USF Professor is Named ‘U.S. Professor of the Year’

University of South Florida engineering professor Autar Kaw has won the nation’s highest undergraduate teaching honor.

He has been named a 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He was recognized Nov. 15 at the National Press Club and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

Kaw is one of four professors selected from more than 300 nominees to receive the award. He was selected in the category of Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year.

Kaw has been a USF professor for 25 years, according to a USF press release. He has been praised for using technology and social media to reach millions of engineering students around the world. He has dedicated his career to providing students everywhere free access to his lessons. Those students know him as the “Numerical Methods Guy” through his Holistic Numerical Methods Institute website, his blog and YouTube video lectures.

“As much as some may think that this will be the end of the physical classroom or dismiss it for not being equivalent, I look at these resources as a way to complement the physical classroom,” Kaw said in the release.

Kaw is a fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the American Society of Engineering Education, the release states. In 2011, he was awarded the National Outstanding Teaching Medal from the American Society for Engineering Education. He has authored four textbooks and many academic articles.

“The U.S. Professor of the Year award is the highest honor in the nation for undergraduate teaching and Dr. Kaw’s selection reaffirms what the University of South Florida and his students have long known about this exceptional professor and outstanding individual: His commitment to education and his dedication to his students knows no bounds,” said USF President Judy Genshaft in the release. “His innovative and forward-thinking approach to education, his use of technology to expand learning opportunities around the world and his tireless pursuit of new and engaging teaching methods has made a lasting difference in the education and lives of his students.”