On Thursday, April 27, several professors were recognized for their exceptional level of dedication to their role as teachers. Each college of Carnegie Mellon selected a member of its faculty to present its college teaching award. The ceremony took place in Rangos 1 and 2 and was attended by a number of Carnegie Mellon faculty members and students, and the President of the University himself, Jared Cohon. In addition to the college teaching awards, the highly prestigious and University-wide William H. and Frances S. Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching was presented to design professor Mark Mentzer.

The Carnegie Institute of Technology college teaching award was presented to Tsuhan Chen, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering since 1997. In addition to his teaching, Chen also leads multimedia research with the Advanced Multimedia Processing (AMP) lab. Some of his work has affected fields such as computer vision, pattern recognition, computer graphics, and image rendering.

The College of Fine Arts presented their teaching award to Charlee Brodsky, a professor in the School of Design and chair of the Communication Design Program. Aside from being an excellent teacher, Brodsky is also an acclaimed documentary photographer whose work can be found across the nation in exhibitions as well as in various publications such as A Town Without Steel: Envisioning Homestead.

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences honored Scott Sandage, a history professor specializing in nineteenth-century America and member of the Carnegie Mellon faculty since 1996. Sandage not only teaches, but has worked to created seven courses at the University. He is also the author of several publications, including his award winning book Born Losers: A History of Failure in America.

The Heinz School presented awards to Lowell Taylor, a professor of economics and public policy, and Ramayya Krishnan, a professor of management science and information systems. In addition to teaching, both professors actively research. Taylor's interests lie in social economics, focusing on concepts such as poverty and labor markets. Krishnan's interests lie in the impacts of internet-enabled systems on policy and businesses.

The Mellon College of Science presented their award to Gordon Rule and Peter Berget, two professors in the department of biological sciences. Berget is currently researching the genes and proteins of mammalian cells and has written several pieces in various scientific publications such as BioTechniques and Genetics. Rule's research lies in the various molecular interactions within biological systems.

Gregory Kesden received the teaching award from the School of Computer Science. Kesden teaches several computer science courses each semester and has taught over 12 of the SCS courses during his time at Carnegie Mellon. He is also a part of several professional organizations in his field, including The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and The System Administrators Guild.

The Tepper School of Business presented their award to Javier Pena, an assistant professor of operations research, and Sunder Kekre, a professor of operations management and manufacturing. Kekre's current research concerns e-commerce and internet businesses. Pena's interests touch on areas such as optimization and numerical analysis.

The final and most prestigious award, the Ryan Award, was given to Mark Mentzer, a design professor and associate head of the School of Design. With a 30 year teaching career and 12 years of serving as associate head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon, Professor Mentzer has taught over 3,000 students. In addition to his role as a professor and administrator, Mark continues to produce his own artwork with a passion.

One thing that all these professors have in common despite the wide variety in their fields of expertise is their love for teaching.

"What great teachers really love is the feedback they get from interacting with their students," Cohon said, "[and] seeing the light bulbs go off in their heads."

Surely these professors are powerhouses of the academic world; yet, these awards represent more than just the accomplishments of a few members of the Carnegie Mellon faculty. They are a tribute to the high academic standards that we have come to know and love here at Carnegie Mellon – remember that when you pay that tuition next fall, you are certainly getting something priceless in return.

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