Seeking Applications for the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching


The Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education of Princeton University seeks applications for the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching for Academic Years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. This professorship continues the admirable tradition of previous holders who have set standards for exceptional scholarship and distinguished teaching which have become the hallmarks of the Kenan Trust Visiting Professorship.

The appointment will be for the full academic year and the visitor is required to teach a regular course in one semester. The University expects that this would be a high-profile course, with sizable enrollment. In the other semester, the visitor is expected to do something with a positive pedagogical impact on our campus. This can take the form of a course in the second semester; a series of off-the-books seminars on methods of teaching, etc. Pedagogical innovation is of particular interest in this appointment.

Candidates will be evaluated according to their teaching ability and scholarship, and their track records of new course innovations and innovative teaching methods that can bring new dimensions to what the members of the Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty are already doing in their classrooms. The application deadline is November 10.

The applicant should indicate in his/her application the preferred academic year for their visit. Applications should include the candidate’s c.v. and a statement of how the candidate proposes to spend the visiting year. (Applicants are encouraged to contact the chair of the appropriate Princeton department to discuss possible teaching opportunities.) Three reference letters that comment on the nominee’s qualifications and experiences relevant to the proposed activities will be required for top candidates.

Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations. You may apply for the professorship online at http://jobs.princeton.edu (search for requisition number 0900435). For general application information and how to self-identify, see http://www.princeton.edu/dof/about_us/dof_job_openings/
 

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Professor James Grotberg, of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, holds the Kenan Trust Visiting Professorship for the fall semester of academic year 2009-2010.

Professor Grotberg is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan (http://biofluids.engin.umich.edu), where he is also the Director of the University of Michigan - NASA Bioscience and Engineering Institute.  He holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University Department of Mechanics and Materials Science, and an M.D. from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics, and an Inaugural Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society. He has served on the Michigan School of Engineering Committee on Undergraduate Fluid Mechanics Curriculum, and he has served as the Graduate Committee Chair in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and on theirTask Force on Undergraduate Education. He is also the Chair of the Board of Directors of R.E.A.C.H. Youth Programs, Inc., a not-for-profit, neighborhood-based outreach service to children who live in the Nolan and State Fair Sectors of the City of Detroit. It provides counseling, tutorial services, nutrition, family assistance, and athletic/recreational activities for over 300 at-risk children in this impoverished urban region.
 
Professor Grotberg will be teaching a new 200-level course in MAE entitled “Biofluid Dynamics” (MAE 234). This course will cover swimming, flying, pulmonary and arterial flows, etc. and will be offered in the fall semester of 2009. It will be a technical course, but would require no previous exposure to fluid mechanics. There is a great interest among students for courses that have relevance to bio-engineering or the life sciences, and to have the opportunity to learn from a PhD/MD who is a world authority on biofluid dynamics is an exciting prospect.  
 

A tradition of high standards

This professorship continues the admirable tradition of Professors Brian Kernighan and Zellman Warhaft, who held the 250th William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching and set the standards for exceptional scholarship and distinguished record of teaching which has become the hallmark of this professorship. Previous holders of this professorship include:

  • Professor Umesh Vazirani from the VaziraniUmesh.jpg University of California–Berkeley as the William R. Kenan Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching in Computer Science taught the course "Quantum Physics, Qubits, and Nanoscience." While the class served as an elementary introduction to quantum physics, it also targeted students interested in interdisciplinary areas such as nanoscience and quantum computing. The course covered standards such as tensor products and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, as well as more advanced topics such as multi-particle systems and spin. "I really enjoyed teaching the course," Vazirani said. "The students were very engaged with the material, asked lots of questions, and were very articulate." Vazirani used "qubits," the basic unit of quantum information, to make the subject matter more intuitive for undergraduates. The approach succeeded in reaching non-majors, and Vazirani hopes it may become the standard method of introducing quantum physics to physics majors in the future. Along with transforming teaching in quantum information, Vazirani's interests include quantum computation, computational complexity theory, randomized algorithms, and computational foundations of randomness. He also serves as director of the Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center.edward-coyle.jpg
  • Professor Edward Coyle *82 from Purdue University as the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching of Electrical Engineering. Professor Coyle taught an electrical engineering course entitled “The Wireless Revolution”, an interdisciplinary course addressing technological, regulatory, economic and social issues arising in the rapidly developing field of wireless communications and computing. In addition to his teaching, Professor Coyle, along with other faculty, launched the Princeton chapter of EPICS, Engineering Projects in Community Service. In the EPICS program, students earn academic credit for their participation in multidisciplinary design teams that solve technology-based problems for local not-for-profit organizations.

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  • Professor Richard De Veaux from Williams College as the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching of Operations Research and Financial Engineering. Professor De Veaux taught a course entitled "Fundamentals of Engineering Statistics". With his prior teaching experience at Princeton, Professor De Veaux was a six-time winner of teaching awards from the Engineering Council. Professor De Veaux went on to receive a Lifetime Achievement award from the Engineering Council, in recognition his outstanding classroom achievements.chris-rogers-tufts.jpg

  • Professor Christopher Rogers from Tufts University as the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Professor Rogers taught a fall term Freshman Seminar entitled “Robots” to introduce students in a hands-on way to the concepts of engineering and physics. The class was enthusiastically received and revolved around weeklycompetitions between robots that students constructed from advanced Lego kits that include small computers, motors, gears, light and touch sensors and other gadgetry.
     

  • Professor Eric Denardo of Yale University as the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching of Operations Research and Financial Engineering. An international authority on dynamic programming, Professor Denardo taught a problem-based survey of ORFE using EXCEL as a learning tool, incorporating problems identified throughout his career to teach the techniques of quantitative modeling of decision making.
     
  • Professor James A. Smith of the University of Virginia as the William R. Kenan, Jr. Visiting jim-smith-uva.jpgAssociate Professor of Distinguished Teaching of Civil & Environmental Engineering. A civil engineer specializing in groundwater remediation, Professor Smith introduced a course on water for the developing world, in which he taught students, among other things, about water purification technologies that can be implemented in refugee camps.