Department of Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Kristala Jones Prather has been selected to receive the 2010 Junior Bose Teaching Award, which is awarded each year in recognition of “an outstanding contributor to education from among the junior faculty of the School of Engineering.”
Prather has been described in teaching evaluations as an engaging and enthusiastic lecturer, and demonstrated her dedication to her students when, in 2008, an infrastructure disaster rendered the department’s teaching laboratory unusable. Department Head Klavs F. Jensen recalls, “Even when the department was hit by a major steam pipe explosion that destroyed the facilities used for the laboratory, Kris’ devotion to teaching and creative development of alternative lab modules allowed our students to complete this important, required laboratory subject.” Prather won the Department of Chemical Engineering’s “Outstanding Faculty Award for Undergraduate Teaching” in 2006.
Prather was named a Technology Review “Young Innovator” in 2007 and received the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award in 2004. She is the second member of the chemical engineering faculty to earn the Junior Bose Award; Professor Paula T. Hammond was a recipient in 1999.
Illustration: Christine Daniloff/MIT
Seeing the human pulse
An algorithm that can accurately gauge heart rate by measuring tiny head movements in video data could ultimately help diagnose cardiac disease.
