Dr. Helen Reed, professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, has been selected as a Piper Professor of 2014 by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation.
Ten awards of $5,000 each are made annually to professors for superior teaching at the college level. Selection is made on the basis of nominations submitted by each college or university in the State of Texas. Begun in 1958, the roster of Piper Professors includes outstanding professors from two and four-year colleges and universities, public and private. Candidates must be nominated through the university President’s Office.
Dr. Reed joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2004 and served as department head for four years before returning to teaching and research on a full-time basis. Widely regarded as an expert in hypersonics, energy efficient aircraft, and small satellite design, Reed has led research projects totaling millions of dollars and is a member of the National Research Council’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. She has received numerous professional awards and honors, including being a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA), the American Physical Society, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. She received the Atwood Award from American Society for Engineering Education and AIAA, and she was inducted into the Academy of Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech (her alma mater). At Texas A&M, she holds the Edward "Pete" Aldridge '60 Professorship; she has been named a Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence (in perpetuity) and a Regents Professor (in perpetuity); and she has received the Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching at both the University and College Levels and the McElmurry Award from Aerospace Engineering. With teaching and mentoring students as top priorities, Reed has directed 18 doctoral students, 32 master’s degree students and more than 1,000 undergraduate students during her career.
Complementing her outstanding in-class teaching, Reed also directs the AggieSat Lab Satellite Program, a student satellite program housed within the Department of Aerospace Engineering. The program is a partnership with NASA Johnson Space Center and the University of Texas to promote multidisciplinary systems-engineering education, teach engineering practices, and develop and demonstrate new technologies enabling future space exploration. Through this program, her students designed, launched and operated Texas A&M’s first satellite in 2009, with another mission planned for this year.
Reed earned an A.B. degree in mathematics from Goucher College, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech.
The Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation was organized in 1950 and incorporated in the State of Texas as a non-profit, charitable corporation. Its purpose is to support charitable, scientific, or educational undertakings by providing for, or contributing toward the education of financially limited but worthy students; by assisting young men and women residents of Texas, attending or wishing to attend colleges and universities in the State of Texas, to complete their education and obtain degrees; by contributing to community chests, and supporting any other non-profit organization or activity dedicated to the furtherance of the general welfare within the State of Texas.
Randall Gordon Piper and his wife, Minnie Stevens Piper, were the principal donors.