Two faculty members from the Cockrell School of Engineering will receive the 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards, the highest teaching honor bestowed by the University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is one of the nation’s largest monetary teaching recognition programs in higher education.
In total, 27 faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin will receive the award, which honors outstanding performance in the classroom and dedication to innovation in undergraduate instruction.
The recipients will receive a total of $2.4 million from the UT System’s 15 academic and health institutions, with $25,000 awarded to each recipient. They will be honored during a ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 20, at the Shirley Bird Perry Ballroom in the Texas Union at UT Austin.
“Our excellence in teaching faculty is a critical part of the System’s vision of an institution of the first class,” said UT System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. “These awards are a reflection of the Regents placing the highest priority on undergraduate, graduate and professional teaching excellence System-wide.”
The 2014 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award recipients from the Cockrell School of Engineering are:
- Paul Bommer, Chevron Lecturer in Petroleum Engineering and senior lecturer, Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. Bommer said of his teaching philosophy: "Learning is accomplished if the student can be convinced that the material is valuable. The best delivery of the material engages the student, normally through the Socratic Method or variations on this notion. The teacher should always present a friendly yet thoroughly knowledgeable personality in order to achieve the best result."
- Neal Hall, assistant professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Hall said of his teaching philosophy: "Students learn much more when they are asked to first think on their own about how to proceed to solve a challenge or problem. This process can lead to self-discovered shortcomings with one's current skills, and this self-discovery fuels the desire to learn."
Established in 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards program recognizes educators who deliver the highest quality of instruction in the classroom, the laboratory, the field or online.
Faculty members undergo a series of rigorous evaluations by students, peer faculty members and external reviewers. The review panels consider a range of activities and criteria in their evaluations, including outstanding teaching, mentoring, personal commitment to students and motivating students in the classroom.
“UT Austin places a very high value on classroom teaching,” said UT Austin President Bill Powers. “I am pleased that the UT System is recognizing these 27 individual faculty members for their performance as teachers and their commitment to their students.”
Bommer will use his $25,000 award to establish an endowed scholarship to support students, called the Dr. and Mrs. Paul M. Bommer Endowed Scholarship in Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.
