H. Scott Fogler, the Vennema Professor of Chemical Engineering and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, has been named a Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year by the Michigan Association of State Universities.
The award recognizes outstanding contributions to undergraduate education by faculty members from Michigan’s public universities.
“Professor Fogler’s vision for rich undergraduate education that incorporates the complexity of real-world conditions has sustained a career of innovations that enable and encourage creative problem solving is the reason he is deserving of the Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year Award,” said Susan M. Collins, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, who nominated Fogler for the honor.
Fogler has dedicated his career to designing and integrating creative teaching methods into both individual chemical engineering courses and, more broadly, academic curricula. He has authored or co-authored 10 textbooks, two of which have been used in an estimated 75 percent of chemical engineering programs worldwide for the past three decades, “Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering” and “Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering.”
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“Scott is among our most dedicated and distinguished faculty members when it comes to undergraduate learning. He has prepared thousands of students to solve global engineering challenges through critical thinking,” said Sharon Glotzer, the Anthony C. Lembke Department Chair of Chemical Engineering.
Glotzer also is the John Werner Cahn Distinguished University Professor of Engineering, the Stuart W. Churchill Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and a professor of materials science and engineering, macromolecular science and engineering, and physics.
Fogler’s teaching philosophy emphasizes the practical and creative aspects of being an engineer — specifically problem solving. As chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, he implemented a curriculum change, requiring an open-ended problem to solve in each chemical engineering course.
He also researched and distilled problem-solving methods in the context of chemical engineering, developing a course and co-authoring “Strategies for Creative Problem Solving.”
“I want students to feel that they can be creative in how they analyze and think about things,” Fogler said. “I want students to enjoy chemical engineering.”
His interest in international student experiences led him to co-direct a decade-long exchange program with students from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, who had been disadvantaged under apartheid. He also participated in a teaching exchange program with Chulalongkorn University in Thailand for 23 years.
As president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, he started the international “sister chapter” program. Earlier in his service, he started the annual Chem-E-Car competition, which challenges thousands of students in the United States and abroad to design and construct shoebox-sized cars powered by chemical energy.
In addition to his excellence in teaching, Fogler’s research has helped solve problems in oil and gas extraction and transport. Forty-nine chemical engineering Ph.D.s graduated with his supervision, and he has co-authored more than 250 research papers.
Fogler spent decades consulting for major oil companies and related industry firms, and he served on President Barack Obama’s commission to study and make a recommendation on the flow of diluted bitumen in the Keystone Pipeline. Fogler has also served as an associate dean of the College of Engineering.
— Bob Murphy of the Michigan Association of State Universities contributed to this story.
