Materials Expert Wins Top UC Davis Teaching Prize

In his research, Zuhair Munir has shown the influence of electric fields in creating new, unique materials. In his teaching Munir, distinguished professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of California, Davis, seems to create his own personal field that allows students to grow and find their own way to the answers.

Now the "Zuhair Munir effect" has been recognized with the award of the UC Davis Foundation Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. The prize includes a cash award of $35,000, thought to be the largest of its kind in the nation.

The award was announced this morning by Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef during Munir's class, "Introduction to Materials Science." A gala dinner to celebrate the award will be held May 10.

"Zuhair Munir is an outstanding scholar known all over the world. Still, he is dedicated to engaging students at the very beginning of their careers right here at home," said Chancellor Vanderhoef. "He encourages them to reach for the stars. He truly represents the best of UC Davis."

Added Meg Stallard, chair of the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees, "This prize was created to celebrate the very best in teaching and scholarship at UC Davis, and the board is proud to recognize Professor Munir with this honor."

The endowment that supports the prize was established in 1986 with the aim of raising the university's profile among peer institutions by celebrating and honoring a UC Davis faculty member who combines extraordinary scholarship with outstanding undergraduate teaching. Throughout the years, the fund has been augmented by gifts from several sources.

"Professor Munir's scholarly research in materials is world class, and his dedication to students is legendary. I continue to learn from him, and his leadership as former dean is deeply appreciated in our college. We are fortunate to have him as one of our faculty," said Enrique Lavernia, dean of the College of Engineering.

Munir always makes a point of teaching a large undergraduate class in introductory materials science.

"Undergraduates are more open, more interested in pursuing different ideas -- they have not focused so much. I enjoy seeing them get excited about topics," he said.

Introducing materials science to sophomores means covering a lot of fairly dry stuff. To make it more digestible, Munir likes to make connections that make the material relevant to students. For example, old-style tin roofing would crumble in winter, because cold weather caused a change in the crystal structure of the metal. Graphite, or "pencil lead," is chemically identical to diamonds -- it's just a question of how the carbon atoms are arranged.

And the students respond. Some of their comments from evaluations of recent classes: "the best lecturer I've had at Davis," "he cares greatly for his students," "a fun and interesting course," and "one of the best professors I've had."

Munir's classroom extends into his laboratory. He encourages undergraduates to work in his lab, believing that this is the best way to encourage them to go on to careers in science. Doing bench research demystifies science for undergraduates, Munir said -- a crucial step in luring undergraduates into graduate studies. It shows them the limits of knowledge and the potential for discovery.

"They realize that graduate students -- even their professor! -- do not know everything," Munir said.

Daniela Fredrick, who began work in Munir's lab as an undergraduate six years ago and is now studying for her doctorate under his supervision, said of her mentor, "He doesn't lead you or hold your hand, he definitely gives you the opportunity to try to understand the problem -- he gets excited when a student comes up with the answer by themselves."

Munir gives undergraduates the sense that their ideas are important to him, and that instills confidence, said Javier Garay, now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UC Riverside, who also joined Munir's lab as an undergraduate.

"Working with him, seeing his interaction with the grad students, gave me confidence that I could see myself there," said Garay, who went on to take his Ph.D. with Munir.

"It was a great culture to work in," said Indira Samarasekara, president of the University of Alberta, Canada, who studied for her master's degree with Munir more than 30 years ago. "He knows how to nurture people, foster excellence, foster collaboration."

Munir's philosophy of teaching is one passed down from his doctoral adviser and mentor, UC Berkeley emeritus professor Alan Searcy, who says he learned it from his own teachers.

"You try to get students to think, to ask questions, and you give them the best answer you can," Searcy said. "If you can get graduate students doing that, they do the same thing to each other."

And by his example, it is a philosophy that Munir has passed on to a new generation. Garay said that as he builds his research group, he is trying to involve undergraduates and foster the same environment where all can feel that they are making a contribution.

Of his former students who have done well, Munir said, "It's something I don't think I can take the credit for, but I like to think I had something to do with it."

