Home > Faculty and Research > Rodney F. Ganey, Ph.D. Faculty Community-Based Research Award > Ganey Award Winner
This year’s recipient of the Ganey Faculty Community-Based Research Award is Stephen E. Silliman Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs in the College of Engineering.
Dr. Silliman came to Notre Dame in 1986, with a Ph.D. in Hydrology from the University of Arizona. Starting in 1986, he taught a course in groundwater hydrology for which the laboratory was based on active field work in the local community, so from the beginning of his Notre Dame teaching career he guided his students off campus to help them learn how to do engineering investigations, while simultaneously developing their sense of social responsibility as future engineering practitioners.
In a letter nominating him for an award a number of years ago, Dennis Jacobs, Associate Provost and Professor of Chemistry, noted some of the specific ways Dr. Silliman brought students into engagement with the local community. He writes:
“Prof. Silliman and his students have worked within our county to study the impact of a local landfill on groundwater supplies. They also have performed a study on whether extensive pesticide and herbicide use on former farmland will present potential challenges in converting the land to a county park and environmental-education center. Students have confronted in real ways the tension between competing interests – industrial advancement/prosperity and preservation of the delicate environment.”
According to another earlier letter of recommendation on Dr. Silliman's behalf, previous Notre Dame Provost Nathan Hatch wrote more about this local effort:
“With assistance from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Silliman developed a field teaching laboratory that allowed undergraduate engineers to learn the discipline of groundwater hydrology through application to real field scenarios in northern Indiana…” These experiences “led…to technical publications in professional research journals…”
This work in groundwater quality continues as Dr. Silliman’s students work with the St. Joseph County Parks to study possible uses for land which the County owns in northeastern St. Joseph County. Options that the students studied, and presented in written and oral forms to County Parks personnel, include using the property as an environmental education center focused on groundwater, and developing the property as a public well field to support a part of Granger.
Over the years, Dr. Silliman has drawn his students into investigations locally, as described above. In more recent years, however, and increasingly, his work has been located outside the U.S., in Haiti and, most recently, primarily in Benin, Africa. His work in Benin began in 1998 with a simple research project that did not involve students. Since 2002, however, the project has evolved with an ever-increasing contribution by undergraduate and graduate students.
Furthermore, it turns out that Dr. Silliman’s work in Benin doesn’t stay in Benin, but returns back to South Bend. Professor Silliman has initiated an education project between students in Adourekoman, Benin and in Christ the King Grade School in South Bend. The project has facilitated discussion between teachers in both locations. As part of the project, students in Benin and South Bend develop a video exchange – the video version of pen pals. In the summer of 2004, students in Benin initiated the exchange by asking a series of questions of the students in the U.S.. Two complete exchanges have ensued.
Professor Silliman has also carried his Benin research into the local high schools. In the fall of 2003, for example, he worked with a student from Marion High School on a simple method for measuring nitrate concentrations in water. The high school student studied how best to use the method. She trained a number of her classmates to perform the test, and then evaluated their measurments. For her efforts, this student won three awards at the 2003/4 regional science fair, and the method she investigated has since been employed in Benin on the nitrate project there that you will hear more about in a moment.
Dr. Silliman's record of publication is extensive, including fundamental laboratory and field research in ground water science as well as papers discussing the incorporation of his research into his teaching. Recent publications from his Benin project can be found in the Journal of Hydrology and the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.
Dr. Silliman was tenured in 1990, promoted to full professor in 2000, and became Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs in the College of Engineering in 2002. He received the Grenville Clark teaching award in 2002 for faculty whose volunteer activities serve to advance causes of peace and human rights, and a Kaneb Teacher of the year award in 1999. He held a Fullbright in 1997-98 in Israel.
John G. Borkowski
Andrew J. Mckenna Family Professor, Psychology
John G. Borkowski is Andrew J. McKenna Family Professor of Psychology and co-Director of Notre Dame’s Center for Children and Families. He is author or co-author of six books, including "Parenting and the Child's World: Influences on Intellectual, Academic, and Social-Emotional Development," and many other publications.
He is currently engaged in a National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development sponsored multi-site intervention project designed to better understand the factors that lead to child abuse and neglect in at-risk mothers. His project, My Baby and Me, works with local organizations, including the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program, School Age Mothers Program (SAMP) and Hannah’s House to reduce child neglect among high-risk mothers by helping them create new parenting styles.
Also, in partnership with Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, Borkowski is seeking funding for “Enhancing Parenting Practices and Preschool Readiness for Latino Children,” a project that will collaborate with Northern Indiana Latino churches to help prepare Latino children for preschool. Borkowski’s scholarship reflects a life-long commitment to reducing childhood neglect.
