NEWARK -- Wednesday, September 24, 1997 -- New Jersey Institute of Technology faculty members Fadi P. Deek of East Brunswick, N.J.,. Angelo J. Perna of Ringwood, N.J., and Kamalesh K. Sirkar of Berkeley Heights, N.J., were the recipients of three major honors today during the Fall Awards Ceremony at New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Deek, the assistant chairperson and director of undergraduate programs in the Department of Computer and Information Science, received the board of Overseers Award for Public and University Service which includes a $1,500 prize and a citation.
Perna, a professor of chemical engineering, received the Robert W. Van Houten Award for Excellence in Teaching which carries a $1,500 prize and a citation.
Sirkar, a professor of chemical engineering and holder of the sponsored chair in membrane separations and biotechnology, was presented with the Harlan J. Perlis Award for Research. The award, which carries a $1,500 prize and a special citation, was established in 1980 to honor Harlan J. Perlis, a former electrical engineering professor at NJIT.
Overseers Award
Deek’s dynamic recruitment efforts have been a key to building a successful undergraduate computer science program at NJIT. He also is the driving force behind the regional Conference on Computer Science Education in Secondary Schools and a related initiative to establish computer science curriculum standards at the high school level.
He has designed, developed and delivered several telecourses that have aired on the Cable Television Network of New Jersey (CTN) from NJIT’s Candid Classroom and Virtual Classroomä . Deek has also developed two software programs: Computerized Advising Tool (CAT-alog) and System for Educational Learning and Feedback (SELF).
Deek, who earned bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science from NJIT, is a candidate for a Ph.D. from the university. He has been awarded the NJIT Student Senate Faculty of the Year Award and the NJIT Honors College Outstanding Teacher Award in 1992 and the university's Excellence in Teaching Award in 1990.
His research areas include computer science education, multimedia educational systems, instructional technology, problem solving issues and teaching and learning methodologies.
Van Houten Award
Perna joined the NJIT faculty in 1967 after earning bachelor's and master's degrees from Clemson University and a doctorate from the University of Connecticut. He has conducted research, consulted and developed courses in the areas of industrial hazardous waste, municipal solid waste recycling and disposal, and water and air pollution.
Current research includes the development of an enhanced ultrasound fractionation process for soil remediation at sites contaminated with liquid and/or gaseous wastes. His recent publications include Introducing Chemical Engineering to Freshmen Through Measurement Oriented Studies in the Unit Operations Laboratory, Fundamentals of Engineering Design - A Freshman Measurements Laboratory, and MSW Mass Burn and RDF Incinerator Ash Leachate Constituents.
He is a recipient of the 1996 NJIT Teaching Excellence Award, the ASEE/Western Electric Award and the Certificate of Merit from Omicron Delta Kappa.
Overseers Award
Sirkar, whose work has earned nine U.S. patents and $5 million in grants and contracts, is an expert in membrane separation techniques and technologies for solving separation problems in the chemical, environmental, food, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries (involving both gas mixtures and liquid solutions). He has developed new and improved membrane separation techniques and structures, characterizing them, modeling membrane separation performance and applying them to problem solving, and microporous and porous membrane-based equilibrium contacting processes.
Recent publications include Hollow-Fiber Membrane-Based Rapid Pressure Swing Absorption, Hollow-fiber Contained Liquid Membrane Pervaporation System for the Removal of Toxic Volatile Organics from Wastewater, and Multiphase Ozonolysis of Organics in Wastewater by a Novel Membrane Reactor.
Sirkar earned a bachelor's degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1963, and a master's degree and doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1966 and 1969 respectively.
NJIT is a public research university enrolling nearly 8,133 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students in 73 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science. U.S. News and World Report's 1998 Annual Guide to America's Best Colleges ranked NJIT among the top 120 national universities. Money Magazine's Best College Buys 1998 rated NJIT as the sixth best value among U.S. science and technology schools
-end-
8/14/97
For more information contact: The Office of Public Relations, (973) 596-3434
Release number: #3290