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Roberto Ballarini, professor of civil engineering, has received the John S. Diekhoff Award for excellence in graduate teaching.
The award recognizes the outstanding contributions of individual faculty members to graduate education at CWRU. It is considered a special honor to the faculty, since graduate students nominate and evaluate recipients.
The Graduate Student Senate presents the award annually to two full-time faculty members who have made exemplary contributions to graduate education, both inside and outside the classroom.
Being an educator involves compassion, encouragement, patience, and a sense of altruism, Ballarini believes. "I am very honored to win this award, especially because the nomination, interviews, and final decision are made by graduate students," he said. "CWRU is blessed with outstanding undergraduate and graduate students who are a constant source of inspiration to me."
Ballarini teaches courses in mechanics, strength of materials, advanced theory of elasticity, fracture mechanics, and plasticity theory. His multidisciplinary research is focused on developing and applying theoretical and experimental techniques to characterize the response of materials to mechanical, thermal, and environmental loads.
Now, with the aid of his graduate students, Ballarini focuses mainly on the mechanics of MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) and biomimetics (learning to imitate nature when designing composite materials and structures). Over the years, he has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, NASA, the United States Air Force, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and the State of Ohio.
"I take a balanced approach to teaching and enjoy mentoring graduate students," he said. "I think it's important to focus on looking out for students as people first. It's my job to teach them to conduct research by steering them in the right direction, and allowing them to find solutions for themselves," he added.
Ballarini maintains open office hours, focusing on helping graduate students become independent researchers.
"I want my students to enjoy being scholarly," he said. "I like to send them to conferences when I have the funds available, and encourage them to teach my classes when I am away."
Currently, one of his graduate students and one of his research associates from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering are helping Ballarini mentor two young women from Hathaway Brown High School in Shaker Heights who are conducting MEMS and biomimetics research.
Ballarini received his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Northwestern University in 1985 and says that he was fortunate to have two outstanding advisors who not only taught him to perform research, but also were most concerned with his overall welfare.
"I had a great education from the start, growing up in Morciano di Romagna in Northeast Italy," he said. "I received a solid Catholic School education where the teachers emphasized rational thinking. As an undergraduate at City College of New York, I learned from wonderful professors who were first and foremost concerned about me as a person."
He added, "I am now fortunate to have a great job with supportive colleagues. The civil engineering department is the best teaching department in the school of engineering, if not the University."
Ballarini received the Diekhoff Award certificate and honorarium May 21 at the School of Graduate diploma ceremony.
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