[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 127 (Monday, November 13, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  PAYING TRIBUTE TO CHARLES WILLIAMSON

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MAURICE D. HINCHEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 13, 2006

  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Charles H.K. 
Williamson, a long-time educator and winner of the Carnegie 
Foundation's 2006 Professor of the Year Award for New York State.
  Professor Williamson, during his 16 year tenure in the School of 
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, has 
impacted countless individuals, from undergraduates to Ph.D. candidates 
to fellow professors. As a colleague states, ``Professor Williamson is 
the most creative and talented educator I have encountered . . . he has 
no equal on our faculty in integrating research into teaching and 
teaching into research.''
  It seems fitting that Professor Williamson began his teaching career 
among royalty, tutoring Prince Pavlos of Greece before leaving London 
to emigrate to Pasadena, California, and Caltech in 1984. In 1990, he 
found himself an assistant professor at Cornell, apprehensively 
standing in front of 100 students in a thermodynamics class. ``I 
remember coming out of that first class on a high,'' he recalls. ``I 
realized that the students really want to learn and are eager to know 
that the teacher genuinely wants the same thing.''
  From that point on, Professor Williamson has been a trailblazer, 
pioneering new approaches to lecturing. His classes are unpredictable 
but always educational, using anything from footlong smoke rings to 
Beatles albums to jet engines to demonstrate the principles of 
thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.
  Professor Williamson's unique teaching methods, combined with his 
love of the subject, touches students in a way that educators seldom 
do. His student evaluation scores are by far the best in his department 
and among the highest in the university: His average over 16 years at 
Cornell is 4.57 out of 5, an unequaled level of consistency and 
excellence.
  In addition to being an entertaining lecturer, Professor Williamson 
is also a true mentor to students, inspiring and supporting them 
throughout their education, even attending student sporting events. 
``Without the confidence and skills I learned from Professor 
Williamson, I never would have . . . received a doctorate in plasma 
physics,'' a former advisee recounts.
  Professor Williamson is an inspiration to us all, an individual who 
truly makes a difference in the lives of those around him. I am honored 
to congratulate him on receiving the Carnegie Foundation's 2006 
Professor of the Year Award.

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