Honors Faculty Fellows Program Doubles Its Offerings in Year 2

A unique program that packages distinctive coursework with diverse experiences, by connecting NJIT students and faculty with leading corporations, governmental agencies and private donors, has expanded as it heads into its second year. Honors Faculty Fellows will feature twice as many classes and three additional Fellows during the Spring 2020 semester, all made possible by generous gifts to the university’s Albert Dorman Honors College (ADHC), which administers the program.

Returning fellows Michel Boufadel, professor of civil engineering and director of NJIT’s Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection; Vatsal Shah ’08, ’09, ’15, adjunct civil and environmental engineering professor, industry practitioner and ADHC alumnus; and Vivek Kumar, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, will be joined by Shawn Chester, associate professor of mechanical engineering and ADHC alumnus; Michael Lee, assistant professor of informatics; and Zeyuan Qiu, professor of chemistry and environmental sciences.

Qiu will focus on the world food and agricultural system in his course, “Food, Agriculture, and Climate Change,” made possible by a gift from Sarabjit Singh, a 2002 graduate of ADHC.

A gift from the school’s namesake and NJIT alumnus Albert A. Dorman ’45, ’99 HON, his wife, Joan, and their family, is funding both Chester as the Dr. Saul K. and Roberta Fenster Honors Faculty Fellow in Engineering (also known as the Dorman-Fenster Faculty Fellow) and Lee as the Dr. Joel and Dr. Diane Bloom Honors Faculty Fellow in STEM Leadership (also known as the Dorman-Bloom Faculty Fellow). Chester will teach “Mechanics of Soft Materials” and Lee “Design Thinking to Address Structural Inequality.”

“These are exciting courses that offer Honors scholars the opportunity to engage in some of the most pressing technical, environmental and social challenges of our times. Cutting-edge science, pursued for the good of society, is precisely what we want an honors education to provide,” said Louis Hamilton, ADHC dean. “We are so grateful to our generous alumni and friends who have made them possible.”