Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Innovation in Sustainability Award

About the Award

The Engineering for One Planet (EOP) Innovation in Sustainability Award recognizes the vision and commitment of individuals, programs or institutional teams that demonstrate innovation in education by implementing sustainability topics into ABET-accredited programs.

EOP seeks to ensure future graduates from all ABET-accredited programs learn the fundamental skills and principles of social and environmental sustainability.

2025 Winner

Matthew K. Heun

For significant contributions to incorporate sustainability in engineering education through innovations in curriculum development, pedagogy, undergraduate teaching, and applied student research, as well as impacting global energy policy.

Matthew Kuperus Heun serves as professor of engineering at Calvin University, teaching in the (a) Energy, Environment, and Sustainability and (b) Mechanical specializations. He earned the B.S. Engineering degree from Calvin University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After working on lighter than air vehicles, space exploration systems, and cryocoolers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Global Aerospace Corporation, he joined the faculty at Calvin University in 2002. He has a passion for teaching, an enthusiasm for research, and a desire to clearly communicate to technical and general audiences alike. His areas of expertise include refrigeration and air-conditioning, aerospace systems, green revolving funds, the rebound effect, physical input-output analysis techniques, and societal exergy analysis. His driving research question is “what is the relationship among energy, materials and the economy when viewed through the lens of sustainability?”

Award Benefits

• Recognition at the ABET Awards Celebration in the fall.
• $10,000 cash prize
• Recipient and their work will be featured on the award page, recognized in a press release, ABET news announcement and ABET social media pages.

Past Winners

2024: Jennifer Watt