Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020431
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY PAGE: FD-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
STUDENTS LOOK FORWARD TO 8 A.M. CLASS
The engineering students said it best: "It takes a great teacher to make us want to come to an 8 a.m. class."They were speaking of Ron Kander, assistant professor of materials science and engineering (MSE) and this year's recipient of the Sporn Award for teaching engineering students. This Sporn Award is selected each year by the engineering students through the Student Engineer's Council.
Kander, who is only in his third year of teaching in the college of engineering, spent some of his time in 1992 restructuring the course "Elements of MateriTals Engineering." He based the course on case studies as he introduced MSE concepts to the students.
A number of the students from this class submitted nominations of Kander for the Sporn Award.
"It is not uncommon to call his office after 11 p.m. and find him still working, and still eager to help with homework or understanding concepts," wrote Jeanne Hampton, a sophomore. "I am constantly amazed at how many hours he puts in and how much coffee he drinks."
Hampton and a former fellow classmate Jennifer Roeder praised Kander for his willingness to help the students with course work outside of engineer ing. "He has given up many evenings and several Saturday afternoons to help me with calculus," Roeder recalled.
Martin Swan, another mamber of the class, also supported this claim, saying "He has openly offered to assist us in any class we may be having trouble in, and has made good on this offer many times."
One of Kander's graduate students from the MSE department observed that "because of his energy in the classroom, more sophomores are involved in department activities than in year's past."
Shannon Namboodri, a doctoral candidate, added that," For all the time Dr Kander spends on teaching the question begs to be asked, `How is his research?'
"As a graduate student in his group I can honestly say that his research doesn't suffer. He always makes time for his graduate students, coming to the lab to help with a new set-up or to see some interesting results, meeting to discuss recent results, and encouraging us to write and present papers. Students not in his research group are also able to get advice from Dr. Kander about problems in polymers. He loves a challenge."
Kander's real challenge may be time management. He is the current sophomore class adviser for the entire sophomore class in MSE; the adviser for the MSE senior design project for six soon-to-be graduates; the charman of eight master's degree and three doctoral candidates; and the faculty adviser for the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (SAMPE).