The 2025 Outstanding Teaching Awards: Diana Byrne

Each Friday this summer, UKNow is highlighting one of the winners of the University of Kentucky’s 2025 Outstanding Teaching Awards, given by the Office for Faculty Advancement with the Office of the Provost.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 20, 2025) — Diana M. Byrne, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in the University of Kentucky Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering, is one of nine winners to receive the University of Kentucky’s 2025 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

These awards identify and recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT).

“I feel grateful to be at UK where there are so many incredible educators. In engineering, I see my colleagues having endless office hours — putting aside their time to support a student and showing up every day full of energy and creativity in the classroom,” Byrne said. “Through CELT, I’ve also witnessed many teachers dedicated to using evidence-based practices to improve the student learning experience. Being in the presence of these inspiring educators reminds me that we serve a deeper mission at UK. I’m humbled to be recognized and will do my best to continue serving this mission throughout my career.”

Byrne’s research focuses on sustainable design for water infrastructure — using tools such as life cycle assessment and risk assessment to inform decision-making regarding these complex systems.

Since joining UK in 2020, Byrne has played a key role in advancing the civil engineering curriculum, particularly in sustainability-focused education. She created two new courses — Sustainable Engineering and Quantitative Sustainable Design — that have become central to the department’s efforts to prepare students to design infrastructure with long-term societal impact in mind.

Additionally, Byrne recently led a team supported by the American Society for Engineering Education’s “Engineering for One Planet” mini-grant program. Their work integrated sustainability-focused learning outcomes into UK courses and will be presented at this year’s ASEE national conference.

Outside the classroom, Byrne contributes to interdisciplinary graduate education through UK’s NSF-funded National Research Traineeship program, where she incorporates sustainable design into training across the food, energy and water sectors. She also co-developed modules for a massive open online course (MOOC) on sustainable wastewater infrastructure.

“Dr. Byrne’s passion for her students, commitment to sustainability and willingness to lead make her a true asset to our department and the university,” said L. Sebastian Bryson, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Civil Engineering. “She is a thoughtful, effective and forward-thinking educator who exemplifies what it means to be an outstanding teacher.”

According to Bryson’s nomination letter, Byrne’s students consistently praise her as an exceptional educator who is deeply committed to their learning and professional development. Their feedback reflects her ability to create an engaging classroom — where complex material is made accessible and relevant. Students value her enthusiasm, her thoughtful course design and her willingness to adapt based on their needs. Bryson notes that many students describe her as one of the best instructors they have had at UK, with course evaluations and qualitative feedback reinforcing her impact as both a teacher and mentor.

Ultimately, Byrne believes civil engineering programs have a unique opportunity to equip the next generation of engineers with a strong focus on the people and communities they serve.

“If you’re like me, you have at least one teacher that had a real impact on your life. For me, it’s my high school math teachers who challenged me to new levels, while also helping me build the confidence to ultimately become an engineer,” Byrne said. “The fact that a teacher can make that kind of an impact on a student and their trajectory is humbling and something I don’t take lightly. Ultimately, my experiences as a student motivate me to strive for my classes to be a positive and meaningful learning experience on a student’s journey.”

Byrne earned her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Saint Louis University and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Even as a graduate student, her teaching excellence stood out — in 2016, she was included in Illinois’ “List of Teachers Ranked as Outstanding by Their Students.”

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This year’s Outstanding Teaching Awards were given to six faculty and three graduate teaching assistants. Each winner received an award certificate, a commemorative engraved gift and a cash award in recognition of their teaching excellence at a campus ceremony on May 1. Read more here.