School Notes: School of Engineering & Applied Science
September/October 2012

Engineers rewarded for excellence

Two members of the Yale Engineering community were recently honored for their excellence in teaching and mentorship. Menachem Elimelech, the Roberto C. Goizueta Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering, was awarded the 2012 Yale University Postdoctoral Mentoring Prize. Candidates for the prize, which is awarded annually to the Yale faculty member who is judged to best exemplify the role of a mentor to his or her postdoctoral trainees, are nominated by the postdoctoral fellows and associates themselves. Elimelech was recognized for having a contagious excitement about science, for helping postdoctoral trainees to build professional networks both within the Yale community and beyond, and for helping postdocs to situate their work in questions of larger scientific interest. Separately, Matthew Herdiech, a chemical engineering doctoral candidate working with Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering Eric Altman, was awarded a Prize Teaching Fellowship for 2012–2013. Established by Yale College in 1980, the fellowships are considered among the most important honors bestowed upon graduate students by the university. They are awarded based on nominations from undergraduate students and supervising faculty.

Students complete water resource project

After five years and repeated trips, the Yale chapter of Engineers Without Borders has completed its work on gravity-fed water distribution and sanitation systems in Kikoo, Cameroon. Over the course of the project, the students located freshwater springs, tested water quality, performed health surveys in the village, and led sanitation classes, in addition to ultimately building distribution and sanitation systems. Returning to the village this past May, the students monitored the status of their work, for which they were honored with the Engineers Without Borders–USA Premier Project Award last year. After bringing the award to Cameroon to take photographs with the Kikoo residents, the students were also presented with a hand-carved wooden clock from the Kikoo community as thanks for their work. Now, they’ve begun work in the nearby village of Rohvitangitaa, where they will be completing another water distribution project over the next five years.