Georgia Tech's Women in Engineering has chosen GT-AE Professor Lakshmi Sankar to receive one of two WIE Teaching Excellence Awards for 2015.

Sankar and Dr. Dima Nazzal, the director of Student Services in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial Systems Engineering, will officially receive their honor at the Women in Engineering Banquet, March 31.

A Regents Professor and associate chair for the School of Aerospace Engineering, Sankar is a well-known presence in the academic lives of undergraduates, where his calm voice and wry sense of humor have helped many a panicked student get back on track.

"We are all assigned students as advisees, but I always tell the undergraduates they don't have to wait to get an advisor, my door's open," he said. "If I'm busy when they come by, I tell them to come back."

Clearly, a lot of them have.

In his Montgomery Knight office, which is jammed with books, journals, and all manner of paperwork, he makes sure that a side table is always cleared off, ready for a student's notebook or computer.

That same attitude is likely  what prompted Sankar to receive themost votes for the WIE Teaching Excellence Award. He has worked closely with the group to recruit high school students to the field of engineering. And, once they are at Georgia Tech, he makes a strong case for aerospace engineering."They can see that there's a place for them," said Sankar.

One of his more successful recruits somes to mind.

"I remember when [Associate Professor] Karen Feigh was visiting Georgia Tech with her father [a career Air Force officer] and he wanted to know why his daughter should come to Georgia Tech," Sankar says, with a smile.

"You could tell, even then, that she had this gleam in her eyes, that she was bound to be successful, so her father wanted to make sure she went somewhere that would be worthwhile. He was right about that."

Dr. Sankar's belief that there are other bright young women, like Feigh, who are looking for a place to launch their success, motivates him to keep that door open.