Congratulations to Dr. Jon Hathaway, one of 2018’s winners of the Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year award.

Multiple students credit Hathaway in particular for making the transition into civil and environmental engineering from other majors a less daunting process, even with no background experience in the subject area. For instance, Matthew Howard tells of how “as a sophomore, I switched majors . . . and Dr. Hathaway was assigned as my faculty mentor. To get my bearings in the department, I scheduled a meeting with him. By the time I left the meeting, he had offered me a research position and left a permanent impression on me,” and from there, how he grew from a student with no professional experience to a contributing member of a highly functioning research group, primarily due to Hathaway’s guidance and support: “Be it academic advising, career advice, or general life questions, Dr. Hathaway has been accessible as a mentor.”

Hathaway is also known for providing a wonderful model of being personally engaging and friendly without sacrificing professionalism. Hathaway’s research into environmental and community stewardship is clearly reflected in his leadership of undergraduate researchers. As Sierra Sims writes, “All the students under him respect him and all the students in his classes want to work with him.”

Dr. Hathaway is an assistant professor in the civil and environmental engineering department. He received his PhD from North Carolina State University, and has in the past worked in ecological design and consulting. His research studies sustainable urban water, green infrastructure, anthropogenic influences on the environment, and urban pollutant fate and transport.