Principe named UF Teacher-Scholar of the Year, others honored

April 7, 2015

Distinguished Professor Jose C. Principe in the UF College of Engineering has been awarded the University of Florida’s Teacher-Scholar of the Year award for 2014-2015.

Originating in 1960, the award is UF’s most prestigious and oldest, and, it is accompanied by an honorarium of $6,000. Each year, the Award Committee selects a faculty member who demonstrates distinguished achievement in both teaching and scholarly activity demonstrated through scholarly research, creative writing, original works of art, and visibility within and beyond the university.

Other award winners include: Ann Christiano, professor in the College of Journalism and Communications, (Teacher of the Year); Hans van Oostrom, associate chair in the College of Engineering, (Faculty Adviser/Mentor of the Year); and Mutlu G. Ҫitim-Kepic, senior associate in the College of the Arts, (Professional Adviser of the Year). This group, along with the college level award winners for teaching and advising, were recognized at a reception hosted by President Fuchs.

Principe joined the UF faculty in 1987 after an 8-year appointment as professor at the University of Aveiro (Portugal). He holds degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Porto (Portugal) and the University of Florida, and several Honoris Causa degrees from Italian, Finnish, Brazilian and Colombian universities. 

His interests lie in nonlinear non-Gaussian optimal signal processing and modeling and in biomedical engineering. Principe created in 1991 the Computational NeuroEngineering Laboratory to synergistically focus the research in biological information processing models. 

He holds 20 patents and has submitted seven more. Principe was supervisory committee chair of 81 Ph.D. and 65 Master students, and is author of more than 700 refereed publications. 

For more information on the universitywide awards and past winners, please visit http://www.aa.ufl.edu/awards.