Ever sat in a big jetliner powering down a runway for takeoff and felt certain that it could not possibly rise from the ground? Then you know the wonder that has propelled Mohamed Hafez to study and teach aeronautics for 35 years -- and to do both so well that he will receive the 1998 UC Davis Prize for Undergraduate Teaching and Scholarly Achievement. "I am crazy about airplanes," Hafez says. "But I am not interested in being a pilot. I am interested in the idea of flying and how things fly. I mean, you put 300 people in that tube and send it into the sky at what, 30,000 feet high and a speed of maybe 600 miles per hour, and then they come back safe, on time? This is unbelievable." The UC Davis Prize carries a $30,000 cash award, believed to be the largest individual, one-time award of its kind in the nation. The winner is chosen from the recommendations of academic faculty, students and research peers. The cash award is given by the UC Davis Foundation through gifts from the Davis Chancellor's Club Fellows. "Each year when the UC Davis Prize recipient is announced, I am thrilled to become acquainted with yet another outstanding individual who exemplifies the high caliber of our faculty members," said Julita Fong, chair of the UC Davis Foundation. "Professor Hafez is no exception." The aeronautics professor's prize will be announced today by Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef at 3:45 p.m. in Engineering II, Room 1065; he will be honored at a gala dinner on May 21 at Freeborn Hall. "Professor Hafez is recognized by colleagues and students as an outstanding researcher and caring teacher, a person with a love for knowledge who takes great pleasure in sharing this knowledge with other people," said Bahram Ravani, chair of the department of mechanical and aeronautical engineering. "He is, without doubt, the most demanding teacher in the department, yet he is easily our most popular." Indeed, the anonymous comments on student evaluations from Hafez's past two years are frank about the heavy workload. One student wrote, "Computer programs would challenge Einstein himself." Yet the same evaluations rate Hafez, where an average of 4 is very good and 5 is excellent, as high as 4.89. "An incredible teacher," wrote one student. "He was able to teach things that I wouldn't believe I could ever understand." "I have never before been so challenged," wrote another. "Lots of tears and frustration have followed, but it has changed me." Mohamed Hafez knew from his youth that he would study airflight. Born in Egypt, he graduated from Cairo University in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering. He attended the University of Southern California for a master's degree and doctorate in aerospace engineering, then added a master's degree in mathematics for good measure. He spent the next 20 years in American industry and government research, working mostly for contractors to the U.S. Office of Naval Research, NASA and Boeing. He also taught graduate classes in aeronautical engineering at George Washington University. In those years, his research was central to defining and developing the emerging field of computational fluid dynamics -- the use of computers, mathematics and physics to understand the motion of fluids, in particular airflows around airplanes. He is especially well-known for his work on "transonic" flows -- those produced by a plane flying at or near the speed of sound, about 750 miles per hour. "Computers helped us to analyze the problem and design the shape, the configuration of the airplane with three goals in mind," Hafez says. In his lyrical, accented English, r's roll and "aeroplanes" are common. "We want to have a bigger airplane, a faster airplane and a cheaper airplane." Now 52, Hafez is an acknowledged leader in the field. In 1994, he was named a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. At professional meetings, "if Hafez is in the room, the speaker will direct his remarks principally to Hafez," says Stanley Berger, an engineering professor and fluid mechanics expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "During the discussion that follows, Hafez will often be looked to to deliver the concluding or definitive comment." David Caughey, director of the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, added, "Mohamed's broad range of interests and depth of knowledge, combined with his sharp, analytical mind, always provide food for thought." Hafez's teaching career began in 1986, when he came to Davis to teach theoretical aerodynamics, aeronautical engineering and computational fluid dynamics. He was celebrated upon his arrival and installed as a full professor. And then, in his first experience teaching undergraduates, Hafez crashed and burned. He returned from a conference to find his new students in revolt after their first exam. "I had been trying to cover too much material. I pushed too much and nothing went through," Hafez recalls. In engineer fashion, he examined his teaching design to find its failings. "I realized some of the students did not have the background of understanding that I thought they had," Hafez says. "So I resolved to start from scratch." He also ditched the text and his lecture notes, preparing instead by thinking through each lecture in advance. "If you know the whole story, you can present it your own way, without using notes," Hafez says. "You know the sequence of the story, what goes first and what comes next and why this step follows the other. "And when I force myself to do that, I go through the difficulties the students go through. Then, when I get stuck, I know where the students will get stuck." Evidently, it worked. The UC Davis Prize is the fourth to recognize his talents. He has previously received the 1989 Magnar Ronning Award for excellence in teaching in the UC Davis College of Engineering, awarded by students; the 1993 UC Davis Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award, awarded by fellow faculty; and the 1994 Outstanding Professor award, given by the Student Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. "Professor Hafez is an exemplary teacher and a scholar of international distinction," said Chancellor Vanderhoef. "His deep respect for the abilities of his colleagues and students is paired with a remarkably infectious enthusiasm. It is a combination that consistently lifts them all to new levels of achievement." Hafez simply considers himself fortunate to be able to indulge his passion. "This is completely fascinating to me. I am interested in the idea of flight and how to realize it," he says. Then he pauses, thinking of lift and drag, velocity and vorticity, and of the wonder that it all works. "I tell you the truth, when I sit in an airplane, I doubt everything I have told you," he says, laughing. "I think, 'What if these guys are wrong?'" Fortunately for his fellow passengers, one of those guys is Mohamed Hafez. And many of the rest of them were his students. EDITOR'S NOTE: A photo of Mohamed Hafez may be obtained electronically by contacting Amy Rafferty, (530) 752-9836, aerafferty@ucdavis.edu.