UConn professor-in-residence and Neag alumnus Timothy Dowding (Ph.D. \u201901), who teaches at UConn\u2019s Stamford campus, received a Provost\u2019s Award for Excellence in Public Engagement. Dowding was one of nine recipients chosen for their exceptional leadership, innovation and research efforts, which extended and enhanced the University\u2019s presence in communities throughout and beyond Connecticut. Dowding\u2019s research has the potential to impact the world.<\/p>\n
Carol Polifroni, director of UConn\u2019s Office of Public Engagement, heralded Dowding\u2019s work to convert agricultural waste into profitable commodities as not just impactful, but \u201crevolutionary, fulfilling the mutually beneficial purposes of community-UConn partnerships on local and international levels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Called the Tropical Emerging Market Eco-Industrial Park (TEMEIP) project, Dowding\u2019s work is as much dedicated to eco-sustainability as economic profits. It consists of converting wastes like seaweed into liquid fertilizer and coconut fiber into particleboard, as well as implementing the processes in countries where these natural resources and emerging markets exist, such as Haiti and Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are not working together to help make the world a better place, why are we here?\u201d Dowding said.<\/p>\n
In his project poster \u201cHelping Others Help Themselves: Outreach and Engagement through Sustainable Strategic Planning & Economic Development,\u201d Dowding cited additional natural resources that can be converted into much-used and economically profitable ones, such as distilling sugar cane to make butanol, which can be sold for gasoline, and composting municipal solid waste to create clean compost for soil management. Compost solids can also be recycled or used for landfill.<\/p>\n
Working with the Fulbright Commission, UConn Haiti Working Group and other organizations, Dowding has also shown an interest in promoting educational exchange and cultural awareness. His work could lead to international collaborations, including those through UConn\u2019s membership in the United Nations Academic Impact Consortium, faculty and student exchanges, and UConn\u2019s participation in Principles of Responsible Management Education, an international organization that matches countries\u2019 needs with university research efforts.<\/p>\n
While grateful for the Provost\u2019s Award, Dowding stressed that it hasn\u2019t been him alone working on this important initiative: \u201cThis recognition belongs to our community leaders and members who\u2019ve worked with me over the past 10 years on a portfolio of projects to further UConn\u2019s mission and goals, while enhancing and promoting our reputation as an international class university. I\u2019m merely the representative for all these people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UConn professor-in-residence and Neag alumnus Timothy Dowding (Ph.D. \u201901), who teaches at UConn\u2019s Stamford campus, received a Provost\u2019s Award for Excellence in Public Engagement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,2424,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-204792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-neag-community-engagement","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 23:36:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204793,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204792\/revisions\/204793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204792"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=204792"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=204792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}