Dr. John Krupczak of the Hope College engineering faculty has been presented the 45th "Hope Outstanding Professor Educator" (H.O.P.E.) Award by the graduating Class of 2009.
He was named the recipient during the college's Commencement ceremony, held at Holland Municipal Stadium on Sunday, May 3.
The award, first given in 1965, is presented by the graduating class to the professor who they feel epitomizes the best qualities of the Hope College educator.
Krupczak has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1994 and has been actively involved in enhancing technological literacy among non-science students throughout his time at the college. He developed and teaches the college's course "Science and Technology of Everyday Life," through which students learn about the science behind objects that they use daily, including by building items ranging from radios to keyboards. More than 1,500 non-engineering students have enrolled in the course since it debuted in 1995.
His work in the technological literacy instruction has been supported by six grants from the NSF. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles published in professional journals or made presentations during professional meetings across the country focused on teaching technological literacy for non-science students. Among other activities, he was the founding chair of the Technological Literacy Constituent Committee of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
His scholarship has also included numerous publications and presentations concerning his research in low-temperature engineering. Prior to joining the Hope faculty, he was an engineer with the United States Department of Energy.
In January 2007 the college's Provost's Office presented him with the "Janet L. Andersen Excellence in Teaching Award," and in March 2007 the Division for the Natural and Applied Sciences at Hope awarded him its inaugural "Dean's Science Division Mentoring/Advising/Teaching Award."
This fall he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE), a program of the National Academy of Engineering.
In the fall of 2004 he represented the college as an exchange professor at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. In addition to "Science and Technology of Everyday Life," his teaching at Hope also includes upper-level engineering courses such as "Fluid Mechanics" and "Introduction to Design."
Krupczak graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1980, and from the University of Massachusetts with a Master of Science and a doctorate, both in engineering, in 1986 and 1994 respectively.