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U.T. Sundararaj, professor and head of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering in the Schulich School of Engineering, has been awarded the 2014 Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) Award for Chemical Education. The CIC is an umbrella organization for Chemists, Chemical Engineers and Chemical Technologists across Canada.

“It’s a great honour,” says Sundararaj. “I am humbled by it.” CIC presents the award—a framed scroll and a $1,500 prize—in recognition for “an outstanding contribution in Canada to education at the post-secondary level in the field of chemistry or chemical engineering.”

Sundararaj, who is named after his grandfather, a former state cabinet minister in India, says he was always motivated to teach. “My grandfather always told me that education was the most important aspect of life and that teaching was a very noble profession and that really influenced me in what I wanted to do,” he says. “I worked in industry for several years and I enjoyed that, but these words kept ringing in my mind.”

He says the award is really a recognition for the entire university and especially the members of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. “The technicians, the administration folks and the other professors all working with the students, we all support each other,” he says, “It is as much their award as mine.”

Sundararaj will be pleased to accept the award in October in front of many of SSE colleagues at the 64th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in Niagara Falls October 19 to 22.