For the second time since the program's inception in 1986, Old Dominion has two simultaneous winners of an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

This year's honorees, Dwight W. Allen and Sushil K. Chaturvedi, are among only 11 faculty members statewide selected for the prestigious 2001 awards, the commonwealth's highest honor for faculty at Virginia's public and private colleges and universities. The awards recognize demonstrated excellence in teaching, research and public service.

Twelve Old Dominion faculty have won SCHEV awards to date, including John Toomey, associate professor of music, who was honored last year, and Daniel Dauer (biological sciences) and Chris Drake (geography), the university's first "double winners" in 1999.

Allen, eminent professor of urban education, and Chaturvedi, professor and chair of mechanical engineering, were honored in February during special ceremonies in Richmond. They each received a check for $5,000.

Allen, who has taught at Old Dominion 24 years, has long been known for his creativity, scholarship and teaching. He is the principal investigator for ACTT NOW (Aligning Certification with Technology Training), a $1.3 million federal project linking teacher training at Old Dominion with Brunswick County, Va., schools. Last year he and entertainer Bill Cosby co-wrote "American Schools: The $100 Billion Challenge," a book published exclusively online.

Since 1998, Allen has served as international technical adviser to the United National Development Programme for China, improving compulsory education in poor areas.

He developed the concept of the field-based master's degree program at Old Dominion, which has been offered in school districts throughout the region for 20 years.

Allen has been among the most active faculty in recruiting students from abroad, attracting more international visiting scholars and working professionally in more international venues than any other professor at Old Dominion.

Also a member of the faculty since 1978, Chaturvedi won the 2000 Pletta Award from the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers as the Virginia engineering educator of the year.

Using two faculty development grants, Chaturvedi created videotaped "help sessions" for students in his introductory and advanced thermodynamics classes. The tapes, used by students as a supplementary tool, help them achieve a deeper understanding of difficult concepts.

A pioneer in television-based distance learning, Chaturvedi was among the first faculty to offer televised courses at Old Dominion in 1987 on the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program, a predecessor of TELETECHNET.

Chaturvedi's research in the area of solar energy has received national and international recognition, and his research on energy-conserving solar heat pumps has been adopted by such industrial giants as Sharp Corp. of Japan.

He has received two U.S. patents in critical areas of energy conservation and testing of the national aerospace plane models in hypersonic wind tunnels.