Former Texas ECE professor and chair Francis Bostick passed away Wednesday, October 20.
Dr. Francis Bostick was the Hayden Head Centennial Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus. He received his B.S.E E. degree from UT Austin in May, 1955. That summer he entered the Graduate School of Electrical Engineering and started working with the Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory located at what is now UT’s Pickle Research Campus.
His research work was in the area of electrical geophysics with modern data analysis and processing techniques.
Dr. Bostick did not include college-level teaching in his future career plans when he received his B.S. degree. The high-tech era was just beginning and taking a job in the exciting and rapidly developing post WWII electronics industry was his goal. In 1963, when he was about to finish his Ph.D., Dr. Bostick was asked whether he would be willing to teach a course in the Electrical Engineering Department that needed an instructor. He thought it would be a one-time experience so he somewhat reluctantly agreed. That was the beginning of his teaching career at UT that became his occupation for the next 45 years.
Over the years, Dr. Bostick taught undergraduate courses in three areas: electronics, electromagnetic field theory, and probability and statistics. At the graduate level he taught a course on Electrical Geophysics which was the subject of his research efforts and those of the graduate students working under his supervision. Also related to his research efforts was a graduate course that he taught that dealt with the theory of both acoustic and electromagnetic waves propagating in material media.
Testament to his superior teaching skills, Dr. Bostick was distinguished with the following highly coveted teaching awards by UT Austin:
- Academy of Distinguished Teachers
- Chancellor’s Council Outstanding Teaching Award
- UT Most Top Ten Professors at UT
- UT Most Hall of Honor
- General Dynamics Teaching Excellence Award
- Texas Exes Teaching Excellence Award
- Eyes of Texas Teaching Excellence Award
- Outstanding Electrical Engineering Faculty Member
- Electrical and Computer Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award
- Tau Beta Pi Teaching Excellence Award
- College of Engineering Faculty Leadership Award
- Halliburton Foundation Award of Excellence
“If I have a philosophy it’s that the learning process itself is disorganized. There was never a lecture I gave that I didn’t think long and hard about what I am going to say.”
- Dr. Francis X. Bostick, Jr.
