2004/2005 Award Winners for Distinguished Teaching

Dr. Alexandra Patera, Faisal Akkawi, and Richard Potter have been selected to receive the 2004-5 SCS Distinguished Teaching Award. These distinguished members of the SCS faculty stimulated intellectual curiosity and growth, motivated students and used effective and inspiring teaching techniques.

Dr. Alexandra Patera

Dr. Patera has contributed to science at Northwestern University for over a decade. After receiving her PhD in Chemistry from Brandeis University in 1994 researching protein structure by NMR, she worked as a post doctoral fellow in the Mondragon Lab and later as a research associate in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at the Medical School. She has been a professor of biological sciences at the School of Continuing Studies since 1998. She is also the assistant director at The Interdepartmental Biological Sciences (IBiS) program.

Faisal Akkawi

Faisal Akkawi, MSCIS program director, was on the faculty of Illinois Institute of Technology from 1998 to 2002. He has an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in computer science from IIT. His area of specialization is software architecture for concurrent systems, and his research interests also include reactive/adaptive intelligent systems and design issues of concurrent programming languages. Akkawi was selected by the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program in 2003 and reported to the Johnson Space Center that May to work in the Avionic Office. He designed and implemented a framework that was used in the Advanced Diagnostic and Advanced Caution and Warning System for the International Space Station.

Richard Potter

Mr. Potter is co-founder and President of Antares Capital Management, a fee-only comprehensive financial planning and investment management firm serving high net worth individuals in the professional services industry. The firm was ranked 29th in Bloomberg's 2002 "Annual Ranking of Top Wealth Managers." Antares Capital Management is a SEC Registered Investment Advisor, and located in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Potter received his BA in Economics from Brown University, and his MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago. In addition to his Certified Financial Planner designation, he is also a Chartered Financial Consultant and a Chartered Life Underwriter. Prior to co-founding Antares Capital Management, Mr. Potter spent 14 years as a senior executive in the insurance and management consulting industries.