Gary Pressler of Biomedical Engineering and Blayne Roeder of Mechanical Engineering have been notified by the Committee for the Education of Teaching Assistants that they have been selected to receive the Purdue University Graduate Student Award for Outstanding Teaching. They will receive an engraved plaque in recognition of their excellence in teaching at a dinner on April 17th.

Gary is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of Professor George Wodicka. His current research is investigating the use of acoustic measurements of breath sounds to quantitatively determine respiratory flow. This semester he is a teaching assistant for BME 595C/EE 522, Problems in Measurement of Physiological Events.

Blayne is finishing up his Ph.D. degree under his advisors, Professors Klod Kokini and Sherry Voytik-Harbin. His research involves studying the structural-mechanical properties of man-made collagen extracellular matrix (ECM) constructs. The information gained from these experiments will provide a basis for future tissue engineering strategies. Blayne has been a teaching assistant for numerous undergraduate mechanical engineering courses and labs.

Congratulations to both of these hard-working students on being selected for the 2003 Graduate Student Award for Outstanding Teaching at Purdue University.