ABET-Lemelson award acceptance speech
On Friday, 24 October 2025, I received the ABET and The Lemelson Foundation Engineering for One Planet Innovation in Sustainability Award at a ceremony at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. The text of my 3-minute acceptance speech is below.
Thank you, Dr. Dietsche. I am humbled and honored to receive this award tonight. And I want to thank ABET and the Lemelson Foundation for developing the award, as it highlights the important goal of preparing future engineers for today’s sustainability grand challenges through curricular innovation in higher education. I’m especially grateful for the work of the selection committee chaired by Dr. Ramesh and for my friend and colleague Jeremy Van Antwerp who nominated me for the award.
When Jeremy returned from the ABET Symposium in San Diego insisting that he nominate me, it was clear he wouldn’t take no for an answer. In contrast, I was hesitant and conflicted, because this honor highlights something that should normally be a background activity. I believe the role of a professor and the curriculum is to facilitate the relationship between the student and the material they are meant to learn. When it all goes well, the professor and the curriculum fade into the background, much like an excellent referee in a soccer match or the best umpires in baseball and softball. Thus, it’s a deep irony that tonight’s honor and tribute video thrust me very much into the foreground.
And I should say, I barely recognized the guy in that video. The world I come from has long waits, hard slogs, small victories, and quiet successes. There are few coherent plans, big wins, or grand triumphs. The tribute video didn’t show the 8-year bureaucratic wait to teach the first section of The Economics of Energy and Sustainability. Or the 2-year COVID delay to publish a book with Jeremy. Or the 7 years between the idea for a pair of papers on the rebound effect and their publication. … Or the 4-year joy of watching a student mature.
Rather, uneven progress is made with directions set, goals agreed, and colleagues willing to roll up their sleeves to do good sustainability work together in community. I have no sole-author papers, and I have never been a committee of one. Any success I’ve enjoyed is due to productive collaborations with allies, co-workers, and friends. So, it is to my wonderful and supportive colleagues both at Calvin University and around the world that I dedicate this award!
Of course, none of my work in educating for sustainability is possible without the encouragement, love, and support of family and friends. So huge thanks are also due to my wife Tracy, children Mark and Catherine, and parents Alice and Loren.
Finally, I want to thank all of my students past and present. Their willingness to learn and their ability to rise to the challenges set before them provides hope for the future and gives meaning to my days.
Thank you!