Larry Korta to deliver Last Lecture
| Published: 05/02/2012 |
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All are invited to hear Larry Korta, retired MSOE industrial engineering professor, deliver his “Last Lecture” on Thursday, May 3 at 6 p.m. in the Todd Wehr Auditorium, 1047 N. Broadway. He will give the third annual lecture in MSOE’s Last Lecture series, in which one member of the MSOE staff or faculty is invited to pass on their greatest and most succinct knowledge and life-experiences to the MSOE community. Korta, who taught at MSOE for more than 20 years, will reflect on his time at MSOE and also share his life experiences and accomplishments.
The purpose of the series is twofold: to recognize a faculty or staff member for his or her years of service and contributions to the university, and for those in attendance to learn what the speaker truly believes are the most important facets of their human life experiences and accomplishments. Students, faculty and staff have the opportunity to nominate speakers from a list of eligible individuals, and the speaker is chosen by the Student Life Office.
Korta joined MSOE as director of the industrial engineering program in 1986. Prior to that, he was employed in industry for approximately 20 years, serving in a variety of technical and administrative capacities including research, product development, quality assurance and value engineering. While at MSOE he taught a variety of industrial engineering courses, as well as Creative Thinking and Human Factors in Design for the General Studies Department. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he served as the chair of the campus-wide student retention committee.
For nine years, Korta served as coordinator of the Rockwell Automation Global Development Program, working closely with Czech Technical University in Prague. He was recognized twice by CTU for contributions to international engineering education and improving university/industry collaboration.
Korta received the Outstanding Mentor Award in 1995 and the Falk Engineering Educator Award in 1990 from MSOE. In 1995, he received the Service and Commitment Award from the Creative Education Foundation. Korta retired from MSOE in 2007, but continued to serve the university in his capacity as chair of the campus-wide student retention committee until this year.
Korta and his wife are always looking forward to the next opportunity to travel to visit their children and grandchildren around the U.S. (Atlanta to Alaska!) or to visit friends in Europe.
MSOE is an independent, non-profit university with 2,500 students. MSOE offers 18 bachelor’s degrees and nine master’s degrees in the engineering, engineering technology, building and infrastructure engineering, health-related engineering, computer, business and nursing fields. The university has a national academic reputation; longstanding ties to business and industry; dedicated professors with real-world experience; extremely high placement rates; and the highest starting salaries of any Wisconsin university according to PayScale Inc. MSOE graduates are well-rounded, technologically experienced and highly productive professionals and leaders.