Dr. Supernak's Giving Brings Him Joy

Dr. Janusz Supernak, Professor and Chair of the Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Department

For faculty leader Dr. Janusz Supernak, the decision to support SDSU was easy. As a longtime faculty member and Chair of the Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Department, he has worked with many loyal alumni and industry supporters to create endowments for environmental efforts, construction engineering, and more. 

“Years ago, as a new Chair, I had the privilege to invite some industry leaders to our Advisory Board within the Department and work closely with people like Steve Doyle, Bill Leonhard and the Filanc family,” Supernak said. “Through time we developed great relationships. They could see the good things happening in the College and they stepped forward and made generous gifts that in many ways have transformed it. I could see the good that those gifts created and I could see the joy it brought the donors.” 

One of Dr. Supernak’s gifts named the ping pong tables in the Engineering and Interdisciplinary Sciences Complex (EIS). Dr. Supernak is an expert ping pong player and has played at the national level and in the U.S. Open for Table Tennis. He said it was great to be able to name something that he has so much passion about, and to see students using the tables. 

Several years ago, Civil Engineering students came up with the idea of the Supernak Excellence Award to recognize outstanding students. "As a faculty adviser to the Student Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers for more than 20 years, I was humbled by having my name attached to this award,” he said. “While this recognition had been awarded for several years, I thought it would be nice if the award came with a monetary stipend. Now, each year I make a cash gift that is in turn awarded to a student recipient. I have also established an estate gift to make sure it awards in perpetuity.”
 
Dr. Supernak encourages all faculty, emeriti faculty, staff, and prior staff to consider a gift to SDSU.  “If I can contribute in a modest way to help the College and to recognize the success of our students, it has a lot of purpose for me,” said Dr. Supernak. 

For more information on making a gift to the College of Engineering, contact Kate Carinder, Senior Director of Development at: [email protected].