From left to right: Todd Humphreys, Nicholas A. Peppas, Cockrell School Dean Greg Fenves, David Bourell and Robert Gilbert.
The Cockrell School of Engineering Faculty Excellence Awards were presented to four distinguished faculty members in recognition of exemplary teaching and professional leadership.
David Bourell, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will receive the Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award, which recognizes faculty showing exemplary leadership in the engineering profession. Bourell’s research in Laser Sintering is used worldwide in fabricating products, ranging from aircraft to footwear. He is a 2011 Fellow of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society and serves on many professional engineering boards. Additionally, he has published more than 200 journal papers, conference proceedings and book chapters. Bourell has created several new courses in Materials Science, including a Crystalline and Composite Anisotropy course. He has also been State Director of the UIL Calculator Applications Contest for almost 30 years.
Nicholas A. Peppas, chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, will receive the Billy and Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award, which is awarded to a faculty member whose documented research has significantly advanced the engineering profession. He is the leading researcher in the field of biomaterials, drug delivery and controlled release. The Korsmeyer-Peppas equation, developed early in his career, is the basis of theoretical models for controlled release systems. He is also recognized as an innovator in the classroom and has been recognized with prestigious American Society for Engineering Education awards. Peppas has authored an outstanding number of publications — more than 1,200 — and there are more than 38,000 citations of his research, showing the profound impact of his contributions to science and engineering. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Robert Gilbert, professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, will receive the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching, which recognizes a faculty member for demonstrating energy and enthusiasm in teaching undergraduate and graduate students. In his 19 years with the Cockrell School, Gilbert has had a profound impact on the CAEE curriculum. He improved the statistics courses by creating assignments that required students to learn the practical applications of the mathematical models they studied. More recently, he has led an innovative new course in which students complete engineering projects for the City of Austin. The Travis Chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers honored Gilbert in 2011 with the Engineer of the Year Award for his outstanding dedication to engineering education.
Todd Humphreys, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, will receive the Dean's Award for Outstanding Engineering Teaching by an Assistant Professor, awarded for outstanding classroom teaching. Humphreys has received stellar evaluations in his classes, clearly demonstrating that he is an inspirational teacher. He has significantly improved education in two undergraduate courses for the ASE-EM in his first three years teaching by making them more engaging for his students. Students describe Humphreys as a well-organized lecturer who is a great communicator, and graduating seniors often say that he was their favorite professor at UT Austin.
