One by One: Instructor’s Global Impact

Sometimes the most profound moments in a student’s academic life occur through contact with one instructor. And, one instructor can impact many students. In fact, Stephen E. Silliman, associate dean for educational programs and professor of civil engineering and geological sciences, was recently singled out for the impact he has had globally. The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) named Silliman the 2006 recipient of its Global Engineering & Engineering Technology Educator Award.

Presented in June at the ASEE annual conference, the award recognizes ASEE members who have demonstrated excellence in leadership, exceptional knowledge and creative practices contributing to advancements in engineering and engineering technology education, as well as personal and professional development in the global arenas of service, invention, consulting work, or industry participation.

A Notre Dame faculty member since 1986, Silliman has made many contributions internationally over the past decade through a distance-learning course taught from Israel for Notre Dame students, a service program for undergraduates in Haiti involving the development of groundwater supplies, and the development of research and educational initiatives between faculty and students from Notre Dame and at Universite d’Abomey-Calvai in Benin, West Africa.

Silliman studies groundwater flow and transport in heterogeneous media, stochastic hydrology, laboratory flow and transport experiments, groundwater and surface interaction, microbial transport, and water supplies in rural regions of developing countries water supplies. He has also played an integral role in the development of the College of Engineering’s first-year program.