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5/11/2006 12:05:00 AM Dr. Bill receives salgo award BY B.J. ALMOND
Wilson was somewhat surprised. “That’s the whole point of being a teacher — knowing who your students are and being part of their lives,” he said. That personalized touch has earned Wilson the Nicolas Salgo Distinguished Teaching Award — Rice’s oldest teaching award. Funded by the Noren-Salgo Foundation and Rice, the award includes a $1,500 prize, and the recipient is chosen by members of the junior and senior classes. The timing couldn’t have been better, for this was Wilson’s last year of teaching at Rice. A member of the faculty since 1972, he’s moving to Warren Village, Vt. “It’s beautiful, and I don’t mind the cold,” Wilson said.“I spent a good part of my youth there and have a lot of friends in Vermont.” He hopes to do some consulting and teaching in his retirement years, and although he won’t miss Houston, he’ll miss Rice. “It’s a wonderful school, and the kids are so great,” he said. “If you’re teaching people who don’t want to learn, it isn’t very much fun, but if you’re teaching people who really want to figure out what’s going it, it really is so much fun.” Although Wilson specializes in semiconductors, electro-optic devices and lasers, he hasn’t needed technological wizardry to have fun in the classroom. “I still write everything on the board,” he explained. “Anytime I do a PowerPoint presentation, people tune out. But if I can get students involved in a discussion, they ask questions that I hadn’t thought about, and I work the problem out on the board.” Wilson hopes others can benefit from the lessons taught in his and other classrooms at Rice. He’s currently developing a methodology to integrate most of the ECE curriculum into the database for Connexions — Rice’s rapidly growing online collection of free scholarly materials and software tools. It’s likely that the Salgo Award reflects not only Wilson’s dedication as a teacher in the classroom, but outside the classroom as well. For 28 years he served as a resident associate of Wiess College, where he became affectionately known as “Dr. Bill.” He has shared his expertise as a theater technician and a sound engineer by helping produce more than 50 Tabletop shows at Wiess, taping shows at other colleges and recording performances by the Rice Philharmonics, the comedy ensemble Spontaneous Combustion and other student groups. He helped create JamFest, a yearly festival showcasing Rice student bands. And his countless photos of student life have been on display in the Wiess Commons, including freshman mug shots he takes each summer during Orientation Week so that upperclassmen can learn the newcomers’ names. When Rice alumni contributed money for a gift in Wilson’s honor, Wilson established the Dr. Bill Student Initiative Fund to support student projects that improve campus life or student activities. Wilson noted that being a resident associate enabled him to discuss personal as well as academic problems with students, who were welcome to stop by anytime. “Sometimes I felt like I should just hang a sign on my door that read, ‘The Doctor Is In,’” he said. “I see students as people, and I think that’s why I’ve been a good teacher.” That dedication helped him win the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching multiple times, as well as the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching, during his 34 years at Rice. Wilson came to Rice from Cornell University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree, a Master of Science degree and a doctoral degree — all in electrical engineering. Before he leaves Rice, he has one more job to do: “I’m the chief marshal for commencement,” he said. “I have to graduate the class of 2006.” |
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