A committee of WYO-gold Student Alumni Association members, a UWAA student program, has selected Ryan Kobbe
of the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering as this year’s Outstanding
Faculty Award recipient.
The award recognizes “the faculty member who had the greatest influence in terms of preparing students during their years at UW for a career after college.” The committee cited Kobbe’s passion for teaching, helping and reaching out to students, and volunteering his time and energy constantly to help others as the reason for his selection.
Nominating students Jakob Sumearll and Risto Beatty described Kobbe as one of the best professors they have ever had.
Kobbe teaches in the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering as an associate professional lecturer. He also helps students with extracurricular activities, including serving as the faculty adviser to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter at UW and on the Committee for Student Members with ASCE nationally. He helps with K–12 outreach, student competitions and service projects for the community. “In many ways, teaching chose me,” Kobbe says. “After several years working in the consulting and research engineering fields, I was looking for a career change which better suited my extroverted and high-energy personality. Now nearly eight years later, I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
“His enthusiastic and extremely organized approach to teaching makes classes both interesting and challenging. He always makes time to give advice and homework help,” students wrote. “It is not only his teaching style but his personality, humor and realism that make him an outstanding professor.”
Kobbe received a bachelor’s in architectural engineering from UW in 2003 and his master’s in civil engineering from Washington State University in 2005. He has been employed at UW since July 2008. Kobbe will receive a $500 award from the UWAA and will be recognized at the President’s Commencement Dinner in May.