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NPRE Professor Roy Axford and undergraduate student Lizette Sanchez have been selected to receive the 2008 Rose Award for Teaching Excellence and the William R. Schowalter Award, respectively.

Axford has been with the Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering Department since 1966. The first person to have earned a doctorate in nuclear engineering (1958, Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Axford has developed many courses within NPRE, and has been selected every semester for the Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students. He previously won from the College of Engineering the 1985 Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence and the 2004 Student Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Axford has been a five-time winner of the American Nuclear Society student chapter Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and twice has been a finalist for the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

The Rose Award is given for achieving excellence in undergraduate teaching. It especially recognizes innovative teaching methods and instructional programs that motivate freshman and sophomore students to learn and appreciate engineering. The award is named for Scott Rose, who received a bachelor’s in computer engineering in 1987. Rose manages wholesale market making of derivative products for Nation's Bank in Chicago.

Sanchez is a sophomore from Chicago. She is vice president of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and is a member of the American Nuclear Society student chapter. She was an undergraduate teaching assistant this past fall, and gained study abroad experience in Pisa, Italy, last summer. She served as a residential advisor for Illinois Connections in Engineering last summer, and has accepted an offer to work as an intern for Exelon Corp. this summer.

The Schowalter Award recognizes outstanding scholastics, leadership abilities and extra curricular activities. It is named for Bill Schowalter, Dean of the College of Engineering for a dozen years until his retirement in 2001.
The presentations will be made on Friday, April 25, 2008, during the College of Engineering Awards Convocation.

Writer: Susan K. Mumm, editor/alumni affairs coordinator, Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering, 217/347-2166.

(posted 27 Feb 2008)