NPRE Student Services Admissions and Records Officer Becky J. Meline and Prof. Clifford E. Singer have been honored with the 2010 Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising.
The top 10 percent of engineering advisors are chosen for this award, recognizing the important role that advisors play in the academic planning process of every engineering student on campus.
Students nominate the candidates.
Meline joined NPRE in 2000 on a temporary basis to provide general administrative support in Student Services. She soon transitioned to greater responsibilities in graduate admissions and advising with a focus on integrating new students into the program.
With the increase in the Department’s undergraduate student numbers in recent years, her responsibilities have shifted to include more undergraduate advising. She currently advises all NPRE incoming freshmen and transfer students on course registration as well as works with inter-college transfers.
Meline serves as Chief Adviser representing the Department within the College. Projects she most enjoys include organizing student panels on internship and study abroad experiences, and coordinating national laboratory and industry visits in which representatives talk with students about research and career opportunities.
Related to this, Meline helped initiate the now regularly-offered and popular spring Undergraduate Seminar that brings outside speakers to campus to present on topics across NPRE’s varied research and career areas. She also works with Department Head James F. Stubbins on securing scholarship and fellowship funding that helps students financially support their education.
Meline says of her advising experience, “We have great students and a great program. The students have a lot of opportunities open to them; they just have to know that they’re there and take advantage. It’s great for me to see them be successful and to help them get there.”
An expert on international security and energy, Singer was instrumental in developing the College of Engineering’s Graduate Option Program in Energy and Sustainability Engineering (EaSE) that began in January 2010. The program was designed to provide the components of breadth and depth for students who are enrolled in a departmental masters or PhD program, where they build a core competence in a discipline.
Singer joined NPRE’s faculty in 1986, becoming a full professor in 1992. He also has directed the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament and International Security (ACDIS).
Singer was the 2008 winner of the Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement, presented by the University of Illinois International Programs and Studies Office of International Engagement, Communications, and Protocol. The honor recognized Singer’s prominence in the field of nuclear proliferation, eight-year appointment as ACDIS Director, and his service on the University of Illinois campus, nationally, and abroad.