President's Professors
The President’s Professor Award recognizes tenured faculty who have made outstanding contributions to undergraduate education at Arizona State University. The awardees are chosen based on a variety of criteria: mastery of subject matter; enthusiasm and innovation in the learning and teaching process; ability to engage students both within and outside the classroom; ability to inspire independent and original thinking in students to stimulate students to do creative work; innovation in course and curriculum design; and scholarly contributions.
President's Professors 2008
José E. Náñez, Sr.
Professor José E. Náñez, Sr. embodies his own guiding notion that faculty members should provide an “education of the heart,” to help students love their work, to work diligently, to become life-long learners and to give back to the communities in which they live. Professor Náñez is a professor of psychology in the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences within the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and executive director of community outreach at ASU. A cognitive neuroscientist, Professor Náñez pursues research in visual perception and neuronal organization. As executive director of community outreach, he also creates and implements new strategies to advance the university’s student outreach agenda, a role that draws on his many years successfully engaging students in his classes and presenting recruiting programs for Hispanic and first-generation students in the community.
Professor Náñez serves as the faculty advisor for a Hispanic fraternity at ASU and the Hispanic Honors Society. The notable awards he has received include the 20th Anniversary Champion in Education Award from INROADS in 2008, Outstanding Commitment to ASU West Students Special Recognition Award in 2003, a three-time distinguished nominee for the Parents Association Professor of the Year. Professor Náñez has had life-changing impacts on students, notably those in his lab who have attained entry to prestigious graduate schools and those students who, without having met him, may not have even considered pursuing a college degree.
Margaret C. Nelson
Professor Margaret C. Nelson actively engages in teaching and mentoring in every aspect of her career–as a scholar, instructor and administrator. She is involved, caring, responsive and innovative in her teaching, and she displays outstanding leadership in improving educational opportunities and instructional quality for students. Professor Nelson is vice dean of Barrett, the Honors College, a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and an affiliated faculty member of the Global Institute of Sustainability. She successfully combines thorough field research and archaeological analysis with deep and encompassing theoretical insights and inspires those around her to produce innovative ideas and solutions to theoretical and substantive problems.
Professor Nelson received high accolades from peers and students alike for squarely placing students in the center of her attention, her life and her career. She was honored as the ASU Parents Association Teacher of the Year in 2005, and served as the founding president of the Distinguished Teaching Academy. Her active involvement and abundant student teaching initiatives have garnered the respect and admiration of students, parents and peers alike.
Max Underwood
Professor Max Underwood has been a faculty member in the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at ASU for 23 years. Few faculty members in the discipline of architecture in the United States are as highly respected and recognized as Professor Underwood, an extraordinary achievement. The focus of his scholarship intertwines the art of teaching with the realities of professional practice. Professor Underwood’s design studios are consistently considered some of the most inspiring among undergraduate and graduate students. He transmits his scholarship and genuine enthusiasm to his students.
Professor Underwood is both an experienced and exemplary teacher as well as a life-long student. His search for excellence in design practice informs his teaching without projecting his own prejudices or dampening new found enthusiasms. His vast knowledge of both history and contemporary conditions of architecture make him a popular resource for practicing architects while they are developing their own work. It is safe to say he is a teacher of students, faculty and professionals. His commitment to the art of teaching, the strategies of instruction, expands design, architecture and the environment. He is a teacher’s teacher.