Hannah Spero, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences (CEEES) at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the recipient of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Doctoral Student Excellence in Teaching Award. This regional honor recognizes extraordinary dedication to the teaching and learning mission of higher education.
Spero’s teaching philosophy centers on creating an accessible and inclusive classroom environment, applying classroom concepts to real-world situations while fostering discernment and mentorship. This past year, she co-taught Engineering Design, and this spring she leads a section of Engineering Computing as part of a competitive mentored teaching fellowship.
“Hannah has consistently found ways to make topics, projects, and learning pedagogies come alive by relating them to students’ personal experiences,” said Andrew Bartolini, director of the First-Year Engineering Program. Bartolini noted that in a project involving air quality sensors, Spero framed the assignment around the students’ own hometowns, creating an immediate, personal relationship with the project.
Beyond Notre Dame’s campus, Spero’s inclusive teaching style has benefited non-traditional students. She designed and taught a course on natural disasters at the Forever Learning Institute—for students aged 50 and older—challenging them to tap into their own experiences of how these extreme events unfold.
During her three years leading the CEEES Graduate-Level First-Year Seminar (FYS), Spero transformed what was an informal gathering of students into a required 1-credit class for incoming graduate students. Professor Amy Hixon, former director of CEEES Graduate Studies, said, “This transition is a testament to Hannah’s vision and ability to identify and fill critical gaps in student training.” As a GLOBES fellow, Spero developed a virtual reality field trip to her dissertation research sites in Ireland, which Hixon said effectively dismantled barriers to field-based learning.
Spero’s own research lies at the intersection of earth science, fluid dynamics, and environmental engineering. She develops novel field-based methods to study extreme wave events and coastal hazards, reconstructing past severe storms and tsunamis in order to mitigate current coastal risk.
In recognition of her exceptional graduate work, Spero also received the Eli J. and Helen Shaheen Award in Engineering, which recognizes one outstanding doctoral student from each of the four divisions of the Graduate School. A recipient of the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Spero has published her findings in leading international journals and presented at conferences across Europe and Asia. She is co-advised by Andrew Kennedy and Joannes Westerink.
— Notre Dame College of Engineering