Excellence in teaching earns Ertekin the Everitt Award

 

MechSE Assistant Professor Elif Ertekin received the 2016 Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence from Engineering Council. She will be formally recognized at the College of Engineering Faculty Awards Ceremony on April 25.

 

Nominated by students and selected by the student-led Engineering Council, Ertekin was honored for her devotion to teaching and for her pioneering efforts to integrate “active learning” techniques into large lecture courses for MechSE’s undergraduates. 

 

Ertekin joined MechSE in 2011 after postdoctoral positions at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley. She earned an MS in 2003 and a PhD in 2006 in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as an MS in 2000 in engineering science from Penn State. 

 

Ertekin’s research group focuses on using atomistic computational methods to design and understand new materials and structures to address a wide range of globally and societally relevant issues, such as energy sustainability, next-generation electronics, and environmental remediation. They use a variety of techniques to address problems related to mechanical phenomena at the nanoscale, the design of advanced energy conversion systems, and the study of novel surface and interface phenomena.

 

The Everitt Award was established in 1968 by undergraduate engineering students to honor Dean Emeritus William L. Everitt at the time of his retirement. The award, which annually recognizes one engineering faculty member for outstanding undergraduate teaching, is one of the most coveted awards available to faculty, and serves to emphasize the importance attached to good teaching in the college. The award is made possible through an endowment contributed by the personal and corporate friends of Dean Everitt.