Mary Margaret "Meg"
Penrose
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Year Awarded: 2017
Meg Penrose, professor of law, joined the faculty of Texas Wesleyan School of Law, now known as Texas A&M School of Law in 2009. She earned her Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine Law School and her Mater of Laws in international human rights from the University of Notre Dame Law School. Her nominators wrote, “Professor Penrose personifies excellence in teaching.” Her students constantly praise her as being the best teacher they’ve ever had! Students love her enthusiasm, creativity and passion for the law. Her dean noted that she is an “exceptional and respected teacher, as reflected in [her] strong teaching evaluations and multiple teaching awards.” Professor Penrose teaches large classes covering subjects that are covered on bar examinations around the country. In two of the last three semesters, she has had more students in her classes than any other Texas A&M Law faculty member. The terms students use most commonly to describe Professor Penrose’s teaching include “amazing,” “brilliant,” “enthusiastic,” and “inspiring.” Her student evaluations are full of comments praising her availability outside of class and her passion for the law. Several students complimented her energy and noted that her enthusiasm for the subjects she teaches is contagious. As one student remarked, “I fell in love with Constitutional Law because of her.” Another indicated that she “teaches for both class and life in general.” The commendations she has received are remarkable considering her demanding standards and teaching rigor. One student noted, “I would have felt like I let her down if I wasn’t prepared” for class. Another remarked, “I looked forward to her class and often felt disappointed when it ended.” Another student sums it up with, “Penrose skyrocketed past all my hopes and expectations for this class….I can’t wait to take another class with her!”
College: School of Law
Award Level: Teaching
James D.
Pennington
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Year Awarded: 2015
After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Jim Pennington joined the faculty of the College of Science in 1998. His primary responsibility and professional passion is teaching three sections of sophomore organic chemistry for non-majors each semester. He says being able to interact with and influence these future doctors, dentists, veterinarians, and engineers at a critical time in their intellectual development is a blessing and incredibly rewarding. Among his colleagues and students, he has earned a reputation as an energetic, enthusiastic, challenging, and rigorous instructor who holds his students to the highest standards while doing everything in his power to help them succeed. He holds multiple office hours most days and an evening help session once a week. For his devotion, his students honored him as a Fish Camp Namesake. Dr. Pennington also enjoys motivating others to enjoy and learn about sciences in his role as the coordinator and chief presenter for the Texas A&M Chemistry Road Show, one of the premier outreach programs of the university. The Chemistry Road Show is a K-12 program that is presented 50 to 60 times per year at schools and to other organizations throughout Texas, reaching about 10,000 students annually. Many of these students are motivated to pursue careers in science—perhaps at Texas A&M. Serving as coordinator of the Roadshow has an added bonus for Dr. Pennington because he has the opportunity to work closely with and mentor 20 or so Aggies who participate as assistant demonstrators, putting them on a path to involvement in service and community outreach. A former student writes, “Dr. Pennington renewed my love for science and gave me the motivation to continue pursuing my goal of becoming a physician.… I am now in medical school…and without a doubt, he is the most helpful and encouraging professor I have had during my academic career.”
College: College of Science
Award Level: Teaching
Campbell
Pennington
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Year Awarded: 1981
College: Geosciences
Award Level: Teaching
Svetozar
Pejovich
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Year Awarded: 1987
College: Liberal Arts
Award Level: Teaching
Walter Gillis
Peacock
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Year Awarded: 2014
Walter Gillis Peacock earned his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. He joined the faculty of the College of Architecture in 2003 where he is director of the Hazard Reduction and Recover Center and assistant director of the Texas Census Research Data Center. He is locally, nationally, and internationally recognized for his research on disaster recovery, resiliency, and social vulnerability. He has been awarded the Sandy and Bryan Mitchell Master Builder Endowed Chair and the Rodney L. Dockery Endowed Professorship in Housing and the Homeless from the College of Architecture. Nationally, he was awarded the Quarantelli Award for Social Science Disaster Theory, and he was elected president of the International Research Committee on Disasters. He has published 2 books and more than 160 journal articles, book chapters, research monographs, and professional papers. He has given briefings on household, housing, and community disaster recovery, resilience, and vulnerability to local, state, and federal officials, including programs for the White House Conference Center on resiliency research, the National Academy of Science, and the National Science Foundation.
