Group includes Prof Rodney Hill among ‘Most Admired Educators’

Rodney Hill, a Texas A&M professor of architecture, has been named one of 2012’s “25 Most Admired Educators” by the Design Futures Council, another teaching honor in his already bulging trophy case.

The council, an interdisciplinary network of design, product, and construction leaders advancing innovation and shaping the future of the industry and the environment, is the latest group to recognize Hill, who has garnered numerous awards from state and national organizations as well as nearly every major teaching honor awarded by Texas A&M.

The “Most Admired” list, published in the council’s bi-monthly newsletter, DesignIntelligence, was selected by the publication’s staff with extensive input from thousands of design professionals, academic department heads, and students. Educators and administrators throughout the United States in architecture, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture are considered for inclusion.

Hill’s other significant honors include the Texas A&M Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence Award (2010), the Texas Society of Architects Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions in Honor of Edward J. Romieniec (2000), Texas A&M’s Eppright Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence (2005) and the David Tanner Champion of Creativity Award (2006) from the American Creativity Association.

“He emerges as one of the most remarkable educators I have met in my life,” said Jorge Vanegas, dean of the College of Architecture. “He combines boundless passion, energy and selfless dedication to his students with a brilliant intellect, an infectious charm and a genuine sense of care.”

Hill, who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 1969, is an award-winning architect, an expert in environmental psychology and a futurist whose lessons prompt students to connect the dots and draw their own conclusions from emerging global conditions, innovations and imagined possibilities.

For more about Hill’s remarkable career in education, read “Under the Spell of Rodney Hill” in the Fall 2010 issue of the Texas A&M Foundation’s , [Spirit magazine] (http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/e1e19b3d#/e1e19b3d/26) , and a recent [story] (http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2011/12/1/hill-design-class/) about his Design Process class, which attracts majors from throughout the university. Both stories include videos.

An [endowed professorship] (http://archone.tamu.edu/college/news/newsletters/fall2010/stories/Hill_professorship.html) has been established to honor Hill.