Society of Columbia Graduates

2018, Columbia Engineering

Today, the Society of Columbia Graduates honors you for your exceptional teaching accomplishments in the field of Civil Engineering and for your steadfast commitment to enriching the lives of our undergraduate students outside of the classroom, teaching them important life lessons by your example.

You completed your undergraduate studies at Brown University, earning your B.A.in Architectural Studies and your B.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1992. You then received your M.S. in Civil Engineering from Rice University two years later. At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, you earned your M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1997 and your Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 1998.

Since joining the Columbia faculty in 1998, you have been involved in teaching five different courses to undergraduates, and four advanced courses to both undergraduate and graduate students. You teach the Dynamics and Vibration course, ENME E3106, regarded by most students as the most challenging course in their undergraduate curriculum. They marvel at your organization and preparation, approachability and delivery when submitting program evaluations at the end of the semester. Furthermore, they recognize your passion in the classroom and your remarkable command of the subject matter. Students consistently admire your clear and engaging teaching style.

Your department chair, Professor George Deodatis, having sat in on your Dynamics and Vibration Course, describes your teaching style as “stellar”. He declares your teaching this course to be a “truly unique and remarkable accomplishment” in that you teach in a way understandable to students without losing any of the mathematical rigor involved in the theory. As faculty advisor to the team participating in the Student Steel Bridge Competition, a major national competition sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers, you have inspired our students and guided them to a first place finish at Nationals in the Aesthetics category. You have also served two 3-year terms as the Department’s representative to the Committee on Instruction, shaping undergraduate programs across the School.

Your contributions to student life and well-being are highly regarded on campus. For five years you were Faculty-in-Residence at the Hartley-Wallach Living Learning Center, during which time you led by example and arranged very exciting programs and activities for undergraduates from both the College and the School of Engineering. Your dinners with distinguished guests, including many from outside of the Columbia community, served to engage our undergraduate students with intellectual stimulation, bringing them exciting new perspectives on a wide variety of topics. During those years, you gave unselfishly of yourself, to act as a role model and mentor, to help shape a balanced life for our undergraduate students.

Your keen interest in promoting a Columbia education has inspired you to serve as a faculty volunteer at almost all School of Engineering and Applied Science open house events for prospective students for over a decade. You have spoken eloquently at Family weekends, Reunion weekends and Career fairs, leaving a lasting impression upon students, their families and all those in attendance.

In recognition of your outstanding accomplishments as a gifted and inspirational teacher, and for your steadfast and enduring commitment to undergraduate life and well-being, the Society of Columbia Graduates is honored to present you with its 2018 Great Teacher Award.