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2017 Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellows

Paulette Clancy standing in front of a projected chemistry image

Paulette Clancy

Samule and Diane Bodman Professor of Chemical Engineering, R.F. Smith School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and the Director of the Cornell Institute for Computational Science and Engineering

She served two terms as the William C. Hooey Director of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University from 2002- 2010. She was the first female Director of the School and the first woman to chair an Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at Cornell. A native of London, England, she graduated with First Class Honors from London University and received a D. Phil in Chemistry from Oxford University in Physical Chemistry. After post-doctoral research at Cornell and at London University, she joined the faculty at Cornell in 1987. Professor Clancy’s Kaplan award will build on her past involvement in creative service-learning projects to continue a Sciencenter collaboration that exposes middle-schoolers in the Sciencenter’s Future Science Leaders program (FSL) to the joys of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE). Reaching this cohort is critical since this is the age when young girls, in particular, need to be encouraged to learn about programming and computational skills. She plans to develop a game that explains how solar cells turn sunlight into electricity and learn how they can design better materials to make that process more efficient. This service-learning project will be sustained by its integration into an underclass Cornell course (Engri 1510/Chem 1510) that will engage freshmen and sophomores to help the FSL students to learn about the computational aspects of STEM in a fun learning experience.


Heather Kolakowski facing the camera smiling

Heather Kolakowski

Lecturer, School of Hotel Administration, SC Johnson College of Business

She teaches several food and beverage courses, including Restaurant Management, and is the faculty adviser for Hotel Ezra Cornell. The Kaplan award would enhance the service-learning project already established in her elective, HADM 4315: Hunger, Health and Nonprofit Social Enterprise. The outcome of the fellowship would be to create a sustaining project that can help the Food Bank of the Southern Tier achieve a determined goal as outlined in their strategic plan, while also enhance the students’ skills and project management abilities to address the social challenges of food insecurity. The Food Bank of the Southern Tier collaborates with 21 member affiliates in Tompkins County to assist with an estimated 13,920 food insecure individuals. Redesigning the service-learning aspect of her class to focus on one combined project for one community partner will help to have a more significant impact on the local community.