Professor
Dale W. Margerum received the Sigma Xi, Monie A. Ferst Award
Professor Margerum
was the recipient of the Monie A. Ferst Award in the year 2000.This Sigma Xi
award is given annually to a scientist who has made "notable contributions
to the motivation and encouragement of research through education." The
award is given under the auspices of the Georgia Institute of Technology
Chapter and is hosted by the award recipient's Chapter. It consists of a medal
and $5,000 and is made annually to a scientist who has inspired his or her
colleagues to significant scientific achievements. It is presented during a
day-long symposium focusing on the achievements of the winner's former doctoral
students.
The award is named
for an outstanding engineer and businessman, who received his B.S. in
mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech in 1911. While a student, Ferst became
interested in scientific research conducted in an educational setting. In 1933,
he and two other influential Georgians used their own funds to establish the
Georgia Tech Research Institute, to make it possible for faculty members to
conduct research, in addition to teaching. Ferst's belief that it is necessary
for professors to conduct scientific research in order to stay abreast of their
fields and to generate enthusiasm in the classroom also led him to provide
funding--during his lifetime and in perpetuity through the Ferst Foundation of
Atlanta--for Sigma Xi research awards at Georgia Tech. as the culmination of
his life-long concern, his family and the Ferst Foundation established in 1975
a $100,000 trust fund to provide income for the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma
Xi to carry on the recognition of noteworthy contributions both locally, as
before, and nationally through the Monie A. Ferst Medal and the accompanying
$5,000 prize.
