Appointment acknowledges Rimoli's longstanding commitment to mentoring and developing diverse generation of future engineers

Prof. Julian Rimoli sitting at a table talking with two of his studentsFor the Love of Research. Prof. Julian J. Rimoli, far right, is seen here consulting with two undergraduate students who asked if he would give them a little extra research work to feed their curiosity. Rimoli was only too happy to work with them for an entire semester.


Aerospace engineering professor Julian J. Rimoli has been selected to serve as one of five Provost Teaching and Learning Fellows by the Georgia Tech Center for Teaching and Learning and the Deans of the College of Engineering. 

Julian J. Rimoli
Professor Julian J. Rimoli

Now welcoming its second cohort, the Provost Teaching & Learning Fellowship program seeks to connect the expertise of evidence-based teaching and learning professionals in the Center for Teaching and Learning with the expertise of disciplinary faculty in each college/school. The goal is to strengthen teaching and learning in the colleges through this embedded system of on-going instructional support and special initiatives. Rimoli's fellowship officially begins in August and will extend until 2020.

Joining Rimoli in this two-year fellowship are Prof. Thomas Fuller, from the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering; Prof. Kamran Paynabar, (Industrial & Systems Engineering), Prof. Dong Qin (Materials Science & Engineering) and Prof. Devesh Ranjan (Mechanical Engineering). 

The program seeks to highlight and further develop tenured faculty who have shown themselves to be "ambassadors for evidence-based teaching and learning methodologies." Fellows must further "demonstrate a desire to be change-agents for teaching and learning." 

"The goals of this program sound like a description of our colleague, Dr. Rimoli," said AE Chair Vigor Yang. "They are looking to encourage and inspire the best of the best faculty. I know that that is precisely how Julian is viewed by his fellow professors and by his students."

A seven-year member of the Daniel Guggenheim faculty, Rimoli is a venerated thought leader in the broad field of computational solid mechanics with particular focus on aerospace applications. He has a special interest in problems involving multiple length and time scales, and in the development of theories and computational techniques for seamlessly bridging those scales. In 2014, his innovative use of video game technology to teach truss behavior to first-year students led to the development of Truss Me, a learning tool that is now used by engineering educators across the world.

Rimoli is a member of AIAA, ASME, and USACM and is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the Donald W. Douglas Prize Fellowship, the Ernest E. Sechler Memorial Award in Aeronautics, the James Clerk Maxwell Young Writers Prize, the Lockheed Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Goizueta Junior Faculty Professorship.

Each Provost Teaching Fellow receives $14,000 each year of their fellowship, some of which is expected to be used for attendance at least one conference on teaching and learning during their first year.