Three civil and environmental engineering faculty members were recognized with a 2020 Engineering Dean’s Award.

Tripp Shealy is the recipient of the 2020 College of Engineering Faculty Fellow Award. His research has helped improve a leading engineering rating system of sustainable infrastructure that is used by more than 6,000 professional engineers across the country and has been featured in Nature Sustainability. He was awarded a new research grant from the National Science Foundation to study systems thinking in engineering students, specifically their ability to recognize interactions and optimize connections between components in a system. The project utilizes his unique neuro-imaging lab in Patton Hall to study engineering cognition by measuring changes in students’ brains when concept mapping and the effect that this has on their problem-solving ability and design choices.

Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz is the recipient of the 2020 College of Engineering Outstanding New Assistant Professor Award. He has brought in over $3 million in external awards from funding sources such as the National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, US Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He studies atmospheric chemistry with a focus on understanding the sources and transformations of organic compounds in indoor and outdoor air. His approach to teaching centers on experiential learning opportunities like hands-on, small group projects in which students work to develop and test a prototype instrument based on microcontrollers, sensors, and basic electronics.

Paolo Scardina is the recipient of a 2020 Certificate of Teaching Excellence. He is the Managing Director of the CEE Hydraulics Teaching Lab which provides hundreds of students access each week and provides experience with fundamental systems and contemporary instrumentation. He created a technical writing curriculum and program for the department as part of the Virginia Tech Pathways requirements.

All three with be recognized at the Dean’s Awards ceremony in September. Click here for the full list of Dean’s Award winners. – https://eng.vt.edu/about/faculty-awards-and-distinctions/deans-awards/2020-deans-award-recipients.html