The ASCE teaching award is given to junior faculty members who have taught full time for less than five years. Requirements include a letter of endorsement from the department chairperson or dean and evidence of excellence in teaching as measured by student learning outcomes. The award will be given in Hawaii.
“I have a good time teaching and appreciate the fact that students recognize my efforts,” Puleo, who teaches fluid mechanics to undergraduates and coastal processes to graduate students, said.
Puleo photographs each of his approximately 90 undergraduates and attaches the pictures to 3x5 cards to help him rapidly memorize students' names. “I try to get to know my students well, interact with them and inspire them to do their best. Teaching takes a lot of effort but offers many rewards,” he said.
Puleo's research focuses on the swash zone processes. The swash zone, he explained, is where waves and beach meet. “I tell my students it's that area where you see photographs in ads of couples walking hand in hand along the water's edge.
“My interests are shorelines changes, how the sand moves and how beaches erode and are nourished,” Puleo said. He uses video-based remote sensing to understand these processes. He presently has seven video cameras at Rehoboth Beach, taking hourly imagery, which are then “stitched” together to obtain what amounts to an overhead aerial view spanning six kilometers.
Puleo has organized workshops on swash zone processes at UD and in Honolulu and Lisbon. A graduate of Humboldt State University with a master's degree in oceanography from Oregon State University and a doctorate in coastal engineering from the University of Florida, Puleo was an oceanographer, specializing in coastal dynamics, with the Naval Research Laboratory before joining the UD faculty in 2004.
Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Duane Perry