Architectural Engineering & Building Construction

Dr. Carol Diggelman was running a few minutes late after a lunch meeting with an alumnus who was looking for suggestions on how to make his place of employment more sustainable. "He was picking my brain and it was great fun," she said with a chuckle. "There's something very satisfying with that sort of interaction."

Student and alumni success are bragging points for Diggelman, who has taught at MSOE for 30 years.

"Dustin Stephany, for example, earned a travel grant," she said (see story on page 4) "He chose to study deconstruction of buildings," -the systematic removal of useable materials from demolished buildings - "so he's going to travel around Europe and bring that knowledge back to the industry here."

Her enthusiasm for student success and the joy she reaps from teaching have not gone unnoticed; she has won three awards while at MSOE, nominated by students and colleagues: the Falk Engineering Educator Award; the Oscar Werwath Distinguished Teacher Award, the Karl O. Werwath Engineering Research Award, the Making a Difference for Women award and a special Lifetime Achievement award from Womens' Connections.

"The fundamental pleasures of teaching are interacting withstudents and always learning as you interact with those students," she added.

Students and colleagues are not the only ones taking notice of her work and research. She was recently quoted in the Wall Street Journal for her work on food waste disposers (FWDs). "By diverting food out of the solid waste stream, you make solid waste dryer and more storable. Ultimately you shouldn't have to collect it as often and that's the biggest cost of solid waste management," she explained. Food waste diverted to wastewater through FWDs decomposes to produce methane in wastewater treatment plant anaerobic digesters, which can be burned to produce electricity offsetting that needed from fossil fuels.

Disposers were her Ph.D. dissertation project and something she continues to research. Diggelman sits on the Food Waste Committee for WasteCap Wisconsin where they are working on a food waste project with three grocery stores in the area.

Her research and the research done by other faculty and master's students are dear to her. "When teachers do research, students gain so much. What we learn goes instantly into our courses."

Teaching students to do research and to communicate clearly are important elements of each class. "In business or in the construction industry, nobody has time to read 20 pages. But they do have time to read a three- or four-page, well drafted, concise report," she said. Alumni have expressed the importance of communicating clearly about sustainable architecture to educate clients.

"In everything I do, my job is to give our students an environmental filter. There's nothing that we do that doesn't have an environmental impact," she said.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading non-fiction, a recent favorite is Team of Rivals about Abraham Lincoln's presidency. She also loves to cook, especially soups (even hotdog soup with the grandchildren). She has been married to husband, Bob, for 44 years and they have lived on Milwaukee's Eastside for 40 years. Their home celebrates a century this year. They have two children, Clare and John, and three grandchildren.