Andre Furtado

Andre Furtado

Born in India, acquired a bachelor's in chemistry from St. Xavier's College Mumbai, continued with an undergraduate degree in chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and ended up with a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from the same institution relatin to the Thermal Properties of Methane, Ethane, Propane mixtures which has been very valuable in calcualating the refigertion needs of liquified natural gas for transportation. Left the field to pursue broader academic interests and a strong desire to serve the underprivileged. Joined the Interdisciplinary Studies Program (ISP) at Wayne State serving predominantly adult minority students and veterans.

First assignment was to severe as faculty coordinator at Jackson Prison for the first in-house degree program in a prison in Michigan. This was a transcendental experience that reshaped my view of who our society deem as "criminals." After a successful three year stint I moved to main campus to teach mainly biology, bioethics, energy, aging and death and dying, computers and society and lower level mathematics with some of these courses conducted in several weekend conference formats. Served for a time as interim associate dean in the College of Lifelong Learning before it was disbanded. I had extensive experience in bringing minority students to success and in student retention, especially in developmental and freshman math classes. I was invited by the Chicano-Borica Studies (CBS) Center to help their students in math and for a time served as interim director of the CBS program during a period of  turmoil. The IS program was ultimately moved to liberal arts and science as a department and was then unfortunately terminated for political reasons.

I was put into the math department in view of my experience in bringing adult and and minority students to success in math. I also have many retention studies that have been distributed internally within the university and it appears that the upper administration has put into place many of the same changes that I recommended. 

I have retired since 2019 and still retain my commitment to social and environmental justice worldwide.

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

• Minority and non-traditional student retention in lower level math classes

• Creating diverse pedagogical approaches to help our ethnically diverse students to succeed. (Use of math rap helps certain student constituencies)

Education

Awards and grants

• Presidential Award for Teaching 1998
• College of Lifelong Learning Award for Teaching 2006
• Lifelong Contribution Award from Chicano-Boricua Studies
• Wrote grant to WSU Technology fund for Instructional Technology Enhancements for Off-Campus sites at Wayne State University funded at the level of $55,000, May 2000
• Wrote funded grant to Mich. Dept. of Education for Technology-Enhanced Curriculum Development, Delivery and Student Services to Non-Traditional Students in DCE and ISP ($127,491) July 1999

Selected publications

• Furtado, Andre, Linda Lora Hulbert, Julie Thompson Klein, Lisa Maruca, Caroline Maun, Daphne W. Ntiri, Roslyn Abt Schindler, To Educate the People: The Rise and Fall of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Wayne State University. in The Politics of Interdisciplinary Studies, McFarland Publishers, Jefferson, NC. (Fall 2009)
• Furtado, A.W. and D. Johnson. “ Education and Rehabilitation in a Prison Setting.” Journal of Offender Counseling, Services and Rehabilitation, Vol. 4 (3), Spring 1980
• Powers, J., A. Furtado, R. Kent and A. Kwan. “Smoothed Experimental Enthalpy Data for Four Mixtures: Three Methane-Ethane Binary Mixtures and a Ternary mixture of with Propane, " J. Chem. Eng. Data, Vol. 24, No 1, January 1979