McCormick Teacher and Adviser of Year Named

October 21, 2008

John Torkelson, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, was recently named the McCormick Teacher of the Year, and Eric Perreault, associate professor of biomedical engineering and physical medicine and rehabilitation, was named McCormick Adviser of the Year.

Students nominated professors for the honor, and winners were chosen by a committee.

Student nominators called Torkelson an outstanding teacher who gets everyone involved in lectures.

“He does this by asking questions in class, helping students answer the questions if they are unsure, and providing analogies and demonstrations to make the concepts easier to grasp,” writes one nominator. “Professor Torkelson clearly makes teaching a top priority. This is a notable trait, especially for a distinguished professor who has been at the University for almost 25 years.”

Another student praised Torkelson for his work with the student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, saying that he provided leadership and continuity in making the student group viable.

Nominated adviser Perreault is always willing to make himself available for advising, one student wrote, and he helps students navigate the system.

“He pushes his students very hard to take the hardest courses available in order to get the most out of their McCormick education,” one student writes.

Perreault also helps students by writing letters of recommendation while helping them forge a career path.

“He understands that different students have different career aspirations and encourages them to find something that they are passionate about,” one student writes.

Torkelson received his BS in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978 and his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1983. He has been a faculty member at Northwestern since 1983, where he also served as assistant department chair in chemical engineering from 1992 to 1995 and associate dean for graduate studies and research in McCormick from 1997 to 2002. From 2003 to 2006, John was the director of the Materials Research Center at Northwestern University, which receives its main funding from the NSF-Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) Program. His teaching interests include polymer chemistry, physics and engineering; polymerization reaction engineering; and polymer processing.

Perreault received his MS in electrical engineering from McGill University in 1992 and his PhD in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2000. He is the principal investigator of the Neuromuscular Control and Plasticity Lab’s Sensory Motor Performance Program. His research focuses on the multi-joint control of movement and posture in able-bodied individuals and individuals with neuromotor pathologies. He received the Searle Fellowship for Development of Teaching Excellence in 2004.