Professor Robert Irish (ISTEP) has been recognized for his outstanding teaching and educational leadership with the President’s Teaching Award. U of T’s highest honour for teaching, this award recognizes sustained excellence in teaching, educational leadership and innovation. Recipients are designated members of the University’s Teaching Academy for a five-year term.

Irish joined the faculty in 1995 to lead a six-month pilot project called Language Across the Curriculum, with the goal of integrating communication skills into engineering courses. This evolved into the Engineering Communication Program, which is now an international leader in integrating communication throughout an engineering education. Along the way, Irish taught courses or modules in every engineering department and built curriculum in consultation with colleagues to shape a learning trajectory for students. This foundation allowed the program to support language learners and also build broad communication skills in all our students.

Irish also spearheaded the development of new courses that integrated engineering subjects and communication, most notably Engineering Strategies and Practice (ESP) and Praxis in first year, as well as departmental design and communication courses in upper years. Irish was on the team that created the initial plan for ESP and was the lead communication instructor in Praxis from 2008 to 2023, mentoring generations of students and instructors. Many of the ideas from these ambitious teaching collaborations became papers for the American Association for Engineering Education, the Canadian Engineering Education Association, the IEEE Professional Communications Society, and elsewhere.

Irish has also made significant contributions to engineering communication education beyond U of T as the author of two influential books published by Oxford University Press. The first, Engineering Communication: From Principles to Practice, co-written with U of T Engineering colleague Professor Emeritus Peter Weiss (ISTEP), articulates principles to guide engineering communication. Now in its second edition (2013), it is still in use at U of T and in engineering programs across North America. The second, Writing in Engineering: A Brief Guide, is a practical and concise reference for upper-level engineering students and engineers in industry.

In 2019, Irish received the IEEE Professional Communication Society’s Ronald S. Blicq Award for Distinction in Technical Communication Education, recognizing how his work helped the practice of integrated communication instruction in engineering become mainstream. In 2025, he was further recognized with U of T Engineering’s Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award.

“Robert Irish has made exceptional contributions to the development of the transdisciplinary competency curriculum in our faculty, particularly in the critical area of engineering communication,” says Christopher Yip, Dean of U ofT Engineering.

“I know that he will continue to be a leader in advancing U of T’s educational mission, both as an educator and as a member of the university’s Teaching Academy.”