The Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center has named George M. Hornberger as a recipient of one of its five annual awards for 2022.
Hornberger, University Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences, Emeritus, is one of three individuals this year to receive a Mentoring Award.
The Mentoring Award honors a member of the Vanderbilt University community who fosters the professional and intellectual development of Vanderbilt women.
According to one of his nominators, Hornberger “deeply and genuinely cares about the success of junior faculty and his women colleagues.” Instead of intimidating junior faculty, this nominator continued, Hornberger “made me feel welcomed and extremely valued and important, which influenced my confidence in my work and my career.”
Another nominator said that he “guides and supports his students with an invisible hand, never eager to take credit but always ready to encourage and celebrate his students.” Another nominator noted that, during her time as a graduate student, most of the people in Hornberger’s research group were women, and that “this was, by no means, an accident.” Indeed, Hornberger’s commitment to advancing the careers of junior faculty and, especially, graduate students is a through-line of his career.
Hornberger retired June 30, 2021, after decades of dedicated service and as director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and the Environment. Hornberger was already an established leader in the fields of water resources and sustainability when he joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 2012.
At Hornberger’s retirement, Vice Provost for Research Padma Raghavan said, “George has a national reputation as a member of both the National Academy of Engineering and the NSF Advisory Committee for Geosciences Directorate, but he is known best at Vanderbilt as a deeply respected and much-loved colleague and mentor to faculty and students alike.”
See the 2022 Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center awards story here.
Contact: Brenda Ellis, 615 343-6314
brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu