Dr. Kent Peaslee, professor of metallurgical engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, has been named Curators’ Teaching Professor of materials science and engineering. The title will be conferred during UMR commencement ceremonies Saturday, Dec. 16.         

The University of Missouri Board of Curators approved the designation during its Oct. 6 meeting at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The Curators’ Teaching Professorship was established in the University of Missouri system in 1990 to honor outstanding professors, call attention to teaching excellence, and foster improvements in teaching and learning.         

“Dr. Peaslee’s selection as Curators’ Teaching Professor is an excellent choice,” says UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III. “He is an outstanding role model for his metallurgical engineering students and is highly regarded by his peers in our materials science and engineering department.”         

Peaslee, who is also associate chair of undergraduate studies in the UMR materials science and engineering department, joined the UMR faculty as an assistant professor in 1994. He was named associate professor in 2000 and professor in 2005.         

Peaslee has received seven Faculty Excellence Awards, 10 Outstanding Teaching Awards, two School of Materials, Energy and Earth Resources Sustained Excellence in Teaching Awards and the Class of 1942 Excellence in Teaching Award from the MSM-UMR Alumni Association.  In 2004, he received the Deans Teaching Scholar Award from UMR.         

Peaslee is a manufacturing and process metallurgist with research interests in waste and metals recycling, steelmaking, continuous casting, foundry optimization, metal-refractory interactions and the environmental aspects of metal manufacturing. He has published more than 85 papers in technical journals and conference proceedings.         

Peaslee earned a bachelor of science degree in metallurgical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines in 1978 and studied under a GAANN Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education at UMR, where he earned a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering in 1994. He is a member of the Association of Iron and Steel Technology, American Society of Engineering Educators, American Foundry Society, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi and Kappa Mu Epsilon.                                     

Prior to joining UMR, Peaslee served in a variety of technical and management positions with Bayou Steel in La Place, La.; Border Steel Mills in El Paso, Texas; Raritan River Steel in Perth Amboy, N.J.; and CF&I Steel in Pueblo, Colo.