Randall Kolar, director and professor at OU’s School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, is a recipient of Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence’s 2026 Medal for Excellence.
Kolar is credited with creating a unique learning service for civil engineering students. Kolar will receive a $5,000 cash award, a medallion and an etched glass Roots & Wings Society sculpture for his accomplishment.
Kolar introduced the concept of a virtual landscape, nicknamed “Sooner City,” for hands-on learning in the late 1990’s. Sooner City gives students example problems relating to issues such as managing water supply and transportation systems.
Kolar previously worked at the University of New Haven as an assistant professor before beginning as an assistant professor at OU in August 1995. Kolar taught classes until he became director of the school in 2013. Kolar still teaches, but he focuses on providing his students with real-world experiences and exposure to civil engineering design problems.
“Design problems are such effective tools to teach critical thinking because students must wrangle with problems that don’t have one ‘best’ solution or for which they may have incomplete information,” Kolar wrote in a press release.
Kolar has previously received several awards, including the National Science Foundation CAREER award in 1996, the David Ross Boyd Professorship in 2014 and the OU Presidential Professor award for outstanding teaching in 2008.
Kolar will receive the award on May 2 at the 40th annual Academic Awards Celebration at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
This story was edited by Macey Thaxton and Natalie Armour. Andrew Paredes, Sophie Hemker and Mary Ann Livingood copy edited this story.
