Winners, Jan. 10: Robert Spira

Robert SpiraScience teacher

Robert Spira

of Rocky Point is one of two teachers nationwide

to receive a 2009 Pre-University Educator Award from the Institute

of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers' educational activities board for inspiring high schoolers

to choose careers in science and

engineering. Spira teaches physics

at Ward Melville High School. In 2009 he coached the school team that won Brookhaven National

Laboratory's Regional Science Bowl - the fifth time the team placed first in the last six years.