NSF award honors Professor Billington

Professor Billington intends to develop teaching materials that introduce students to major engineering innovations of the 20th century and the thinking of outstanding engineers. The course work demands visual understanding, numerical work, and expository writing to demonstrate that efficient, economic, ethical, and aesthetic choices are all intrinsic to engineering design.

The NSF Distinguished Teaching Awards recognize the recipients' past efforts at connecting scientific research and education and their proposals for continuing their work.

The accompanying grant enables recipients to improve how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research translate into undergraduate instruction of students, including those not majoring in these fields. The awards were established as part of NSF's efforts to promote an interest among academics for both disciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship. It is the highest honor bestowed by the NSF for excellence in both teaching and research.

Professor Billington has been a member of the SEAS faculty since 1960 and is recognized as a national leader in developing interdisciplinary curricula. He is also director of the Program in Architecture and Engineering and the author of several books, the most recent being The Art of Structural Design.