A supporter noted, Dr. Peacock’s contribution to the human dimension of disaster recovery “has become the foundation for the fields of disaster sociology and social vulnerability.” Furthermore he “is a pioneer in introducing new analytical methods into the field…especially...his Domestic Assets Index…a breakthrough in quantifying household recovery after a disaster event. Another supporter noted, “Dr. Peacock’s works [methodological] are used as standards for conceptualization and measurement, for understanding substantive areas within the study of disasters….” A colleague concludes, “Peacock’s passion for his topic and his ability to articulate the need for and utility of further research on the social impacts of disasters have heavily influenced the national, and even international, research agenda.”
College: College of Architecture
Award Level: Research
Vivian
Paul
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Year Awarded: 1995
College: Architecture
Award Level: Teaching
C.O.
Patterson
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Year Awarded: 2005
College: Science
Award Level: Teaching
Mary Ruth
Patranella
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Year Awarded: 1982
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Award Level: Staff
Joseph
Pasciak
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Year Awarded: 2011
Dr. Joseph E. Pasciak received his Ph.D. in 1977 from Cornell University. He was an Assistant Mathematician at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1977 to 1979, Associate Mathematician from 1979 to 1982, and Mathematician from 1982 to 1996. He was Visiting Scientist with the Department of Computer Science at Yale University from September to December 1983, and with the Mathematical Sciences Institute at Cornell University in August 1989 and again in July 1994. He held Adjunct Professorships at the State University of New York at Stony Brook from 1986 to 1996 and at Texas A&M University from 1994 to 1996. Dr. Pasciak is the recipient of the 2007 Computational and Mathematical methods in Science and Engineering Prize for 'Excellence in Research', and of the Outstanding Science Communicator Award of the Texas A&M University chapter of Sigma Xi. He is regarded as a world leader on these topics. His work in these areas is very deep, highly innovative, mathematically complete, and it has enormous practical impact. It has been very influential for both theoretical numerical analysis and practical techniques for large scale computing of solutions to partial differential equations. Several methods which are widely used by the applied mathematics community bear his name: the Bramble/ Pasciak method for preconditioning a class of problems known as saddle point problems, the BPX (Bramble/Pasciak/Xu) preconditioner in multi-level methods, and the BPS (Bramble/Pasciak/ Schatz) preconditioner in the so called non-overlapping domain decomposition method.
Two noted scholars and colleagues of Dr. Pasciak wrote, “Joe Pasciak is a pillar of the group in numerical analysis at Texas A&M. He has been instrumental in developing this group to a size and strength that now puts it among the best in the country. His research and his related educational work have enhanced the reputation of Texas A&M University worldwide.”
College: College of Science
Award Level: Research
Emanuel
Parzen
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Year Awarded: 1983
College: Science
Award Level: Research
Thomas
Parsons ’49
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Year Awarded: 1977
College: Staff
Award Level: Student Relations
Jerry
Parsons
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Year Awarded: 1990
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Award Level: Extension/ Continuing Education
Linda
Parrish ’78
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Year Awarded: 1995
College: Education and Human Development
Award Level: Teaching
Paul
Parrish
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Year Awarded: 2000
College: Liberal Arts
Award Level: Teaching
George
Parker III ’64
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Year Awarded: 1985
College: Liberal Arts
Award Level: Staff
Roy D.
Parker ’66
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Year Awarded: 2002
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Award Level: Continuing Education/Extension
Travis
Parker
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Year Awarded: 1955
College: Geosciences
Award Level: Teaching
Casey J.
Papovich
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Year Awarded: 2017
Casey Papovich, professor and holder of the Marcia and Ralph Schilling Chair in Physics and Astronomy, received his bachelor’s in physics from the College of William and Mary and his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Before joining the faculty of the College of Science in 2008, he was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory, led scientific results from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and was awarded NASA’s Spitzer Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship. He is a recognized expert in extragalactic astrophysics with a focus on galaxy formation and cosmology. Dr. Papovich was one of the pioneers using deep imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the growth of stars in galaxies over the history of the Universe. He is a frequent user of the world’s largest ground-based telescopes, and he has led large programs with NASA’s space-based observatories. Dr. Papovich’s recent work has important implications for many aspects of subsequent evolution of galaxies — one of the major science objectives of the next generation of space telescopes. His work is helping to define the observing plans for these $5 billion-level projects — an indicator of his global impact. As of January 2016, he has authored or co-authored more than 190 highly cited peer-reviewed publications. In 2014, 2015, and 2016, he was selected one of Thomas Reuter’s Highly Cited Researchers — awarded to the top one percent of cited researchers.
