Master Teacher Award Goes To Mechanical Engineering Professor

Posted October 22, 1999

The Master Teacher Award, established to emphasize the importance of good teaching at the University and to recognize and honour faculty members who excel in teaching, has been awarded to Professor Colin Sargent of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The award, which consists of an inscribed trophy and $1,000 prize, will be presented to Sargent on Saturday, October 23 at the Fall Convocation ceremony.

Honoring Professor Sargent is an event that his colleagues and students, both past and present, have anticipated for some time. In his nomination testimony Professor Greg Shoenau, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, states, "Professor Sargent is an outstanding teacher and scholar. He possesses an enthusiasm for learning that is stimulating, fun and contagious. He has consistently demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the material in both the theoretical and practical sense, and an ability to relate that knowledge to the students. I have observed and envied his ability to encourage students to reflect about their course material in ways that will help them generate creative solutions to the many open-ended and ill-defined problems that they will encounter as practicing engineers."

Colin Sargent was awarded his Ph.D by Cambridge University in 1977, based on his research in the materials science area. He has published numerous papers for journals and abstracts and is sought after as an international lecturer. Although Sargent is recognized and respected as a researcher, his nominators agree that what truly sets him apart and makes him an exceptional candidate for this award is a "deep-seated concern for students that extends beyond the classroom. The many special needs and problems, particularly faced by first year students as a result of the adjustments and presures of university life, is placed at the center of Sargent's service to students and the College."

Professor Sargent's voluntary roles have been extensive over his time at the University. He has held the position of Chairman of the College Student Counselling Committee for several years and is consistently selected by students as faculty advisor in the organization of their events. He is responsible for initiating and/or serving a variety of programs for students in the College, among them: the Math Skills Camp, evening math help sessions, the College's Orientation Day, the First Year Teaching Circle, the Big Sister/Little Sister Group, and the Second Wind Group. He has served a multitude of department, college and university committees and his dedication and valuable contributions have not gone unnoticed.

Professor Sargent's devotion to his students and to improving the pedagogical life at the university has been formally recognized by the students. He was chosen to receive the first Saskatoon Engineering Students Association (SESS) Friend of the Students Award during its inaugural year (1980) and received the award again in 1984; he is the only engineering faculty member to have received this award more than once.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Colin Sargent
Department of Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering
(306) 966-5470

105 Administration Place
Saskatoon, SK, Canada