Chemical engineering professor Mario Eden didn't plan on staying in Auburn.
Attending college in Lyngby, Denmark, Eden traveled to Auburn in 2001 as part of his doctoral studies at the Technical University of Denmark.
Eden spent nine months in Auburn studying with professor Mahmoud El-Halwagi before he returned to Denmark.
A few months after Eden's departure, El-Halwagi left his position at Auburn University for a position at Texas A&M University, and the chemical engineering department reached out to Eden to teach his courses for two semesters.
Eden had to convince his doctoral advisers to allow him to leave school again after only being home for six months.
"I went to teach those two semesters; I had no plans of becoming a professor at all," Eden said. "I was just trying to help out a department that had been very good to me. I got a huge part of my Ph.D. research done here, and I know I wouldn't have had as good of a dissertation if I hadn't been here."
Eden taught the two semesters at Auburn, and during this time he applied for a tenure-track faculty job with the University. After being offered the position, he returned to Denmark for six months to finish his dissertation and moved permanently to Auburn in 2004.
Eden called his road to becoming a professor "untraditional."
"Most of my colleagues applied to 15-20 schools and got 10 offers and then had to decide which one to pick," Eden said. "I only applied here. If I was going to be a professor, it was going to be here."
If Auburn had turned Eden down, he said he would have returned to Denmark and gotten a "real job" at a refinery in process engineering, or taken a consulting position like many of his classmates.
Spending close to 18 months in Auburn as a teacher, in addition to several trips he had taken to the U.S. as a graduate student, eased Eden's permanent transition to Auburn.
What does Eden miss when he goes home?
"I miss my AC, and I miss having ice makers everywhere," Eden said. "I miss free refills on sodas, the cheap cars and the cheap gas."
Even though Eden grew up in Denmark, he said his fellow professors claim he is more American than they are.
"There are a few food items I miss from Denmark, but there's nothing I really need when I'm here except for my family and friends," Eden said.
That doesn't stop his mother from wanting him to return to his hometown.
"My mom still wants me to come home and get a job at the local power plant or something, but I jokingly tell her it's half the salary and double the taxes; that's really not that interesting to me," Eden said.
Eden is teaching the Capstone Senior Design class this semester, is the chair of the chemical engineering graduate program and oversees many undergraduate and graduate students in his labs.
Department chair Christopher Roberts said Eden has made an impact at every level of the chemical engineering department.
"I am particularly impressed with his ability to seamlessly make highly meaningful and highly impactful contributions to every level of our department," Roberts said, adding that Eden is the benchmark of what a faculty member should strive to be.
During his time at Auburn, Eden has earned numerous awards and written many research papers and book chapters, but the awards that stand out most are the honors that are voted on by his students and colleagues.
"The Outstanding Faculty is a multi-tiered award; in order to get the SGA award, you must be awarded Most Outstanding Faulty at your department level," Eden said. "That one means a lot because the students vote on it. It means that my students appreciate what I've done in the classroom, and that's rewarding.
"I've gotten other teaching awards that were the result of peer evaluations, so the two together kind of validate the effort I put into the teaching aspect of my job," Eden said. "It's not enough that the students appreciate it, because you can grade inflate and make it a popularity contest. You also need your colleagues to feel that you're doing a good job."
Eden's latest accomplishment is a first for Auburn University. Eden is the principal investigator for a NSF-IGERT grant on bioenergy that Auburn received last year. He emphasizes this grant is the result of a team effort and that the $3 million, 5-year grant will elevate Auburn's graduate programs to a new level.
"Programs like that really put you on the map," Eden said. "Across the nation, there were 18 new IGERTs awarded this year. When you think about how many universities there are in the nation, that's pretty cool."
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