The Tickle College of Engineering annually honors outstanding members of the college during the spring Faculty and Staff Awards, recognizing efforts of those who have gone above and beyond to help make the college successful. The department is thrilled to share that several faculty members were selected for awards, as listed below.
Traditionally, those chosen for an award are honored at a banquet where their peers can publicly applaud their efforts, but due to measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, this year’s event will be fully virtual.
The event is also where the Nathan W. Dougherty Award—the highest honor bestowed by the college—is given to those who have brought acclaim to the university. This year’s honoree is Kim Greene, a 1984 graduate of the college and the current chairman, president, and chief executive officer for Southern Company Gas. Read more about her success and her selection as the 2021 Dougherty Award winner.
Teaching Fellow Award
Recognizes and rewards superior teaching in the college.
Mark Denavit
Assistant Professor
Mark is well respected as a dedicated teacher by his students. Overall students’ reactions to his teaching are very positive, especially considering the rigor of some of the subjects he teachers. His additional teaching activities demonstrate a strong commitment to student learning. Mark is also developing as a researcher.
Nicholas Wierschem
Assistant Professor
Nicholas has demonstrated innovation in his teaching through the use of physical demonstrations. Together, he and Mark Denavit mentored a high school student during one summer to develop and build an apparatus to illustrate column buckling. He has created other demonstration units to illustrate concepts from structural dynamics. It is noteworthy that Nick’s research career is off to a promising start. He is proving to be a strong asset to the department in every respect.
Professional Promise in Research Award
Recognizes tenured or tenure-track faculty members at the assistant or associate professor rank who have received national or international recognition in their fields and show professional promise in their research.
Shuai Li
Assistant Professor
Shuai works broadly in the area of technology-enhanced civil infrastructure. He seeks to deploy a variety of sensors, robotics, unmanned ariel vehicles, augmented and virtual reality, and artificial intelligence to a vast array of application areas. His interests are well-aligned with the department’s goal to expand the impact of the civil engineering profession through innovation and provide numerous opportunities for collaboration across the industry. His success in being a leader in emergent research areas is both visionary and rare for someone so early in their career.
Research Achievement Award
Recognizes tenured faculty members who have been tenure-line for more than 10 years and have received national or international recognition in their field.
Joshua Fu
John D. Tickle Professor
Joshua’s work in the areas of air quality modeling and climate change is nearly encyclopedic in scope. His work includes studies both at the global and regional scales. His work also comprises the full spectrum of atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter, ozone, dust, nitrogen deposition, carbon black, aerosols, acid deposition, and greenhouse gases, emanating from diverse sources such as industrial emissions, electrical power generation, transportation, forest fires and erosion. This breadth of coverage is rare.