New Faculty in Civil & Environmental Engineering
The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering is excited to welcome three new faculty members: Dr. John W. van de Lindt, Dr. Peter Nelson and Dr. Christopher Bareither. Each brings with them a diverse set of expertise to our already strong team of professors and researchers. We expect great things from each of them and look forward to their many contributions in the years to come.
Dr. John W. van de Lindt has returned to the Department as the George T. Abell Professor in Infrastructure after serving two years as the Garry Neil Drummond Endowed Chair at the University of Alabama. Professor van de Lindt's research program aims to reduce the effect of natural hazards such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis on infrastructure around the world by developing new design philosophies in concert with new technologies.
He has led approximately $9M in sponsored research resulting in more than 240 technical publications including journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, magazine articles, and technical reports.
Dr. Peter Nelson joined the faculty in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department as an assistant professor in the fall of 2012. Originally from Spokane, Washington, Peter received his B.S.E. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Princeton University in 2003. After spending a year at Princeton as a research assistant, in 2004 he began graduate studies in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University of California at Berkeley. Upon receiving his Ph.D. in 2010, Dr. Nelson moved to Genoa, Italy, for an 18-month postdoctoral research fellowship sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Nelson uses computational modeling, analytical theory, physical experiments, and field observations to address fundamental questions about geomorphology, sediment transport, hydrology, hydraulics, and morphodynamics. His research has addressed sediment sorting in gravel bed rivers, the morphodynamics of bedrock rivers, the formation of bars in tidal channels, river restoration through gravel augmentation, and the hydrology of urbanizing watersheds. Upon arrival at CSU, he has begun research aimed at better understanding the effects of wildfire on watershed-scale hydrologic response and erosion rates. He also expects to take advantage of the hydraulic research facilities at the Engineering Research Center to make further advances in understanding the mechanics of sediment transport and river evolution.
Dr. Christopher Bareither joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as an Assistant Professor in August 2012. Christopher's education is all within the field of Geological engineering; he received his BS from the University of Idaho (2004) and MS (2006) and PhD (2010) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Christopher's research is in the areas of geological, geotechnical, and geoenvironmental engineering. Christopher has become active as the department's representative on the Tailings and Mine Waste Conference organizing committee.
