SOCG Great Teacher: Modi

Vijay Modi, associate professor of mechanical engineering, was honored by The Society of Columbia Graduates with its 1997 Great Teacher Award. Dr. Modi also was honored last year as one of the first recipients of the Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association's Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.

Students cited him as an excellent professor who is funny, easy to talk to, and ``a spasmodic jumping bean whose excitability is a green salsa in an otherwise mundane nachos goo.''

For Dr. Modi, being a good teacher is simple. ``It is putting yourself in the student's shoes.''