Commencement Honors for SEAS

One SEAS professor and one alumnus received awards Wednesday during the Columbia University Commencement.

 

One of five recipients of the 2009 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Teaching was George Deodatis, Santiago and Robertina Calatrava Family Professor of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. George L. Stern '59, '58CC, was one of 10 recipients of the 2009 Alumni Medalists.

 

George Deodatis, above left, routinely receives near perfect evaluations for his courses accompanied by effusive praise from his students, both undergraduate and graduate. He makes complicated engineering concepts understandable without sacrificing their complexity and makes real theory through his imaginative practical applications.

 

Looking back on their studies, many of his students consider their experience with him as having been the most decisive influence in their intellectual development and choice of careers.

 

George L. Stern '59, '58CC, right, a civil engineering major, has spent 50 years in railroad transportation, including positions as president of two railroads, Chicago & Illinois Midland Railway and New York & Atlantic Railway Co. A speaker, lecturer and author, Stern has been a been a member of the Alumni Representative Committee (ARC) for more than 25 years, served from 1995 to 2002 as a member of the Dean's Engineering Council, now the Board of Visitors, and from 2002 to 2004 as its president.

 

Stern has been actively involved over the years as a leader of the Class of 1959 Reunion Committee and this year is no exception. He again chairs the Reunion organizing committee and is producing a class yearbook as he and his classmates prepare to become SEAS Golden Lions, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their graduation from Columbia.