Academics

Six doctoral students in the Urban and Regional Science program at Texas A&M University honed their teaching skills this year while earning fellows certificates from the university’s Graduate Teaching Academy. They attended seminars, choose a faculty mentor, observed classrooms and created a teaching portfolio.

For a class exercise, third year Texas A&M construction science students grappled with industry ethics issues then faced a panel of industry professionals and a nationally renowned business ethics expert who peppered them with questions about their responses to ethical quandaries.

For outstanding teaching and research-based contributions to their respective disciplines, 10 Texas A&M College of Architecture faculty members have earned promotions. “They have empowered and emboldened students through their dedication,” said Lou Tassinary, executive associate dean at the college.

Students studying abroad in South Africa are designing a starter campus for the university and developing a business plan for a nonprofit utility company while working on a groundbreaking real estate development located on the coast of the the country’s Eastern Cape.

Chris Mulder ’80 lectured about his firm’s newest trend-setting concept and led a design charrette while in College Station to receive an Outstanding International Alumnus Award from The Association of Former Students.

Three College of Architecture professors edited the latest issue of Preservation Education and Research, the academic journal serving the National Council for Preservation Education. The publication features peer-reviewed articles on heritage conservation education, research and scholarship.

Don't call him a teacher, says Jorge Vanegas, dean of the college, on the Texas A&M News & Information Services website. “My primary job is to unleash the individual creative potential within every student, no matter what their background or major.”

Construction science students at Texas A&M developed construction plans for an Austin theater to finish second in a field of 11 teams at an Associated Schools of Construction Region V student competition held February 2011 in Dallas. The Aggie competition team was sponsored by Joeris General Contractors, Inc.

A video that played at the 2009 gala opening of Texas A&M’s Soltis Center for Research and Education in Costa Rica includes comments by an assistant dean at the College of Architecture, whose students’ design concepts significantly influenced the final appearance of the center’s buildings.

“The Sourcebook of Contemporary Green Architecture,” a new book by Sergi Costa Duran featuring 100 of the world’s most outstanding examples of environmentally-friendly architecture, opens with an introduction from sustainability expert Pliny Fisk, a professor at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

Texas A&M urban planning professor Michael Neuman has authored a new book examining the city of Madrid’s 20-year urban planning cycle and co-edited another that eyes the future of urbanization.