TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama National Alumni Association has announced the 2017 recipients of the University’s highest honor for excellence in teaching – the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Awards.
This year’s recipients are: Dr. Daniel G. Bachrach, professor of management, Culverhouse College of Commerce; Dr. James Paul Hubner, associate professor of aerospace engineering and mechanics, College of Engineering; Dr. Kenneth G. Ricks, associate professor of electrical and computing engineering, College of Engineering; and Dr. Heather M. Taylor, associate professor of pediatrics, College of Community Health Sciences.
Mandy Wyatt, district vice president of the National Alumni Association, recognized the 2017 award recipients at today’s Fall Campus Assembly in the Ferguson Center Ballroom along with UA President Stuart R. Bell. An awards presentation also occurs at the NorthRiver Yacht Club
About the honorees:
Dr. Daniel G. Bachrach is a Robert C. and Rosa P. Morrow Endowed Faculty Excellence Fellow in the management department. He joined The University of Alabama faculty in 2002. Bachrach also has developed courses including MGT 497, Analysis and Interpretation of Digital Device Use and Data Management Approaches (Fall 2014); and MGT 300, Organizational Theory and Behavior On-Line. Bachrach is the winner of multiple research and teaching awards, including the Dean’s Summer Excellence in Research Award (2012, 2013), the Certificate of Excellence in Research awarded by the Society for Marketing Advances (2014), the Marvin Jolson Award for Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Practice by the National Educational Foundation Pi Sigma Epsilon, and the Bronze Medal Axiom Book Award for “More than a Showroom” (2016). Bachrach’s teaching recognition includes the John S. Bickley Culverhouse College Creativity and Innovation award (2016) and Innovation Scholar in Residence by the College of Continuing Studies (2017). Bachrach’s research has focused primarily on organizational citizenship behavior, transactive memory systems, corporate social responsibility and sales team performance. He has published 53 research papers in top-tier journals.
Dr. James Paul Hubner joined the UA faculty in 2005. He has been awarded the AIAA Outstanding Faculty in the aerospace engineering and mechanics department six times. In 2017, he was awarded the department’s Outstanding Student Opinion of Instruction Award. He was also named the College of Engineering Tau Beta Pi Outstanding Faculty Member in 2010. Including current students, he has advised 18 graduate and 31 undergraduate research students, participated on numerous graduate student committees and advised several senior design-team and student group organizations, including the student chapter of AIAA and Barna Ultimate. His lifetime average teaching evaluation is 4.6 out of 5.0, having taught more than 2,400 freshman-to graduate-level students in aerodynamics and mechanics through traditional on-campus and distance-learning courses. His research interests in experimental aerodynamics and solid mechanics include luminescent coatings, low Reynolds number flows, fluid-structure interactions and micro air vehicles. He is an associate fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the American Physical Society and American Society of Engineering Education. He has been the principal investigator or co-Pl on more than 25 research projects funded by government and industry totaling more than $5 million. He is the lead or co-author of more than 100 journal, conference publications and technical reports.