March 30, 2021

Craig Forest has been selected by his peers in the Woodruff School to receive the Zeigler Outstanding Educator Award and will deliver the Jack Zeigler Outstanding Educator Lecture during the 2021-22 academic year.

I’m honored to receive what I have long considered to be the highest teaching honor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering," said Forest. "Since I was an undergraduate at Georgia Tech (class of 2001), I have admired the awardees and dreamt of joining their company.

Craig Forest is a Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech where he also holds program faculty positions in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. He conducts research on miniaturized, high-throughput robotic instrumentation to advance neuroscience and genetic science. Prior to Georgia Tech, he was a research fellow in Genetics at Harvard Medical School. He obtained a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in June 2007, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 2003, and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 2001. He is cofounder/organizer of one of the largest undergraduate invention competitions in the US—The InVenture Prize, and founder/organizer of one of the largest student-run makerspaces in the US—The Invention Studio.  He was a Fellow in residence at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, WA. Forest was named Engineer of the Year in Education for the state of Georgia in 2013 and was a finalist on the ABC reality TV show "American Inventor.” 

The Jack M. Zeigler (BME 1948) Woodruff Outstanding Educator Award was created in 1999 to recognize an outstanding educator among the academic faculty of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. This is a lifetime achievement award that a person can receive one time. The winner is announced at an annual spring School event and receives $5,000 in discretionary funds to use for professional development items such as travel, computers, and support of students. The winner is invited to deliver the Jack Zeigler Outstanding Educator Lecture at an assembly of the Woodruff School. The winner is selected by a committee appointed by the Woodruff School Faculty Advisory Committee.

Mr. Jack M. Zeigler (class of 1948) received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering after interrupting his education with 3 ½ years of service in the U.S. Army.  While at Georgia Tech, he was a co-op student at two companies, where he worked primarily as a draftsman. In one company he earned $1.25 an hour; this was a raise from $0.55 per hour at the other company.

Mr. Zeigler, who passed away at the age of 93 on May 28, 2016 , was the retired President and Owner of Fabrication Engineering Service Company, Inc. (FESCO).  FESCO specializes in the made-to-order fabrication business using high quality alloy steels to produce tanks for the chemicals industry and pressure vessels for textile manufacturers.

Until his retirement in 1989, Mr. Zeigler was a registered professional engineering in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, and he was a lifetime member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering and the American Welding Society.

Mr. Zeigler was very supportive of Georgia Tech. He was the chairman of the Charlotte Regional Campaign Steering Committee of the Georgia Tech Centennial Campaign, a member of the Alexander-Tharpe Fund Board of Trustees, a member of the class of 1948 40th Reunion  Fund Committee, and past president of the Charlotte Georgia Tech Club.

He was also the recipient of the 1994 Woodruff School Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the 1994 Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award sponsored by the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. Jack Zeigler was born in Thomasville, Georgia and resided, with his wife, Sarah, in Charlotte, North Carolina.