Engineering Faculty Spotlight: Brent Cunningham

Brent Cunningham, an engineering professor, never expected to find himself in academia. “Teaching kind of found me,” he said.

Cunningham knew early on that he wanted to be a chemical engineer. He pursued his passion, earning his undergraduate in chemical engineering from Purdue University and his doctorate in macromolecular science and engineering from Virginia Tech.

After four years working in industry as a polymer process engineer at Invista and a research and development engineer at Daikin America, Cunningham’s career took a new direction. He was offered an opportunity to teach a chemistry lab at Bridgewater College. 

“I finally found something that I really enjoyed doing,” said Cunningham, reflecting on how the experience awakened a new passion. “When you’re helping somebody learn, that’s where you get that true teaching enjoyment, that love of teaching.”

In 2015, after four years of teaching chemistry at JMU, Cunningham accepted a position as a visiting instructor in Engineering. What began as a one-year position lasted three years, followed by six years as an adjunct instructor. During this time, Cunningham also taught at Eastern Mennonite University and Bridgewater College.

In August of 2024, he was excited to accept a full-time teaching position, focusing on fluid mechanics and thermodynamics — subjects that draw on his chemical engineering background. “Fluid mechanics ties back to the fundamentals of chemical engineering,” Cunningham said. “Thermodynamics allows me to incorporate fundamental chemistry principles into engineering applications.”

Cunningham also teaches a first-year course where students design and build a mobile robot capable of sensing, collecting, and responding to environmental data. He leads a second-year design course focused on adapting a robotic arm to meet customer requirements and advises a student capstone project on electric bikes.

Outside the classroom, Cunningham coaches his son’s soccer team and pursues his passion for music. “I started playing the piano at 12, then learned the guitar in college,” he said. “I can also play a few tunes on the trumpet and harmonica.”

An avid traveler, Cunningham has visited five continents — North America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia — always seeking opportunities to experience wildlife in their natural habitats. “I’ve seen the Komodo dragon in its only Indonesian habitat, swam with whale sharks in Indonesia, ridden a camel in the Dubai desert, and bathed elephants in Thailand.”

He also volunteers at the Hope Distributed Food Bank, supporting families in need.

His journey serves as a powerful reminder that sometimes, the most rewarding careers are often the ones we don’t initially plan for.