Engineering Instructor Wins KU's HOPE Award

Ed McBride, Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, was one of two University of Kansas faculty members honored with the 2007 H.O.P.E. Award.

McBride, who was nominated for the award in 2004, 2005, and 2006 before finally winning, was presented with the honor during halftime of the KU-Iowa State University football game on Nov. 17. He shares this year’s award with Craig Martin, professor and chair of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

The H.O.P.E. Award — Honor for an Outstanding Progressive Educator — was established by the Class of 1959. The award is the only honor given exclusively by all KU students for teaching excellence. Only once before have students bestowed more than one award in the same year.

McBride, who earned both a bachelor’s degree and his doctorate from KU, began teaching at the university in 2003. During the Spring 2007 semester, McBride was named a finalist for the Del Shankel Teaching Award presented through the KU Athletic Corporation. He also received the Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Council teaching award.

Spring 2007 School of Engineering graduates had positive comments about McBride.

“Dr. McBride is a real good professor,” said Jason Neal, a 2007 civil engineering graduate. “He finds students outside of class. He goes to the library and just finds students who need help with anything.”

The upbeat sentiment was echoed by 2007 architectural engineering alumna Cassie Jahr.

“He helped us with anything and everything; bent over backwards for us in review sessions,” Jahr said.

The H.O.P.E. Award is no stranger to the McBride family. McBride’s father, Edward McBride Sr., who also taught in the School of Engineering, won the award in 1973.

H.O.P.E. Winners receive recognition on a permanent plaque displayed in the Kansas Union. The Board of Class Officers also presents each finalist with a monetary award.