November/December 2020 Society Pages

Two Recipients of the Jay R. Gould Award

The Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching Technical Communication honors the distinguished teaching career of Professor Gould, whose academic mentorship of technical communication students guided many men and women into the profession. The award was initiated to acknowledge the importance of academic programs to the science and practice of technical communication, and to encourage excellence in the academic community by honoring those who have made an outstanding contribution to teaching the body of knowledge in this area. Innovative and creative teacher-scholars, the recipients of this award have a record of successful students and a pattern of acting as a mentor, which is exemplified by being inspirational and involved in student activities outside the classroom. In addition, their research has contributed to changes in the way technical communication is taught. There are two recipients for the 2021 award.

  • Ann Hill Duin, University of Minnesota: For a lifetime of modeling and mentoring hundreds: a teacher and international scholar who has led by example and “gone above and beyond” to help students navigate the inevitable challenges of communicating across cultures and technologies.
  • Stuart Selber, Penn State University: For his ability to carve out an intellectual space about pedagogy, introduce novel ideas at every level of the curriculum, and build frameworks that cross over from academic to organizational and industry settings.

Thank you to the Jay R. Gould Award committee (Dr. Sally Henschel (Chair), Carol Luttrell, Bruce Maylath, and Shelly Thomas) for their work on this.

Ken Rainey Award

Ken Rainey was a professor at Southern Polytechnic State University (now Kennesaw State University) and STC Fellow who produced major research studies that continue to provide ongoing benefit to both practice and teaching in the field of technical communication. The Ken Rainey Award honors research that has made positive, significant contributions to technical communication practice and teaching. It rewards a lifetime of quality research in the field, a single high-quality empirical study, or a set of related high-quality studies. The 2021 award recipient is

  • David Farkas, University of Washington: For contributing, in a career spanning decades, an impressive body of research in technical communication, repeatedly demonstrating the ability to make that research accessible across academic and industry communities.

Thank you to the Jay R. Gould Award committee (Miles Kimball (Chair) and Steve Jong) for their work on this.