The 2015 Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar: Dr. Ryan Fries, Dept. of Civil Engineering
The Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar award is presented to an SIUE faculty member who has been recognized as an outstanding teacher and research scholar. The award demonstrates the belief that to be a good teacher, one must also be a good scholar. Winners of the Outstanding Teacher-Scholar award have shown significant contributions to original research or creative activities and have successfully integrated those contributions into their teaching practices.
Dr. Fries has established his expertise in transportation science in many ways since joining the SIUE faculty in the year 2008. Fries has been a Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI on over $2 million externally funded grants and $50,000 in internal grants. All together, his research activities have led to 25 peer-reviewed journal publications, 23 conference proceedings, 27 professional presentations, and 5 government reports since joining SIUE. Among many notable projects, in 2012 Fries was selected as a PI to create an evacuation traffic management plan for the St. Louis Metro East region. During this project, he supported and mentored two Ph.D. students, four M.S. students, and three undergraduates. He recently led a project aimed at guiding ICT/IDOT towards meeting new federal regulations about real-time traveler information.
Aside from mentoring graduate assistants through his externally-funded research, Fries maintains a high-quality learning environment for his students by integrating his research into teaching. He has continually pursued avenues for enhancing his teaching through pedagogical workshops, such as The American Society of Civil Engineers Excellence in Civil Engineering Education Teaching Workshop. He participated as a Co-PI on a National Science Foundation grant project aimed at increasing student retention rates in Engineering majors. Furthermore, Fries’ textbook “Transportation Infrastructure Security Utilizing Intelligent Transportation Systems” is used in his graduate-level class, CE574.
Fries demonstrates teacher-scholar characteristics by mentoring and engaging students at multiple levels. He has published four journal articles and nine conference papers with SIUE graduate students that he has mentored. He encourages his student’s to submit their projects to national competitions. Fries has been recognized nationally, regionally, and locally for his teaching. At SIUE, Fries was named Outstanding Teacher in the Civil Engineering department in 2009 and 2013 as well as SIUE Teaching Recognition Award in 2012. Overall, Fries record of activities and accomplishments over the past years illustrates his continuous and high activity in research, an integration of research into his teaching, and a dedication to mentoring students.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Ryan Fries, the 2014 Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award recipient, on his remarkable achievements.
