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DANNY JARES
ME STAFF AWARD RECIPIENT, FALL 2000:
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The Mechanical Engineering Department's Staff Excellence Award is granted on the bases
of Productivity (which includes quality and quantity of work, meeting deadlines,
performance consistency, and accomplishment), Advancing of Department Morale (including
being a team player, being helpful, having a positive attitude, cooperating for the
benefit of both internal and external customers), and Risk-taking/Innovating (such
as taking on responsibility, showing initiative, and going above and beyond specific
job duties). "
Danny Jares has performed exceptionally in all areas of award criteria. He
consistently completes projects within the required time frame while working with
demanding tolerances and complex geometry, finding inovative ways to locate the parts.
Danny goes above and beyond his job duties and shows a great dedication to his work."
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Danny works with all strata of the department in a highly technical capacity in out
Machine Shop.
He works with students in a number of areas on a daily basis. Danny helps
them to understand design and machine tool capabilities in the shop. He also
conducts machine shop certification classes for Mechanical Engineering
students. He holds two classes each month, sometimes more if the students
need it. He has worked with 660 of 930 students certified in the department
since 1994. Danny has helped our faculty with research projects, sometimes
inventing the needed parts when none exist - from air foils for
Dr. Bogard's
wind tunnel tests to miniature "nerve excitation devices" for the
Biomedical Engineering Department.
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Danny is surprised by Dr. Lamb.
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He has served the department in other capacities as well, such as cheerfully
helping move furniture for carpet installation and for the new desks. He also
chairs the Steering Committee of the Staff Rewards and Recognition Committee,
a task that has required a great deal of time and energy.
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Danny looks on as Don
sings his praises to a packed room.
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Since Danny is the Chair of the Steering Committee, it was very difficult to
keep his selection as the Fall Award Recipient from him. He is very involved
in the reward process, so his friends and colleagues had to go to some extreme
lengths to hide the identity of the award winner. He was told all the tasks
had been completed without him because of unusual circumstances. We even
conspired to "fool him" into preparing an award plaque for someone else. He
says that they are forgiven (since he gets a nice check), but "don't do it
again!"
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Some excerpts from Danny's nominators: "Whenever asked to do anything for
the Department, he is always willing to help in any way he can, with a smile
on his face." "He has shown nothing but the utmost enthusiasm and
professionalism to the students and faculty here at the University of Texas
at Austin. No matter how busy he was on other projects, Danny always seemed
available when I had questions about my work." "He contributes to this
department in very direct ways through the project-collaboration he does with
faculty, the instruction he provides to students, and his committee work with
staff. But perhaps Danny's most significant contribution is that which isn't
immediately apparent to most of us - he makes us feel like a team." "In his
position Danny is often responsible for developing techniques for constructing
new devices that have been designed with little thought about the difficulty
of actually constructing them. It is a testimony to Danny's ingenuity that he
seems to always find a way to solve the seemingly impossible construction
problems and put together the devices with a quality that generally far exceeds
that expected." "Danny not only provided excellent work on a timely basis,
but also showed deep understanding technically and personally what professors
and students were looking for." "Mr. Jares is an ideal model of patience with
and commitment to our students, both graduate and undergraduate." "I have
watched Danny while he has had to pinch-hit as a furniture mover, book mover,
etc., repeatedly. He always accepts these tasks without complaint even
though he has other pressing commitments."
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