Spring 1999

Last year's Dean's Outstanding Teacher Carl Abegg finds satisfaction

teaching at Rose-Hulman

What makes a good teacher?

While pondering that question, Carl Abegg's thoughts turned to his high school civics teacher, Mitcho Pappas.

"I couldn't wait to get in his class," Abegg recalled. "He truly lived his subject, was knowledgable, enthusiastic and challenged his students."

Knowledgable, enthusiastic and challenging are words Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology chemical engineering students have used to describe Abegg throughout the past 15 years. Last year, he earned the Dean's Outstanding Teacher Award -- an honor that's significant because teaching was the main reason Abegg left industry to join the college's faculty in 1984.

While being manager of engineering for O.M. Scott & Sons near Columbus, Ohio, Abegg noticed a classified advertisement for a chemical engineering faculty position.

Within the ad was a simple statement: "A tenure track position at Rose is now available for an individual with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering who has as his primary mission to become an excellent undergraduate educator."

Abegg remembered Rose-Hulman from a 1979 cross country vacation to Colorado. The trip led to a short pit stop in Terre Haute ("My two sons were ready for lunch," Carl says) and an impromptu campus visit. Former Mechanical Engineering Department Chairperson Bob Steinhauser provided a Moench Hall tour on a rainy Saturday afternoon in July.

Later, the family continued westward on Interstate 70. But Abegg couldn't forget Rose-Hulman.

"I was flabbergasted that a department chair would take time to show a stranger around campus," said Abegg, who had taught at the University of Cincinnati from 1966-73 before gaining industrial experience at Corning Glass Works ('73-76) and O.M. Scott & Sons ('76-'84).

That brings us back to that classified ad.

"The first thing other ads mentioned was research, Rose-Hulman's emphasized teaching," said Abegg, who fondly has kept a copy of the ad. "I had a good first impression about the college, through Bob Steinhauser, and the ad was so compelling . . . I thought I would like it here."

Abegg hasn't been disappointed.

"I'm two for two -- I like the place and the students. The congeniality is overwhelming," he said.

Academically, Abegg takes great enjoyment and satisfaction in a freshman chemical engineering course in which students design a production plant to make a controlled-release nitrogen fertilizer. Teams determine the plant's equipment needs, study the material and energy balance associated with manufacturing the product, examine production costs, and determine the fertilizer's cost and the return on the company's financial investment.

It's a subject that Abegg knows extremely well. He designed a fertilizer plant 13 years ago as a consultant.

"Freshman design is a great introductory course for our chemical engineering majors. Students are eager to learn and get a good idea of what chemical engineering is all about. I'm very proud of the quality of the work I see in the final reports."

Abegg is also quite familiar with chemical kinetics and reactor design. He's taught a course in this area every year he has been at Rose-Hulman.

"I don't get bored in the class and, hopefully, the students don't either," he said.

Mr. Pappas would certainly be proud.