Don Woods
Donald R. Woods is Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University. He received his BSc from Queen’s University, his MS and PhD from the University of Wisconsin and worked for a seven different industries before joining McMaster University in 1964. He was an Athlone Fellow (1961), a C.D. Howe Fellow (1970), a HERDSA Fellow (1985) and a Japan Science Fellow (1998). He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. His research interests are in process design, cost estimation, surface phenomena, problem-based learning, assessment, improving student learning and developing skill in problem solving, trouble shooting, group and team work, self assessment, change management, and lifetime learning.
He has won numerous awards for leadership and teaching including the Canadian 3M Fellow, ‘86; honorary Doctor of Science degrees (Queen’s University ‘96, University of Guelph, ‘01, McMaster University, ‘07); the President’s Award for Educational Leadership (‘93), for In-class Instruction (‘06), co-winner of the President’s Award for Course Development (‘99); ASEE Lifetime Achievement Award from Chemical Engineering Education; the Wickenden Award from ASEE (twice); the ASEE Ben Dasher best paper award; the Chem Eng Ed Corcoran Award (twice); OCUFA teaching award and the McMaster Student Union top award for outstanding teaching (‘80) and Lifetime Teaching Award (‘97); Faculty of Engineering Innovation in Education Award, ‘89. He is one of 20 Chemical Engineers from industry, government and universities to receive the Century of Achievement Award from the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering for distinguished contributions to Chemical Engineering.
He has over 400 publications including the books “Networking: how to enrich your life and get things done”, coauthor of "Chemical Plant Simulation", "Financial Decision Making in the Process Industry”, “Process Design and Engineering Practice”, "Data for Process Design and Engineering Practice", "Successful Trouble Shooting for Process Engineers", "Rules of Thumb in Engineering Practice", “Motivating and rewarding University Faculty to improve student learning: a guide for faculty and administrators”, “Preparing for PBL”, “Problem-based learning: resources to gain the most from PBL” “Problem-based Learning: helping your students gain the most from PBL,” and “Problem-based Learning; how to gain the most from PBL”. The latter has been published in Japanese, Korean and Spanish. He is on the editorial board of “The International Journal of PBL” and “The Journal of General Education”. He edited a Newsletter Problem Solving News for 20 years and wrote a column on Developing Problem Solving skills in the Journal of College Science Teaching for 10 years. He is coauthor of Chapter 16 “ Conceptual Process Design, Process Improvement and Troubleshooting” in “Albright’s Chemical Engineering Handbook” CRC Press, 2009.
He has given over 500 workshops on effective teaching and process skill development, problem-based learning and motivating and rewarding teachers to improve student learning in Japan, China, Australia, Venezuela, Mexico, Sweden, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, England, the United States and Canada. In 2003, he was appointed Distinguished Visiting Teaching Professor at the University of Guelph. He presented invited papers on pedagogy and curriculum development for the special Topical Session on Education at the 2008 AIChE Centennial Conference in Philadelphia.