Honors

Ming-Han Li, associate professor of landscape architecture at Texas A&M, was elected to a leadership position and honored for his service in the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture during the organization's 2012 conference held last March at the University of Illinois.

Geoffrey Kornegay’s proposal for a network of community facilities in Mexico City, his final Masters of Architecture study project at Texas A&M, won “Best of the Best” honors at the Department of Architecture’s inaugural Celebration of Excellence.

An energy-saving thermostat and high-tech clothing tags that take the guesswork out of washer and dryer settings were among the award-winning ideas hatched by College of Architecture students in a contest sponsored by the Mays Business School’s Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.

A class popular with honors students at Texas A&M developed by Rodney Hill, professor of architecture, helped him net the 2012 Betty M. Unterberger Award for Outstanding Service to Honors Education.

Hailed as a renowned thinker, innovator and a longtime leader in the healthcare design community, Kirk Hamilton, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was named to a national design magazine’s 2012 list of the Most Influential People in Healthcare Design.

Environmental design student teams from Texas A&M swept a national design contest, winning first-, second-, and third-place awards, as well as honorable mention with plans for renovating a skilled nursing facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

A scholarship endowment gradually funded over the last 18 years by 27 community outreach projects undertaken by students in professor Jon Rodiek's Master of Architecture studios at Texas A&M University reached fruition last fall, for the first time providing scholarships totaling $14,000 for eight new MLA students.

The New York Times featured Texas A&M architecture professor John Fairey's beloved Peckerwood Garden, a 39-acre living repository of rare and unusual plants from the southern United States and Mexico, in its April 18 issue.

Earlier this month, the Maroon Coats, student ambassadors of the Texas A&M Foundation, organized an impromptu “thank you” note-writing session for students to share their gratitude with scholarship benefactors and gift givers who support College of Architecture programs.

A high-tech, permanent installation for the newly renovated Memorial Student Center portraying Texas A&M students past and present, designed in part by a former environmental design student, will debut in December.

James Smith ’70, professor and former head of the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University, was among 24 university faculty and staff members to receive a 2012 Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Former Students at a April 25 ceremony at Rudder Theatre.

“The Celebration of Excellence,” a new Department of Architecture event recognizing outstanding student and faculty achievements, will include a juried evaluation of the year’s top five graduate final study projects, culminating with the presentation of a “Best of the Best Award” for the winning work.

Lorena Téllez Toffer AIA, a 2004 Master of Architecture graduate, will be recognized May 19 at the American Institute of Architect’s National Convention in Washington, D.C. for her leadership as co-chair of AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture (LiA) Committee, this year’s AIA Diversity Recognition Program honoree.

A College Station area consisting of strip malls and parking lots would become a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, downtown core in an award-winning master plan proposed by Master of Landscape Architecture students at Texas A&M.

The Society of Counseling Psychology’s efforts to support psychologists, students and international and professional affiliates will be augmented by president-elect Michael Duffy, a Center for Health Systems and Design Faculty Fellow and professor emeritus of counseling psychology at Texas A&M.