Laura Schaefer

[Ph.D. ME 2000]
Associate Professor and
Deputy Director, Mascaro Sustainability Initiative
Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Department
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

e-mail: las149@pitt.edu

When I was deciding which graduate school to attend, I was fortunate that I had a number of great institutions from which to choose. During my visits to those schools, the quality and commitment of the Woodruff school faculty and the excellence of Georgia Tech's facilities stood out above all the rest. I felt that I would be able to pursue research that was both theoretically interesting and had practical applications at Tech, an impression that was borne out by my time there.

There are many reasons why my graduate experience at Georgia Tech was an ideal background for my career in academia. The Teaching Practicum and Woodruff Teaching Intern programs gave me confidence in my classroom abilities and provided me with course design experience. By working closely with three members of the excellent faculty of the Woodruff School, I was also able to observe a number of highly effective teaching techniques.

Moreover, I was able to gain exposure to a wide variety of research areas through the Woodruff School's frequent seminars. The exceptional number and quality of classes available both from the School of Mechanical Engineering and from other departments at Georgia Tech also prepared me to participate in interdisciplinary research. Additionally, my participation in the Georgia Tech Lorraine program allowed me to interact with the international research community and to understand the global significance of current research trends.

The facilities, the faculty, and the students of the Woodruff School are all outstanding. The computational facilities are state-of-the-art, and the Georgia Tech library houses a wide selection of engineering resources. The faculty members are nationally known for their research, but still take the time to give help and advice to students. The graduate students are diverse, intelligent, and inquisitive, and challenge and support each other to a level that I have not seen anywhere else.