Excellence in Research Award, 2020
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Jennifer Jacobs passionately pursues research projects aimed at understanding and preparing for the impact of a changing climate on the natural and built environment. She has an excellent record of success in her scholarship activities as evidenced by traditional measures that include number of publications, citations of publications, successful funding and repeat funding from respected sources, funding and mentoring graduate students and especially PhDs and leadership positions with national professional organizations.
A professor of civil and environmental engineering, Jacobs is a recognized leader in bothhydrologic and climate change adaptation circles. Beyond her academic influence, Professor Jacobs has always been able to apply her research to real-world issues, especially in matters of sustainability and the impact of climate change. She has taken her work so much further by emphasizing the need to collaborate across disciplines with climate scientists, engineers, and policymakers and by working with social scientists to determine effective ways to do so. It is this emphasis that makes her approach to research, education and collaboration on climate change and infrastructure issues stand out as a model for catalyzing the changes that are needed in both research and policymaking communities.
Professor Jacobs is making a difference in not only her field but society at large and is an eminently fitting recipient of the university’s 2020 excellence in research award.
About this Award
This award acknowledges and honors a member of the UNH faculty who has demonstrated superior creativity and success in his/her research. Research is understood to include activities that result in the generation of new ideas or works of art, the solution of fundamental problems in a particular field, or the discovery of important new facts. This award is based on the quality, originality, and significance of the recipient's scholarly work. Since university faculty are expected to be effective transmitters as well as creators of knowledge, the willingness and ability of the recipient to share knowledge and research skills with colleagues and students should be evident. Each year there will be one Award for Excellence in Research. UNH benefits-eligible faculty members are eligible, except those who have received this award within the last five years.
