TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Paul S. Ray, associate professor of industrial engineering at The University of Alabama, recently received the national Educator of the Year award from the System Safety Society. Ray accepted the award at the 22nd annual System Safety Society Conference in Providence, R.I.

The System Safety Society was formed in the 1960s from a small group of managers, scientists and engineers who became personally involved in the initial implementation of system safety engineering. In 1962, the System Safety Society was organized and has grown steady in numbers, scope and influence.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 95 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.