The Cockrell School of Engineering Faculty Excellence Awards will be presented to four distinguished faculty members at a luncheon Dec. 7. The awards recognize exemplary teaching and professional leadership.
Thomas Hughes, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, will receive the Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award, which recognizes excellence in the presentation of invited lectures and seminars, as well as publication of papers and books that have broad impact on the engineering profession; of equal importance is excellence in teaching and research. Hughes is the Computational and Applied Mathematics Chair in Engineering and received a bachelor and master’s degree from the Pratt Institute, and his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He is commended worldwide for his research that applies computational methods to a wide variety of engineering and health-related issues.
Jacob Abraham, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will be the 27th recipient of the Billy and Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award, which recognizes faculty who have made significant contributions in furthering the profession of engineering through documented research conducted while associated with The University of Texas at Austin. Abraham holds the Cockrell Family Regents Chair. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Kerala in India, and earned his master’s and doctorate degree from Stanford University. Abraham has authored more than 350 papers during his time at UT, six of which have received best paper awards at international conferences. He also has supervised more than 80 Ph.D. dissertations.
Noel Clemens, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, will receive the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching, which recognizes a teacher with exceptional technical knowledge and a passion for teaching who inspires students to learn. He received a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and master's and doctorate degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. Clemens developed and directs the Flow Field Imaging Laboratory, and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the U.S. Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Michael Webber, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will receive the Dean's Award for Outstanding Teaching by an Assistant Professor. The award recognizes outstanding classroom teaching by an assistant professor, and serves to promote and encourage exceptional teaching early in a faculty member's career. Recipients have demonstrated effective teaching through Course Instructor Surveys; exhibit a visible, genuine concern for students; and possess the ability to impart knowledge while challenging students to engage themselves in independent inquiry. Webber received both a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of science from The University of Texas at Austin - both with high honors - and his master's and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He has authored more than 150 scientific articles, columns, books and book chapters as well as given more than 175 lectures, speeches and invited talks in the last few years, including testimony before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee and lectures at the United Nations.
