Myers-Alford Memorial Teaching Award
The Myers-Alford Memorial Teaching Award recognizes outstanding teaching efforts, and awardees receive a $3,500 cash prize. According to the donors of this memorial fund, Jean Alford Myers and Philip S. Myers, the recipient must (1) provide outstanding undergraduate and graduate instruction and mentoring; and (2) provide valuable information to colleagues, peers, and practitioners in the field. For this award, the Honors and Awards Committee selects the recipient based on the following criteria:
- Evaluation of teaching effectiveness;
- Student evaluations; and
- Success in sharing information to colleagues, peers and practitioners.
The nomination process is coordinated by the department head or department awards committee. The nomination packet includes the following items of support for the nominee:
- Letter of nomination by a college employee.
- Current curriculum vitae.
- A two-page (maximum) description of the nominee's qualifications which address the following attributes:
- Outstanding instruction at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
- Source of valuable information to colleagues, peers, and practitioners.
- Outstanding mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students.
- A summary of support from a combination of faculty, student and external sources.
Current recipients
Behrooz Mirafzal and Arslan Munir
This year’s recipients are Behrooz Mirafzal, graduate program director and professor in the Mike Wiegers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Arslan Munir, associate professor in the computer science department.
- Mirafzal has developed a state-of-the-art research laboratory where he spends most of his time training graduate and undergraduate students. His graduate students find competitive jobs in national labs, industry and other universities.
- He has also completed a textbook that he and other faculty use in power courses here at K-State, and it has also been adopted by faculty at other institutions.
- Munir has developed several new courses for the department, including a new senior-level course that plays a critical role in the new cybersecurity degree program.
- Students love content in his courses and his teaching evaluations reflect his outstanding teaching at both undergraduate and graduate-level.