Jenn Stroud Rossmann, the Baird Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, was recently presented with the 2023 Sterling Olmsted Award from the Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES) of the American Society for Engineering Education. The award recognizes those who have made distinguished contributions to the development and teaching of liberal arts in engineering education.
“A liberal education introduces a wide range of methods of inquiry: ‘ways of knowing’ the human condition and the world,” Dr. Rossman has stated. “These methods include the close, informed reading of literature, for example; the observation, ethnography, and statistical analysis of social research; and the scientific methods of observation and analysis. I believe the methods, values, and history of engineering provide another prism in the kaleidoscopic 21st century liberal education.”
Dr. Rossman added “Lafayette is a really special place to be actively thinking about liberal arts and engineering, and how they inform each other. And it’s nice to have Lafayette College on an awards list like this, because we’ve been doing really innovative and cool things for a long time.”
Professor Rossman joined the faculty at Lafayette College in 2005 after teaching at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.