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Kemnitzer Joins Design School as Prestigious Nierenberg Chair
Widely regarded as the most prestigious and significant appointment in design education in the U.S., the Nierenberg Chair of Design is a visiting professorship established by Carnegie Mellon alumnus and Emeritus Life Trustee Theodore D. Nierenberg, a founder of Dansk International Designs. A practicing industrial designer, Kemnitzer holds more than a dozen U.S. patents and has won several international awards. He earned the Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design in 2001. "Ron brings a unique blend of professional and teaching experience to our design students," said Dan Boyarski, head of the School of Design. "It is rare to find someone who does both and does them with concern for quality and form. On top of that, Ron is a down-to-earth and sincere person—an excellent role model for our students." Kemnitzer's portfolio includes a wide array of products used in many fields. He has created windshield scrapers, a laser range finder for hunters and golfers (recently banned by the PGA for its accuracy), appliances and numerous medical apparatuses ranging from surgical tools to pharmaceutical dispensing systems.
Kemnitzer earned his bachelor's degree in design from the University of Cincinnati and his master's degree from Northern Illinois University. He has taught industrial design at Michigan State University, Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Kansas. An active member of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), Kemnitzer has served three terms on the organization's Board of Directors. While in Kansas City, he was also a founding member of IDSA's Kansas City Chapter and served as its first president. "If you had to list the people on two hands who are the major forces in industrial design education in the U.S., Ron's name would be one of them," said Steve Stadelmeier, chair of Carnegie Mellon's Industrial Design Program. "He's a wonderful blend of being a significant figure in the design community and being interested in sitting down and working with students, one issue at a time, to bring them along. Nierenberg Chairs [usually] have a highly visible, public face and a less noticeable one-on-one side. Ron's presence is strong in both." Eric Sloss
Language Educator Named Paul Mellon Professor
Tucker, who has taught at Carnegie Mellon since 1992, is the only person to have been honored by all four major North American language education associations: the American Association for Applied Linguistics; the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages; the National Association for Bilingual Education; and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Tucker has also received the Elliott Dunlap Smith Award, given for excellent undergraduate teaching by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
"I am deeply grateful to have been selected as the recipient of the first Paul Mellon chair specifically designated for applied linguistics—both because of the recognition that this honor confers on an emerging interdisciplinary field and because of the acknowledgement of the value of the work in which I have been involved over the past 36 years to improve the quality and effectiveness of second-language learning and teaching in North America and across the globe," Tucker said.
The late Paul Mellon, the son of Andrew W. Mellon, was a lifelong supporter of the arts and humanities. In 1967 Mellon played a major role in the merger of the Mellon Institute of Research, which Mellon's family had established, with the Carnegie Institute of Technology. At the time, he encouraged the university to offer "the whole circle" of studies to its students.
Jonathan Potts
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Carnegie Mellon's School of Design has appointed the internationally renowned Ronald B. Kemnitzer its Nierenberg Chair of Design.
Kemnitzer credits Henry Dryfess, designer and author of "Designing for People," for his broad experiences in industrial design. One of Kemnitzer's major creations is the "Bola" chair, which won first place from the Institute of Business Designers. The chair's progressive design helps the elderly and those with back problems. Carnegie Mellon's Posner Hall houses more than 100 of the Bola chairs.
G. Richard Tucker, head of Carnegie Mellon's Department of Modern Languages—and one of the world's foremost experts on second—language acquisition–has been named the first Paul Mellon Professor of Applied Linguistics.
Tucker is the co-author of the seminal monograph "The Bilingual Education of Children," which described a 12-year longitudinal study of a French language immersion program Tucker designed for English-speaking children in Quebec. The program served as a blueprint for other successful language education programs throughout North America. Tucker has also developed language education programs in the Philippines, Africa and the Middle East.