AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Desmond F. Lawler, professor of engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, was honored Monday (May 3) for superior teaching by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation in San Antonio.
As a Piper Professor, Lawler received a $2,500 honorarium. The foundation gives 10 such awards each year to professors at colleges and universities in Texas.
Since 1958, the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation has honored professors for their dedication to the teaching profession and for their outstanding academic, scientific and scholarly achievement. Nominations are requested annually from each accredited college and university in the state based on full-time equivalent student body enrollment.
Lawler believes that teaching is what he was born to do. The purpose of engineering education, he says, is not just training, but helping students learn to the limits of their knowledge. He was recognized by students in 1998 as the Most Outstanding Faculty Member in the Department of Civil Engineering.
Lawler, the W.A. Cunningham Professor of Engineering, has been at UT since 1980. His research has focused on physical and chemical treatment processes for drinking and wastewater.
He has master’s and doctoral degrees in environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Notre Dame.
