Faculty Award Winners Recognized at Awards Banquet

March 16, 2019 — The College of Engineering extends its congratulations to the two faculty award winners recognized at the Engineers Week Awards Banquet.

Melissa Scheaffer received the Teaching Excellence Award. Scheaffer has built a successful 30-year career at USU in both teaching and administrative roles. She has a background in adult learning, communication, experiential education, and curriculum development. She joined the College of Engineering in 2014 to develop and teach technical communication for engineers. With a dedication to seeing students develop improved communication skills, Scheaffer designed a technical communication course that is highly regarded among students. In 2017, she launched the acclaimed Engineering Writing Center, which has served more than 3,000 students. Today, the center is as a national model for engineering schools. Scheaffer also teaches an Honors course focused on the technical communication issues related to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Professor Ron Sims received the Undergraduate Faculty Mentor Award. Sims has led a successful 46-year career in industry, government, and higher education. He has provided meaningful contributions to the field of biological and biomedical engineering, and his work has improved public health and environmental sustainability. Dr. Sims holds four United States patents and has published over 150 journal articles, book chapters, and other technical reports. He has mentored over 45 graduate students and hundreds of undergraduate students, many of whom have received awards at professional conferences and have served in national student leadership positions within the Institute of Biological Engineering, the Biological Engineering Club, and the Sustainable Waste to Bioproducts Engineering Center.

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Writer and contact: Matt Jensen, 435-797-8170, matthew.jensen@usu.edu