Professor Brian Roe nominated Qi for her exceptional performance and dedication as the lead instructor for AEDE 4330, The Sustainable Economy: Concepts and Methods.
“Danyi was very dedicated to helping her students appreciate the sustainability concepts explored in her course and master the methods for measuring and assessing sustainability,” shares Roe. “Her goal was to prepare her students to champion sustainability no matter where their future endeavors would take them.”
Qi credits her teaching success to finding a good balance between class lectures, debates and hands-on learning activities. “The students’ passion showed me that strong argument, clear logic and convincing evidences/examples can spread ideas, impact students’ thoughts and challenge them to make a difference,” shares Qi.
A difference Qi herself wants to make by working to combat worldwide suffering due to food insecurity and malnutrition. She worked with Professor Roe on a study on food waste, which is the second peer-reviewed large-scale consumer survey about food waste and is the first in the U.S. to identify patterns regarding how Americans form attitudes on food waste.
The study results provide the data required to develop targeted efforts to reduce the amount of food that U.S. consumers toss into the garbage each year. Roe, Qi and other members of the research group are developing a smart phone app to better measure household food waste.
“One-third of edible food is wasted annually in the world,” says Qi. “In order to feed 9 billion people in the mid-century, reducing food waste could be a potential sustainable avenue to increasing food availability worldwide.”
Fellow graduate student Aurea Rivera furthers that the award speaks highly of Qi’s ability to communicate, engage, and motivate the next generation of student leaders in our field. “Clearly she has a gift.”