Career: Week of June 13

David Martinelli
Mt. Lebanon native David Martinelli, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at West Virginia University, has been named one of West Virginia University’s 2018 Outstanding Teachers, the university’s most prestigious teaching award. Throughout his 27 years at WVU, Martinelli has promoted collective learning and individual engagement through an emphasis on critical thinking and the incorporation of guest speakers. In the classroom, he demonstrates the importance of contextual awareness through problem-solving in situations like traffic congestion, highway safety, energy dependence and infrastructure investment. He encourages his students make sure they understand the technical elements of any problem they wish to solve and then to fully embrace the reality that their solutions are not implemented in a vacuum.