his grandmother, Spencer uses the review sessions as a way to raise money for charities. At his most recent session — the 50th he's led to date — he presented a check for $1,000 from student donations and a personal check for $100 from NYU President John Sexton to the American Cancer Society.

But this isn't the first time Sexton's office has recognized Spencer. Earlier this year, Spencer won the President's Service Award (for teaching) because of his review sessions. It's easy to understand why he did; the sessions are an obsession for him.

"It's like a weakness for me," he said with a laugh. "Last time, on a Thursday, I had a bio-chem exam and I held a review session from like 9 to 12 the night before."

Spencer thinks he'll return to teaching after his studies at NYU. But his real goal is pediatric neurosurgery. When he was a young boy, Fred Epstein, the famous neurosurgeon and a family friend, saved Spencer's life with a very specialized surgery. Now, he wants to give back to other children who need the same kind of help he needed.

But for now, he just wants to help as many students as he can.

"There's gotta be 350 people in here," Spencer said to the crowd in Silver 703. "I can stay until 1 a.m. if you need me to!"