College: Department of Physics and Astronomy
Award Level: Research
Norma
Pantoja
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Year Awarded: 2007
Norma Pantoja is an Administrative Coordinator in the Department of Agricultural Economics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M University. As administrative coordinator, Ms. Pantoja is responsible for the coordination of all administrative processes in a very large department with an annual budget in excess of ten million dollars that employs more than 250 people on any given day, including more than 55 on- and off-campus faculty members, numerous professional staff, support staff and student workers. In 2000, Ms. Pantoja received the Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence for Administrative Support and has been recognized by students and faculty within her department with numerous awards.
In addition to her leadership within the department, Ms. Pantoja has served in numerous positions within the Texas A&M Association of Professional Support Staff [TAPSS] and has served her community as co-chair of the Volunteer Committee and co-chair of the annual American Cancer Society’s Cattle Baron’s Ball for 2002/03 and 2003/04.
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Award Level: Staff
Carlos
Pace
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Year Awarded: 1990
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Award Level: Teaching
Joe L.
Outlaw ’87
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Year Awarded: 2008
Joe Outlaw is a Professor and Extension Economist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and Department of Agricultural Economics. He also serves as the Co-Director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center, consulting with Congress about the likely consequences of agricultural policy changes.
Dr. Outlaw is a leader in agricultural and renewable energy policy analysis and education. He also is on the leading edge of farm-level agricultural policy analysis, biofuels, alternative technology assessment, and development of risk-based farm management decision aids. His work has made significant impacts on the viability of agriculture and rural communities across the nation. Wayne Cleveland, Executive Director, Texas Grain Sorghum Association, writes, “Joe’s ability to convey a non-sugar coated review of policy and its effect is really what sets him apart…His analyses and presentations leave very little room for misinterpretation and for these reasons he is a highly sought after speaker and has a very high acceptance level in the country as well as Washington, D.C.”
In 2002, he led a team of Extension economists who received awards for their 2002 farm bill education efforts from the American Agricultural Economics Association, the Southern Agricultural Economics Association, the National Public Policy Education Committee, USDA-FSA, and the Texas A&M University System Vice Chancellor for Agriculture.
Dr. Outlaw is originally from Devine, Texas. He received his B.S (1987), M.S. (1988), and Ph.D. (1992) degrees from Texas A&M University, all in agricultural economics. He is married to Natalie (’98) and has three children, Stephanie, Layne, and Dylan.
College: Agriculture and Life Sciences
Award Level: Continuing Education/Extension
Robert
Olson ’66
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Year Awarded: 1973
College: Engineering
Award Level: Teaching
James
Olson
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Year Awarded: 2010
College: The Bush School of Government and Public Service
Award Level: Teaching
Rogelio
Oliva
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Year Awarded: 2013
Rogelio Oliva earned his Ph.D. from MIT. He joined the Mays Business School faculty in 2004 and is currently a Ford Faculty Fellow. He has taught in academic programs around the world, including institutions in Spain, Chile and Mexico. He has won twelve teaching awards at four universities, including four teaching awards here at Texas A&M.
Dr. Oliva is a master of the case study method of teaching, which is generally contrasted to a lecture and lab approach. Through case study and discussion, students determine universal principles. The instructor acts as a guide, asking questions to lead students to discover these principles themselves through analysis. Case teaching can be challenging. There are no lecture notes or PowerPoint slides to read from, no book with structure to follow, and students often unveil novel analysis or statements. So a teacher must be ready to deal with a wide variety of unanticipated events. As a consequence, there are many case teachers, but not many who are proficient.
His students find him to be a demanding teacher. But he consistently attains very high student evaluations. In addition to his in-class work, he gives seminars to faculty on how to teach case studies, he has written case studies and computer simulations that are used by thousands of students each year at top universities around the world, and he has published academic peer-reviewed articles both on teaching and rigorously employing case studies as research methods.
A former student remarked that he experienced so many moments of insight in Dr. Oliva’s class that he “actually went home exhausted” from the mental exercise. Dr. Oliva is an extremely valuable asset for Texas A&M and an outstanding teacher whose energy, enthusiasm and genuine love for teaching make him a great educator.
College: Department of Information and Operations Management
Award Level: Teaching
Salvador Hector
Ochoa ’89
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Year Awarded: 2001
College: Education and Human Development
Award Level: Teaching
Steven M.
Oberhelman
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Year Awarded: 2004
College: Liberal Arts
Award Level: Teaching