APUS Receives 2009 Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education
October 29th, 2009Today, APUS will be awarded the 2009 Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education at the Sloan Consortium‘s International Conference on Online Learning in Orlando, Florida. The Sloan Consortium is a membership organization of approximately 1800 higher education institutions, dedicated to improving online learning. The Gomory Award has been given annually since 2002 to “an institution that has demonstrated its commitment to assessing and improving the quality of its online education programs through quantitative application of the Sloan-C Quality Pillars.” Prior to 2002, the award was given but not named in honor of Dr. Gomory. Though schools could nominate a single degree program, a cluster of programs within a specific department or school, or the online degree offerings of the institution as a whole, APUS decided to nominate itself using the third criteria listed above.
The Ralph E. Gomory Award is named for Dr. Ralph E. Gomory, President Emeritus of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Dr. Gomory has had an illustrious career that includes Chairman of IBM Research’s Mathematical Sciences Department from 1965-67 and eventually IBM’s Senior Vice President for Science and Technology, the position from which he retired from IBM in 1989. After his tenure at IBM, Dr. Gomory became President of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation where he became a pioneer in the field of online education. Dr. Gomory has served as a Trustee of Hampshire College (1977-1986) and of Princeton University (1985-1989). He served as a board member of the Washington Post Company. He also served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) from 1984 until 1992. In 2007, after nearly two decades as President of the Sloan Foundation, Dr. Gomory became President Emeritus and continues to play an integral role in the development and improvement of online learning programs.
