What does community engagement look like? For NIU Professor Melissa Lenczewski, a hydrogeologist in the Department of Earth, Atmosphere and the Environment, community engagement extends beyond classroom walls and even country borders. She engages both students and external partners in projects abroad—from Mexico to Myanmar—as well as in Illinois.
The focus of Lenczewski’s expertise is something that we often take for granted but couldn’t live without. “Access to clean drinking water is essential to human life,” Lenczewski says. “My research, teaching and engagement focuses on water quality and contaminant hydrogeology.”
For more than a decade, she has collaborated with Mexico’s Yucatan Scientific Research Center, providing students from both institutions with water-quality research opportunities in the karst terrain of the Yucatan, a region that includes Cancun and the Riviera Maya.
Professor Melissa Lenczewsk and students install wells at the NICCS site.
In 2016, those efforts expanded under an annual summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, funded by the National Science Foundation. More than 25 students from colleges and universities across the country have participated in the REUs, which focus on increasing Latinx participation in STEM fields.
Lenczewski also conducts community engaged research in Southeast Asia, where she is helping to support the development of local water professionals.
Myanmar, one of the world’s most isolated countries, had few if any hydrogeologists when Lenczewski began working there. She developed workshops introducing hydrogeology to the faculty of Yadanabon University and the University of Mandalay and collaborated with the University of Yangon to create new degrees in water studies.
In 2023 Lenczewski also conducted water quality research in Cambodia and Thailand as a Fulbright Scholar.
Closer to home, she and her students are investigating water quality throughout the South Branch of the Kishwaukee River and conducting water quality research at a new prairie restoration site on campus. These types of real-world research experiences spark student interest and help them see a path forward towards careers that make a positive difference in the world.
Learn more about Professor Lenczewski’s community engaged research in these NIU Today articles.
- Melissa Lenczewski named Presidential Engagement and Partnerships Professorship (April 2021)
- Melissa Lenczewski, Ricela Feliciano named Fulbright Scholars (August 2022)
- Digging deep – NIU geology professor is uncovering the secrets of water quality in prairie restorations (March 2021)
