Dr. Watson was selected to deliver the 2022 Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Lecture because of her achievements as a female faculty member and her commitment to mentoring and supporting aggie women.
Dr. Karan Watson, Regents Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, and Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Engineering Education & Innovation, was the invited speaker for the 2022-2023 Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Lecture 2022.
Dr. Watson presented a virtual lecture on “Teaching to Those Who Will Be Shaping Society in 2050” on Friday, November 11. The accelerating changes and complexities in society call for a significant shift in how and what we teach our students today. Dr. Watson pointed out that educators must focus primarily on ‘mindset strengthening’ rather than ‘knowledge base building’ to meet students’ needs.
Dr. Watson is a Regents Senior Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an Honorary Faculty Fellow of the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies (2017). She received her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1982 and has since been named a Distinguished Engineering Alumni from Texas Tech. Dr. Watson has been honored with several awards and honors, including being an IEEE fellow, an ASEE fellow, and receiving the US President’s Mentoring Award for Minorities and Women in Science and Technology. She has also received the IEEE International Undergraduate Teaching Award, the Texas A&M University College of Engineering Crawford Teaching Award, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science mentoring award.
After Watson’s presentation, Texas A&M graduate students Ciera Cipriani ’21 (Department of Materials Science and Engineering) and Rebecca Legere ’24 (Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences) were recognized as the 2022-2023 recipients of the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Awards for Research, while fellow graduate student Madison Edwards ’22 (Department of Chemistry) was honored with the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Award for Mentoring.
The awards are presented by Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) to highlight research and mentoring efforts by women on the Texas A&M campus in honor and remembrance of Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui, a longtime faculty member in the Texas A&M Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Both awards and the event were sponsored by WISE, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Texas A&M Division of Research, the Texas A&M Graduate and Professional School, and the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation.