College of Engineering News Room
Jeffrey Cunningham awarded AEESP Award for Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Engineering and Science Education
USF Civil and Environmental Engineering professor Jeffrey Cunningham, Ph.D., has been awarded the 2020 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Award for Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Engineering & Science Education. This award is given annually to recognize excellence in teaching scholarship and/or professional society educational initiatives.
Cunningham will receive his award this fall during the AEESP business meeting that takes place at the national conference of the Water Environment Federation this fall in New Orleans. The Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) was founded in 1963 to assist its members in improving education and research programs, encourage graduate education, and serve the profession by providing information to government agencies and the public.
Cunningham's educational accomplishments integrate interdisciplinary approaches and global engagement, ranging over classroom, course, curricular, research and scholarly settings. Cunningham was previously awarded a USF Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award and is a co-author of several peer-reviewed engineering education scholarly publications that enhance the engineering education process or add value to teaching methodology literature. One of these publications won a best paper award from the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE).
Cunningham has also helped to develop and deliver national workshops that focus on improvements to teacher classroom effectiveness and has a strong record of activity in the educational activities of AEESP. He's played an important role in the globalization of the undergraduate civil engineering curriculum and a proposed baccalaureate program in environmental engineering. He took the lead in obtaining global certification for ENV4001 (Environmental Engineering Systems) through the USF Global Citizens Project. Cunningham's vision to certify that course led the way for a team of faculty to now work together to obtain university approval to globalize the entire bachelor's program in civil engineering and a proposed baccalaureate program in environmental engineering.
USF Engineering Associate Dean for Academics and Student Affairs Sanjukta Bhanja, Ph.D., wrote that 鈥淐unningham's leadership in this important area of educating more globally aware engineering students fits with our college's 2025 Strategic Plan that specifically sets out a vision where we will foster a global approach to engineering and sync our educational programs with the USF Global Citizens Project to deepen international perspectives.鈥�
The award also attests to the quality and national visibility of USF鈥檚 environmental engineering faculty, students, and alumni. Cunningham is the fourth USF Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty member to receive this national award.