Oct. 17, 2003

Contact: John Scarffe, KU Endowment Association, (785) 832-7336.

KU aerospace engineer receives career teaching award

This release is embargoed until 8 p.m. today.

LAWRENCE -- Jan Roskam, Deane E. Ackers distinguished professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Kansas and world-renowned aircraft designer, received the 2003 Chancellors Club Career Teaching Award tonight during the 26th annual meeting of the Chancellors Club at the Kansas Union ballroom.

The Chancellors Club, established in 1977 by the Kansas University Endowment Association, is KU's major-donor organization. The $5,000 award honors a senior KU faculty member who exemplifies the university's commitment to outstanding teaching.

"I am very pleasantly surprised," Roskam said when he learned he had won the award. "It is a great honor."

Colleagues, students and alumni submit nominations for the annual teaching award. Bruce Holmes, a former student of Roskam's and now manager of the NASA General Aviation Program Office, wrote that Roskam did more than just teach design: "He inspired us, improved our educational resources and methods, and created opportunities for valuable and instructive interactions with industry. In the NASA community, his name is synonymous with dedication, commitment and quality."

In other letters of support, former students remembered Roskam's classes as fascinating and never dull. "Jan is a great teacher," wrote Donna S. Gerren, assistant professor of aerospace engineering studies at the University of Colorado. "He doesn't just present the math and physics behind the equations, but he tries to explain their significance and importance by telling true stories of real engineering mistakes or decisions."

Roskam said his accounts of airplane design, manufacturing and analysis gone wrong -- which he calls "war stories" -- have been valuable in teaching. "I use them for shock value," he said. "The students forget equations and theories, but not the stories. They remember that when we make mistakes, we kill people." His collection of stories, most drawn from personal experience, was published in 2002 as "Roskam's Airplane War Stories."

Mark S. Ewing, chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KU, believes that Roskam's anecdotes about what has gone wrong in aviation design make a mark on all his students. "Our nation's airlines are safer because of the engineering decisions Roskam and his students have made," he wrote. "He uses his vast knowledge of the aircraft business to show students how design flaws can cost manufacturers and operators lots of money and, more importantly, cost lives."

Roskam's students have a 21-year history of success in national design competitions, including 26 first-place and 13 second-place awards, unmatched by any other instructor or academic program at the university. Graduating seniors have elected him KU Aerospace Engineering Educator of the Year five times.

Colleagues expressed respect for Roskam's innovations in aeronautics research and design education. Ewing cited one example: KU Continuing Education's Aerospace Engineering Short Courses program, which Roskam founded and has taught for the past 26 years. "Through these courses thousands of aerospace engineering professionals have learned from Roskam important things they need to know about airplane design, dynamics and control," he wrote.

Roskam graduated with a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Delft University of Technology in his native country, the Netherlands. In 1965, he received a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the University of Washington in Seattle.

He spent 12 years designing airplanes for Aviolanda Company in Holland, Cessna Aircraft Company and Boeing Company. He participated in the design and development of the Boeing 747 passenger aircraft and several high-performance military planes.

Throughout his career, Roskam has been a consultant engineer for numerous aircraft development programs, including NASA, and has been substantially involved in the design of 36 aircraft worldwide. He is proudest of his work on the Piaggio P.180 Avanti, the world's fastest turboprop plane.

Roskam's honors include the Higuchi/Endowment Research Achievement Award at KU, the Ned N. Fleming Trust Award for excellence in teaching and the Governor of Kansas General Aviation Award. He has published more than 160 books, articles and papers, including a two-volume text on airplane flight dynamics and automatic flight controls, and an eight-volume set of books on airplane design, which are used by more than 50 universities and aerospace companies in the United States and abroad.

Roskam's 36-year tenure with KU will end Dec. 31, when he will retire from teaching. He will continue to serve as president of the Design, Analysis and Research Corp., the company he founded in 1990 in Lawrence. Primarily staffed by graduate aerospace engineering students, DAR provides aircraft analysis software, design engineering and consulting services for the industry.

Looking back on his teaching career, Roskam said: "I love talking about airplanes and participating in the intellectual development of young people. It's not enough just to pour them full of knowledge but to head them in the right direction. I tell my students to keep on learning, learn to fly and maintain integrity and ethics."

KU Endowment is an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU. Through 2004, KU Endowment is conducting KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history, with a goal of $500 million in funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support.