Professor Michael R. Melloch was recently named recipient of the 2016 A.A. Potter Best Teacher Award in the College of Engineering at Purdue.

A.A. Potter became Dean of the School of Engineering in 1920. From 1945 to 1946 he served as Director of the Purdue Research Foundation and Purdue's Acting President, in addition to continuing his position as Dean of Engineering. During his tenure, Potter built Purdue into the largest and one of the most respected engineering colleges in the country.

The A.A. Potter award honors faculty members for outstanding teaching performance in all phases of the College of Engineering's undergraduate instruction on the West Lafayette campus. An outstanding undergraduate teacher is one who demonstrates superior ability in communicating the chosen material to the students and stimulates their desire to master the material. The teacher will also recognize that his/her teaching responsibility to students does not stop at the classroom door, and therefore, will be ready to aid and motivate them in a counseling and advisory capacity, either formally or informally.