On Friday, May 2, 2003, the sixth annual College of Natural Sciences Honors and Awards Banquet was held recognizing outstanding advising, outreach, and teaching excellence. Our department was fortunate to have Pat Horne, Stephanie Shaffer, Doug Burger, and Calvin Lin recognized for outstanding accomplishments.
Doug Burger received the 2003 President's Associates Teaching Excellence Award. This award recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching at the university. Nominations are based upon recommendations from the dean of the college and department chair, which are then reviewed by the Vice Provost for recommendation to the Provost, who makes the final selection. Doug is the first faculty member in our department to receive this award. He is an Assistant Professor of Computer Sciences, whose main research interests lie in the areas of computer architecture, compilers, and novel computing technologies. With his colleague Steve Keckler, he is co-leader of the TRIPS project, which is building a prototype of an ultra-high performance microprocessor architecture. In addition to a Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship, he has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the 2002 University Co-op Award for Best Research Paper, the Texas Excellence Teaching Award and the UT College of Natural Sciences Teaching Award.
Pat Horne was recognized for his decades of outreach work with Habitat for Humanity. He is employed part-time as a computer systems development specialist. He retired from UTCS in 1997 after 25 years of service with the university. He is a past recipient of the UTCS Staff Excellence Award, the College of Natural Sciences Excellence Award, and the UT-Austin Staff Excellence Award. Habitat brings families and communities together with volunteers and resources to build decent, affordable housing.
Calvin Lin received a College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award. These awards are given to exceptional faculty who are committed to teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level. Past UTCS recipients of the award are Chris Edmondson-Yurkanan, Gordon Novak, Vicki Almstrum, Vladimir Lifschitz, Doug Burger, Steve Keckler, and Glenn Downing. Calvin is an Assistant Professor in Computer Sciences, earning his Ph.D. from the University of Washington. Calvin's current research interests lie in the areas of compilers and languages, with particular interest in parallel computing. He is a past recipient of the NSF CAREER award.
Stephanie Shaffer received the Robert Murff Excellence Award in recognition of her outstanding support of career services at the university. She is the new Coordinator for the Office of External Affairs. Prior to joining the department in August 2002, Stephanie worked at IBM Austin for seven years. During her last four years with the company, she worked as the HR partner at IBM's Austin Research Laboratory (ARL). Stephanie has a B.A. in Psychology from St. Edward's University in Austin. Her educational interests lie in the area of neuropsychological research. The Murff award is named in honor of Dr. Robert Murff, the founder of the Career Exploration Center in Jester Hall and a lecturer in the College of Education.
