Ryan Dupont Receives Cazier Professor Lifetime Achievement Award

News Release — Mar. 31, 2021 — The College of Engineering extends its congratulations to civil and environmental engineering professor Ryan Dupont for receiving the 2021 Cazier Professor Lifetime Achievement award. Dupont was presented the award at USU’s first annual faculty awards ceremony Mar. 30.

One of the university’s most prestigious honors, the award recognizes senior faculty members who have demonstrated more than 20 years of consistent excellence in their academic careers. In his nearly 40 years at Utah State, Dupont has continually proven his dedication to furthering research in his field and mentoring the next generation of engineers, all while promoting public health and environmental health locally and beyond.

Dupont earned his PhD in environmental health engineering from the University of Kansas in 1982 and joined USU shortly thereafter. During his time at USU, he has also held numerous leadership positions with the Utah Water Research Laboratory.

Dupont’s primary role is research. He has garnered nearly $7 million in externally funded research grants, authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, given more than 130 conference presentations, and participated in more than 50 workshops and training seminars. The real measure of Dupont’s research success, however, is its real-world impact. As one of the early experts on bioremediation, Dupont has developed courses and training workshops that have been used by thousands of scientists and engineers. His research in field remediation system performance monitoring led to real improvement in environmental quality at federal facilities such as Hill Air Force Base. And more recently, Dupont collaborated with biological engineering researchers to monitor wastewater for USU on-campus student housing; this has been critical to USU’s COVID-19 stabilization efforts.

Dupont’s focus on solving real-world problems can also be found in his teaching. In his courses, he has led students in providing a cost-benefit analysis of rural recycling in Cache Valley, evaluating landfill energy recovery alternatives, and optimizing nutrient removal processes at the new Logan Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. During his time at USU, Dupont has mentored close to 50 graduate students and more than 180 undergraduate students.

Outside of the classroom, Dupont has supported numerous student organizations, including Engineers without Borders, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, the Society of Environmental Engineering Students, and the Water Environment Association of Utah.

The Cazier Professor Lifetime Achievement Award is an endowed award, meaning Dupont will carry the title of Cazier Professor throughout the rest of his career at USU.

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Contact: Dr. Ryan Dupont, ryan.dupont@usu.edu, 435-797-3227

Writer: Anessa Pennington, anessa.pennington@usu.edu, 435-797-7512