Mechanical engineering professor has found his niche as a teacher – on campus and on YouTube.

The best way to motivate Jeff Hanson is to suggest he might not be able to do something.

In many ways, that is what continues to drive Hanson, a senior lecturer in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering in the Edward E. Whitacre Jr. College of Engineering at Texas Tech University.

“I had a professor who told me one time that I would never be an engineer because I wasn’t that good of a student,” he recalled. “If there’s one thing you don’t do is tell me I can’t do something because I will prove you wrong every time. I didn’t want anybody to ever tell my students something like that. I want to be the encourager who says, ‘You can do it.’”

Hanson knows more than a little something about encouragement. He has been teaching at Texas Tech for 18 years, and his YouTube channel, where he breaks down basic engineering courses into accessible learning modules, has more than 350,000 subscribers and 50 million views. As he says, he may not be the smartest engineering professor in the world, but he is likely the most recognizable.

And one of the most successful. Over the years, Hanson has helped equip and train thousands of Texas Tech engineering students. He regularly scores among the highest in student evaluations, and there are few things he enjoys more in life than teaching.

As a result of his influence and impact, Hanson was named a University Distinguished Educator earlier this year. The award, part of a new group of faculty recognitions instituted in 2026, honors senior lecturers and professors of practice with a minimum of five years of continuous service to the university. It acknowledges significant and ongoing accomplishments in teaching or engaged scholarship.

“Jeff’s ability to meet students where they are, potentially because of his own experiences, makes him an excellent educator who has endeared himself not only to his students but his colleagues as well,” said Provost & Senior Vice President Ron Hendrick. “His resilience is an admirable quality and one from which our students benefit.” 

Hanson has made students a central portion of his life, taking them on trips, going with them to conferences and working to set up workplace visits so they can see what engineers do for a living. He said the effort makes this award even more meaningful.

“For somebody to recognize what you’re doing really makes you feel like someone is paying attention to what’s going on over here,” he said. “I think that makes these awards very important for the university because this can sometimes seem like a thankless job where you pour into students day after day after day, laughing with them and crying with them. You think it’s all being lost, but it’s really not.”

Ironically, Hanson became a Texas Tech faculty member almost by accident. He was working in the private sector and saw correspondence from the university addressed to Dr. Amy (his wife holds a doctorate and teaches in the English Department) and Jeff Hanson.

“I thought, ‘what the heck,’” he said with a laugh. “I told her one Christmas that I was going to go back to school and get my Ph.D. When she asked me why, I said so I can get doctor by my name too.”

Not long after that he crossed paths with the dean of technical education at South Plains College, who asked Hanson if he had a master’s degree already and told him that credential qualified him to teach at the college level. His first assignment was an engineering graphics class at what was then Reese Center.

“And I just fell in love with teaching,” he said. “The students got attached to me and my teaching style, and the rest is history. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Hanson typically teaches five classes per semester, including statics, an entry-level course that many students find challenging. He teaches four classes in the engineering college and one in the Honors College, a enjoyable duty he picked up almost 15 years ago.

While he is known for his teaching prowess, conveying complex material in an easy-to-understand way, Hanson is much more than an instructor to his students.

“These kids are away from their family; they don’t have anyone they can rely on if their car breaks down,” he said. “Who’s going to go look at it with them? So, I am way more than a teacher. You also have to be a counselor because we talk about hard stuff. And almost every year I’ve been doing this, we have students who don’t have anywhere to go who have Thanksgiving dinner with us.”

Recently, Hanson underwent a kidney transplant, and the donor was the husband of a former student. Even more impressive, he had dozens of people sign up as possible donors. 

“This is the most rewarding job there is,” he said. “You only get so many days on this planet so what are you going to do to make an impact while you’re here? How do you make more of an impact than a teacher? I have graduated from this university probably a little over 15,000 engineering students and put them out in the world. The difference they’re making out there is way more than I could have made.”