Dr. Felder Endowment Reception

The department hosted a reception in honor of Emeritus Professor Richard Felder and in appreciation of donors who contributed to the Richard M. Felder Teaching Excellence Endowment. 

During the reception, the winners of the inaugural Richard M. Felder Teaching Awards were also recognized. Professors Matt Cooper and Lisa Bullard received the award for their study “Retrospective Analysis of the Effect of CBE’s Online “Bridging” Course Sequence on Student Success in Graduate Studies,” and CBE Ph.D. student Leah Granger received the award to pursue her study “Introduction of a computational TA role to support undergraduate training in computational thinking strategies.” 

The awards were made possible through the Richard M. Felder Teaching Excellence Endowment. This endowment was established by Trent Carrier (BSChE ‘94) in honor of Dr. Felder and his commitment to excellence in teaching. The contributions from over 65 alumni, faculty, and friends have exceeded $265,000 and will continue to help carry on Dr. Felder’s legacy. 

Dr. Felder’s long-standing commitment to excellence in teaching and pedagogy is exemplified by his longitudinal study focusing on best practices for teaching. This study, which took place in the 1990’s, focused on various teaching techniques used to address different learning styles and analyzed the attitudes and performance of participants. The participants of the study took five chemical engineering courses during five consecutive semesters – all taught by Dr. Felder. Ultimately, Dr. Felder found that instructors who apply active and cooperative learning methods, along with care and patience, can help students to think deeper, learn more effectively, and have more positive attitudes towards the subject matter. 

A number of the alumni participants of Dr. Felder’s longitudinal study have donated to the endowment, and several were in attendance at the reception! Featured below are Emmett (Buddy) Crawford, Kathleen Jelinek Bentley, Rich Felder, Trent Carrier, Jennifer Parr Piercy.

Thank you to all of the endowment donors and congratulations to the Richard M. Felder Teaching Award winners. We are excited to see Dr. Felder’s legacy of engineering education continue through your work.