Charles Williamson, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, is the 2006 New York State Professor of the Year. Robert Barker/University Photography

Charles H.K. Williamson, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was named New York state’s top professor for 2006 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Williamson received the New York State Professor of the Year award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., in November, along with winners from 42 other states, the District of Columbia ,and Guam.

An expert in fluid dynamics, Williamson has research interests that include problems of vortex dynamics and instabilities, vortex-induced vibration, aircraft wake vortices, vortex pair instabilities, and ocean engineering. He also serves as director of the Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratories.

Williamson, who earned his bachelor’s degree in naval architecture from Southampton University in England and his Ph.D. in fluid mechanics from Cambridge University, has won numerous teaching awards since he joined the faculty in 1990, including the 1994 W.M. Keck Foundation Award for engineering teaching excellence, as well as the 1999 Weiss Presidential Fellowship from Cornell. He has worked with 152 student researchers in his lab; his papers have been cited more than 2,500 times.

Williamson works with a student in the lab. University Photography

In March, Williamson shared his thoughts on teaching with other faculty members in the campus Faculty Seminar Series, co-sponsored by the Center for Learning and Teaching and the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.

“If you have the attitude: ‘I can have fun with anything,’ students will be receptive. That’s my theory,” he said, explaining how he bridges the gap between the classroom and the research lab for undergraduate students.

In his talk, “Synergy Between Research and Teaching: Fun With Fluid Dynamics,” Williamson emphasized that demonstrations are essential to “spicing up the classroom.” He showed several favorites from his lectures on fluid mechanics, including rolling pens off a table so that they flew upwards, blowing enormous smoke rings, and making toilet paper rolls fly in spirals over the audience. “Students come in thinking we’ll do just book stuff, but I’ve got all these little things waiting for them, with the theory behind it all. They think it’s all spontaneous, but in fact everything is choreographed.”

But teaching, for Williamson, goes beyond the classroom. “Cornell has an incredible program of putting undergrads in research labs, and this is a chance for faculty to mentor students way, way, way over and above what you can do in class. And we’ve got great students here—you’ve got to admit, it’s one of the best things about being at Cornell,” he said.

—Adapted from stories by Anne Ju and Melissa Rice
of the Cornell Chronicle