One of those former students is Samarasekara. In 1975, she was a Hayes-Fulbright scholar from Sri Lanka, with the pick of U.S. universities open to her. Munir's personal touch was a key factor in choosing UC Davis for her master's degree, she said.

"While demanding extremely high standards, he recognized that students sometimes need help," she said. "There is no question that those 18 months were really important to me -- it turned me on to research and to study for a Ph.D., and eventually become a university president, and it also showed me how to foster collaboration when I started my own research group."

Munir grew up in Baghdad, Iraq, but left the country in his teens. He received all three of his academic degrees from UC Berkeley: a bachelor's in chemical engineering in 1956, a master's in materials science in 1958 and his doctorate in materials science in 1963. He taught at San Jose State University and Florida State University before joining UC Davis in 1972 as a professor of materials science.

He served as associate dean for graduate studies in the College of Engineering from 1980 to 2000. One of his achievements was to establish the Minority (later renamed "Mentoring") Opportunity for Research in Engineering program, which provided grants for undergraduates to pursue research projects in engineering.

In 2000, he was appointed as dean of the college, serving until 2002. He was promoted to distinguished professor in 2003.

Munir has been fascinated by the science of materials since his own undergraduate days. Advances in making new materials or new refinements of existing materials have enabled spectacular progress in technology -- in building the vehicles, machines and devices that have changed how people live, travel, work and play.

Earlier in his career, Munir became interested in how electric fields affect evaporation from single crystals on surfaces. That work won him the National Science Foundation's "Creativity in Research Award" twice, in 1982 and 1985.

In the mid-1980s, Munir was one of the first U.S. scientists to work on "combustion synthesis" or "self-propagating high-temperature synthesis," a technique developed from Soviet rocket technology.

In combustion synthesis, a powdered mixture is ignited, and a hot molten combustion wave moves rapidly through the mix, leaving a new material behind.

The process can be used to make materials with a wide range of properties -- hardness, heat resistance, electrical conductivity, transparency, magnetism -- depending on the starting material and the reaction conditions.

Applying his earlier work, Munir found that these combustion reactions could be modified and controlled with electric fields.

In 2000, Munir and Ben Shaw, professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering at UC Davis, won a grant from NASA to study combustion synthesis under electric fields aboard a special aircraft that simulates weightlessness. Students from Munir's lab, including doctoral candidate Fredrick, graduate student Cosan Unuvar and undergraduate Jennifer Sween, have now flown twice on NASA's "Vomit Comet," carrying out a packed schedule of experiments on each mission.

Munir virtually invented a field of research, Searcy said.

"Before Zuhair, exothermic reactions were just a darned nuisance -- he learned to control such reactions and make them an important area for study," he said.

Munir's research is at a fundamental level, but the techniques that he has developed could lead to new ways to make unique materials for all kinds of applications -- high-temperature turbine blades, optical components for lasers, electrical conductors or insulators. Recently, the university filed a patent application for a form of cubic zirconia developed in his lab that could be used in fuel cells to generate energy at room temperature using water as fuel source.

In his spare time, Munir can usually be found birdwatching, hiking, or photographing wildflowers. As dean, he installed a hummingbird feeder outside the dean's office window. He reads widely, especially histories, and classical music is always playing in his office.

Among many honors, Munir was named the Distinguished Research Lecturer by the UC Davis Academic Senate in 2006. The award is the highest distinction bestowed by the faculty on their peers. He received the Outstanding Educator Award from the American Ceramic Society in 2004, and the society's prestigious John Jeppson Medal in 2005.

He has traveled extensively, visiting China several times at the invitation of the Ministry of Metallurgy and Industry. He has been a visiting professor at institutions in Italy, Germany, England, Mexico, Japan, Brazil and Singapore.

Although past the normal retiring age, Munir certainly shows no signs of slowing down. He typically works six days a week and recently submitted a major grant proposal to the National Science Foundation, with collaborators in Germany.

"If you enjoy what you are doing, why retire?" Munir said.