GEC Faculty Service Award Nominees

Nominee

Department

Comments

Dr. Adnan Aziz

ECE

Although I started working in this area with a different professor, Dr. Aziz took the time and effort to discuss a variety of research problems with me in this area. He took keen interest in my work even though he shifted his teaching and research focus to a different area. He played a big role in helping me understand many of the finer nuances of this topic, and even helped me polish some of my research publications.

Dr. Chandra Bhat

Civil Engineering

Dr. John Breen

Civil Engineering

He goes out of his way for so many students and many of them never even know who to thank because his ultimate goal is to never receive acknowledgment or gratitude, but rather to just do what he can to help the students learn and succeed. Dr. Breen genuinely cares about his students and their well-being.  He consistently takes advantage of his prestigious reputation, not to benefit himself but rather to assist his students in any way that he can.

Dr. George Cardwell

ECE

Dr. Craig Chase

ECE

Apart from Prof. Chase's outstanding teaching abilities, he is a great mentor with the high human values. He takes keen interest in the performance of his students, and is very, very supportive in times of adversity or stress in graduate life. But though he keeps the career of a student in mind during any decision-making, he never compromises with the quality of education or his research.

Dr. Brian Evans

ECE

He definitely raises the bar among his peers. He really tries to maintain a high-level of excellence in his students, never going easy on them. He is an asset to the department, and to the University.

Dr. Robert Flake

ECE

He is the most fantastic and amazing professor of all. His way of delivering the lectures and making his ideas go across are the reasons which make him stand out from his peers. I wish I could have had more courses under him. Whatever he teaches is understood by each and every person in the class.

Dr. Kevin Folliard

Civil Engineering

He has very good knowledge of his field and he is very honest. I am really glad to have taken his course.

Dr. David Fowler

Civil Engineering

…makes continuous efforts to encourage students to explore outside of the classroom and computer lab, which is often difficult as a engineering graduate student. These efforts have included hosting a student dinner at his home and providing maps and insight on places to visit in Texas…

Dr. Desiderio Kovar

Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Hao Ling

ECE

…he is always willing to help students with their personal pursuits as well as with their academic goals. When I begin looking for a job last year, he introduced me to business leaders as well as to faculty from other universities. He not only passed along my name to them, but he would specifically ask them about possible job opportunities for me.

Dr. Larry Lake

Petroleum

His diversified knowledge in Petroleum Engineering and way of his teaching are the primary reasons to distinguish him from others. I found him to be involved in virtually almost all projects on the dept and through that he keeps a very good communication with all graduate students. He is free to talk about anything with his students and his modesty and personality is really something to admire.

Dr. Tom Milner

Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Milner truly goes the extra mile to help his students. He always has the time to solve any kind of problem you bring to him, be it regarding your thesis or something you are struggling with outside the realm of your thesis, like looking for a job. He has such a genuine concern about your well-being that’s so rare and makes you feel reassured. Needless to say he is brilliant guy and shares his knowledge and scientific intuition very effectively.

Dr. Charles Mullins

Chemical

Engineering

He is an extraordinary professor, always with a great attitude and is highly committed. I really think that Dr. Mullins is one of the professors that makes the difference in education

Dr. Dean Neikirk

ECE

Truly outstanding. Just takes great pains to make sure that the student understands every bit of what he says and he puts in a lot of effort to prepare for each class. Explains even the minutest of assumption that he makes and also tries to rationalize it. Has great concern for the students. Knows his stuff really well. He is not averse to digressing away from the topic to explain some pertinent concept in detail.

Dr. Rick Neptune

Mechanical Engineering

…one of the best lecturers I have been involved with.  He seemed to be sincerely concerned about our future as graduate students.  When I see him this semester (after having taken his class), he is very friendly and always asks how things are going...

Dr. Theodore Rappaport

ECE

Professor Rappaport is not only an educator in classroom, he also works very hard to bring in resources and viewpoints into campus for graduate students, and he always encourages graduate students to effectively communication ideas with out-side world.  I believe the two-way communications between class-room education and academia/industry information will greatly help students to success both intellectually and in future career development.

Dr. Kami Sepehrnoori

PE

Besides his great achievements in research, Dr Sepehrnoori is one of the most helpful and understanding faculty member I have ever met. This nomination is not even enough to make up all the good things he has done to me.  This opinion is shared by every student from my department.

Dr. Richard Tucker

Civil Engineering

Dr Richard Tucker has been extremely helpful to all of his students.  Though with so much experience, he remains humble and so willing to share his knowledge with his students. Moreover, I feel that Dr Tucker has been an extremely important character in the CEPM program, his initiation of the Construction Industry Institute has not just benefited UT Austin, but to the entire industry. It has since become so much more efficient and the direction that he has given to the industry is so good.

Dr. Jonathan Valvano

ECE

He takes a lot of interest in the progress of the student, and is always very helpful.  At the same time he is a patient listener to what we want to say. He is very frank and doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge his limitations in certain fields.

Dr. A. J. Welch

Biomedical Engineering

He was one of pioneers in the laser optics in biomedical engineering in the world and he has worked on various laser tissue interaction researches for about 40 years. Even though he has been a professor more than 40 years, he is currently working as an undergraduate adviser to foster a new biomedical engineering department here in Austin and an energetic teaching professor who have a strong willingness to enhance the quality of his classes by applying an educational theory such as a legacy cycle.