2021 Provost Awards Highlight Achievements of College Faculty and Staff

The College of Engineering was well represented at the 2020-2021 Provost Awards Reception, held on June 24. Awardees were recognized for their research, teaching, service, and advising, and overall contributions to their fields and the University community.

Charles Haas, PhD, LD Betz Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (CAEE), received the Provost Award for Outstanding Career Scholarly Productivity, which recognizes a faculty member who has sustained an extraordinarily high level of scholarly activities which have had a major impact in the greater community (internally/externally) and/or on public perceptions of Drexel University.

Haas has been a pioneer in the fields of water treatment, risk assessment, bioterrorism, environmental modeling and statistics, microbiology, and environmental health. He is the founder of the field of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). He is frequently consulted nationally and internationally for his expertise and most recently has advised extensively about the risks related to SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). He has been recognized with numerous national and international honors and awards and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, class of 2021.

Christopher Weyant, PhD, Teaching Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), is one of three awardees of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the most prestigious award given to full-time faculty members who over the years have demonstrated the highest achievements in teaching.

This is the third year in a row Weyant has been recognized with a Provost-level award for his teaching. He is the 2020 recipient of the Evidenced-Based Learning Award in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education (STEM) and a 2019 recipient of the Barbara G. Hornum Award for Teaching Excellence Presented to Teaching/Clinical Faculty. He is a member of the College of Engineering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee; former chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Student Life; founder of Drexel Experiences in Materials Outreach (DEMO); and lead demo coordinator for Philly Materials Science and Engineering Day.

Antonios Zavaliangos, PhD,Professor in MSE, is one of two recipients of this year’s Harold M. Myers Award for Distinguished Service, given to an administrator, member of the professional staff, or full-time or part-time faculty member who has engaged in service work that has been recognized to be truly significant to the University.

With a deep commitment to service to the University, Zavaliangos has held numerous roles within the college and University. He was selected to serve as a Provost Fellow in the Office of Planning and Institutional Research and has been actively involved in the University strategic planning process throughout, including as a member of the University Executive Planning Committee, the Research Subcommittee, and as co-chair of the Integration Subcommittee. He is a member of the RCM Working Group and co-chair of the Middle States Accreditation Committee in the area of finance. Zavaliangos has recently served on several University-level search committees and previously served on the Faculty Senate and as department head of MSE.

Simi Hoque, PhD, Associate Professor in CAEE, is one of two awardees of the Dr. Mark L. Greenberg Distinguished Faculty Award for Community-Based Learning, awarded to a faculty member who is deeply committed to improving the public good on the local, national or global level through community-based learning. Hoque was honored virtually at the Lindy Center End of the Year Awards on Thursday, May 20 at 6 p.m.

In addition to being an accomplished systems engineering researcher, Hoque is dedicated to the advancement of women and underrepresented minorities through extensive valuable mentoring programs. She founded STEM University for Girls, a first-of-its-kind program for Drexel Engineering. The primary feature of this activity was a one-week summer program which engaged 30 middle school girls per year in STEM projects taught exclusively by women engineering faculty and students. This two-year program expanded to Project Eureka!, a program in partnership with Girls Inc. of Philadelphia, a long-term commitment to support middle school girls while also providing them with authentic STEM experiences on Drexel’s campus. The Eureka camp serves 60 eighth and ninth grade girls from Philadelphia’s underrepresented communities every summer. Hoque previously served as Dean’s Fellow in the area of diversity and inclusion and serves as the faculty advisor for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

Caroline Schauer, PhD, Margaret C. Burns Chair in Engineering in MSE and Associate Dean, Research and Faculty Affairs is the recipient of a Scholarly Materials and Research Equipment Award for Tenure/Tenure Track Faculty. These awards are given for the acquisition of materials, equipment, software, systems, library collections, or other non-personnel items that will enhance the research enterprise.

Schauer will use the award to purchase a table top injection molder to create recycled polymer composites. Globally, 20% of discarded plastics are recycled (<10% in the United States), primarily using mechanical processes, and about 25% are incinerated for energy recovery. More than half are deposited into landfills or released into the environment. Schauer’s proposed research will reduce the amount of plastic waste generated by utilizing two approaches: 1) the incorporation of industrial food waste into the processing stream to create new composites that can be sustainably biodegraded and 2) reprocessing recycled polymers into new parts.

Emily Bogunovich, MA, Assistant Director of Advising, has been recognized with the Outstanding Professional Advisor Award. The award recognizes the extraordinary contributions of advisors who guide student progress through their academic paths across the University.

Bogunovich advises 250 undergraduate students, including all students in the Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) and the NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program, as well as Mechanical Engineering BSME and BS/MS Students. She was instrumental in building and designing the Engineering Learning Community (ELC) program and has revised and created the CoE advising assessment for distribution to all engineering undergraduate students, developing a plan for utilizing the assessment for continuous improvement. Bogunovich currently serves as the advising representative on the college Reporting and Assessment Committee and on the MEM curriculum committee.