Engineering Professor Wins National Charles R. O’Melia Distinguished Educator Award
David Mays is the first University of Colorado Denver professor to be awarded the national Charles R. O’Melia Distinguished Educator Award.
The Association of Environmental Engineering and Science and Professors (AEESP) honors one individual each year for excellence in teaching, graduate student advising, and significant research achievements that have contributed to environmental engineering knowledge and an outstanding record of influence through mentoring of former students and colleagues.
“I am truly honored to receive this recognition from my peers teaching at other environmental engineering programs around the country,” said Mays, an associate professor in the College of Engineering, Design and Computing (CEDC). “And I am humbled by the list of previous recipients. I have large shoes to fill.”
Previous honorees include faculty at Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, and Yale among others. The award is named for one of the most influential environmental engineering professors who taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, the University of North Carolina, and Johns Hopkins University. According to AEESP, O’Melia was “considered one of the leading researchers in water and wastewater treatment, aquatic colloid chemistry, and modeling of natural and engineered systems.” He also valued student mentoring.
Research
Mays certainly deserves the recognition, said CU Boulder Professor and friend Joseph Ryan who nominated him for the award. Mays has contributed to environmental engineering research through his often-cited work in fluid mechanics and water quality. That means he works to impact groundwater remediation, aquifer storage and recovery, and the way we tap geothermal energy.
He has also worked with his colleagues to create lasting programs at CU Denver that will impact hundreds of students for years to come. He advises students in the Hydrologic, Environmental, and Sustainability Engineering (HESE) graduate track. He has guided 37 graduate students to successful careers since he joined CU Denver in 2005.
“I don’t know any faculty in environmental engineering who have put so much effort into improving environmental engineering education through course and curriculum development, inclusive teaching practices, and promoting awareness of diversity, equity, and inclusion – and he’s done an excellent job of documenting and disseminating his efforts,” Ryan said.
Student Impact
In 2018, working with biology professor Timberley Roane and environmental science professor Rafael Moreno-Sanchez, Mays inaugurated a first-of-its-kind certificate program called Environmental Stewardship of Indigenous Lands (ESIL). This program trains science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students to liaise on environmental issues between tribal and non-tribal organizations.
“I have learned, and I continue to learn, many things from my participation in this program,” Mays said. “Perhaps the most important idea is that we need to create classes and curricula that meet students where they are.”
He also worked with fellow CU Denver engineering professors Tom Altman, Maryam Darbeheshti, Katherine Goodman, and education professor Heather Lynn Johnson on a project called ENNTICE (Engineering is Not Neutral: Transforming Instruction Through Collaboration and Engagement) which in turn led to CEDC’s annual Welcome Academy for New Faculty.
Mays, who began as a high school teacher through the Teach for America program, can’t see himself doing anything else.
“I love working in the currency of ideas,” Mays said. “Some of the ideas come from students, some come from collaborators, and some are mine. But we always share the work. Working on new ideas is fun, exciting, stimulating, and leads to better engineering, better infrastructure, and—if we do it well—better connections between people.”