Joana Marie Sipe

An academic homecoming move has been high on Joana Marie Sipe’s list of goals in recent years as she earned honors from two prestigious U.S. universities.

In 2022, Sipe received a doctoral degree in environmental health engineering from Duke University. In 2023, she was named one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s rising stars in her field.

She won a Research Paper of the Year award in Duke’s civil and environmental engineering department and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship award.

As a graduate student, Sipe worked as a teaching assistant and instructor at Duke, where she had a leadership role with the International Network For Researching, Advancing, and Assessing Materials for Environmental Sustainability. She was also a national and Duke representative for the Society of Hispanic Engineers.

To add to her impressive list of accomplishments in higher education,  Sipe had her sights set on returning to her previous home.

“I want to teach students at the public university that prepared me for my future and give back to the community I was raised in,” she says.

That aspiration has brought Sipe back to Arizona State University, now as an assistant professor in the School of Integrated Engineering, the newest of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

She anticipates opportunities at ASU to collaborate with colleagues on work that enables valuable research contributions, particularly in fields that will be the focus of the new school.

Sipes’ expertise is in microplastics and the breakdown of polymer materials in the environment and their effects on human health.

Among the courses she plans to teach, one is on the lifecycle of products and their impacts on health and the environment.

“This is a climate change problem that affects everyone and will take multiple stakeholders to address, not only engineers, scientists and government policymakers but most importantly consumers,” Sipe says. “I’m looking forward to involving local communities in the research I conduct.”

Her pursuits extend to various activities and interests outside of the classroom and research lab.

“I am a violinist and, in the past, have played with the Durham Medical Orchestra. I am also a pianist,” Sipe says. “I also enjoy the arts and reading thriller and mystery novels.”

Meet the newest faculty members of the Fulton Schools of Engineering here.

Written by Joe Kullman