Contact: Erin Boozer
A Mississippi State engineering administrator is being honored as a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education.
Interim dean Jason Keith becomes the fifth faculty member in the university's James Worth Bagley College of Engineering to receive the prestigious honor.
ASEE was founded in 1893 and today has a worldwide membership of more than 13,000. Each year, only one-tenth of 1 percent of members may be chosen for the Fellows recognition, with selection based on professional accomplishments, experience and contributions to engineering education and the organization. For more, see www.asee.org.
"Being named a fellow of ASEE is the highest external professional recognition of my career," Keith said. "It is a good feeling to know that your work in engineering education is impactful."
A professor in chemical engineering, he holds the Earnest W. and Mary Ann Deavenport Jr. Chair, an endowed position in the Bagley College. Before becoming interim dean earlier this year, he directed both the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering and MSU Energy Institute.
Keith holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Akron and the University of Notre Dame, respectively. Before coming to Mississippi in 2011, he spent more than a decade on the faculty of Michigan Technological University.
As part of ongoing research and development of methods to improve engineering education, he recently developed an iPhone app known as "Heat Transfer for Students" to help them better comprehend the concept through a virtual experiment.
Keith also currently chairs the education division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and is a member of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Energy Resource Council.
Information about the Bagley College of Engineering may be found at www.bagley.msstate.edu.
Complete details about MSU are at www.msstate.edu.