Dr. Patricia Smith, associate professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been honored with a University Professorship for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence award.

The honor is given to the university’s “most distinguished teachers of undergraduates – faculty members who have exhibited uncommon excellence and devotion to the education of undergraduate students of Texas A&M,” according to the citation.

Smith received the Cintron Professorship. Her research interests are in hydrologic modeling, particularly land use and land cover effects on hydrologic processes at different temporal and spatial scales; and development of TMDLs for bacterial impairment of streams. She earned a bachelor’s degree in management and a master’s degree in biosystems and agricultural engineering, both from Oklahoma State University; and a Ph.D. in biological and agricultural engineering from North Carolina State University.

Endowment for the Cintron Professorship is provided by the Hoblitzelle Foundation of Dallas in honor of Dr. R. H. Cintron, Texas A&M class of 1946. The other professorships were  endowed by Arthur J. and Wilhelmina Doré Thaman and John Kincaid, Texas A&M Class of 1928.

The Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering is a joint department of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Dwight Look College of Engineering.