Academic Family Tree
A list of my academic family members and our academic family tree in a graphical format.
Brian and Dr. Phil Byer
My academic training at the University of Toronto was shaped significantly by my BASc thesis and MASc thesis supervisor Professor Phil Byer, shown in the above photo, and by Professor Barry Adams. My academic training at Duke was very positively influenced by my PhD supervisor Dr. Eric Pas, by then-Department Chair Dr. Aarne Vesilind, and by Dr. Alan Neebe of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Gordon Huang and Brian
I had the very great pleasure and honour of supervising Guo He (Gordon) Huang’s PhD work while I was just starting out at McMaster. Dr. Huang has gone on to forge an amazing career as a highly prolific Tier 1 Canada Research Chair at the University of Regina (in the above photo, he is being inducted as a Fellow in the Canadian Academy of Engineering), and we have developed an ongoing collaboration for the training and mentorship of many young professors emanating from his research group. My PhD students who have gone on to take up academic appointments, and their downstream PhD students taking up academic appointments across the globe, make up an academic “family tree” which is continuously growing and making a very positive impact on our global environment.
Academic Career Summary
A list of awards, courses taught, recent publications.
President Peter George and Brian
The above photo captures the conferral of the President’s Teaching Award for Excellence in Instruction from Dr. Peter George, President and Vice-Chancellor of McMaster, at the 2008 Spring Engineering Convocation.
Cam and Anna with Brian
One of my greatest pleasures was teaching within the Engineering and Society program while at McMaster. This initiative was the brainchild of Professor Bob Hudspith, and I had the great privilege of being Director of the program from 2003-2013. In the above photo, I am bracketed by two Society stalwarts, Professor Cam Churchill who took over from me as Program Director, and Anna Sciascetti, Program Administrator and a great friend.
* McMaster Student Union Community Engagement Teaching Award (March 2023), awarded to the W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology Community Engagement Team of Salman Bawa, Richard Allen and Brian Baetz
* Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering (2022)
* McMaster Student Union Community Engagement Teaching Award (March 2020) awarded to the 2019 CityLAB Semester in Residence Teaching Team of Anna Marie Pietrantonio, Dave Heidebrecht, Randy Kay and Brian Baetz
* Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada RTI Funding – 149K$ for Server Infrastructure; with Drs. Zoe Li, Wael El Dakhakhni, Michael Tait, Sarah Dickson and Moataz Mohamed
* Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant Funding – 120K$ from 2017-2022 for Research in Resilient Green Infrastructure Asset Management
* McMaster Student Union Lifetime Achievement Teaching Award (2012)
* President’s Teaching Award for Excellence in Instruction (2008)
* ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering Best Paper Award [with Y. Guo] (2008)
* McMaster Student Union Teaching Excellence Award (2007)
* Fellow, Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (2005)
* McMaster Student Union Teaching Excellence Award (1999)
* Professional Engineers of Ontario − Young Engineer Achievement Award (1993)
* Innovation in Education Award, Faculty of Engineering (1992)
* NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (1985−1988)
* Jeffrey Taub Memorial Award, Duke University (1987)
* NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (1981−1983)
* Albert E. Berry Fellowship, University of Toronto (1982)
* 3T5 Second Mile Engineering Award, University of Toronto (1981)
* Applied Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, University of Toronto (1981)
I’m always happiest when I am in the classroom with students, and feel that this is the ideal environment to motivate and inspire young people to be their best. Here, I am with a small but wonderful group of graduate students from McMaster’s Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology.
* E&S 2X3 Introduction to Inquiry in an Engineering Context I
* E&S 3X3 Introduction to Inquiry in an Engineering Context II
* CE 3C3 Civil Engineering Systems
* CE 4X6 Civil Engineering Capstone Design Course
* CE 2J4 Ecological and Geological Aspects of Environmental Engineering
* CE 2A2 Surveying and Measurement
* CE 2E3 Numerical Methods in Civil Engineering
*ARTSSCI 3DS1 Deep Skills Development
* ARTSSCI 3BC3 Technology and Society III (Livable Communities)
* CityLAB Semester in Residence Program
* ENG 4A3 Engineering Ethics and Sustainability
* ENG 1D4 Engineering Computation
* ENG 4U3 Unit Operations in Wastewater Treatment Engineering
* CE 791 Municipal Solid Waste Management
* CE 792 Hazardous Waste Management
* EPP 702 Systems Engineering and Public Policy