Jose Chavez is Appointed Editor-in-Chief

Dr. Jose Chavez has been appointed Editor in Chief for Springer's "Irrigation Science" journal effective May 15, 2018. Dr. Chavez previously served as Associated Editor for this journal. Chavez has about eighteen years of experience in irrigated agriculture research and nine and a half years of experience in teaching and extension activities. His expertise is in irrigation water management, crop water consumptive use modeling, remote sensing, and irrigation and drainage systems design.

 

Joseph Scalia has been nominated as an ASTM International Emerging Professional

Dr. Joseph Scalia has been nominated as an ASTM International Emerging Professional (EP) and has been approved to attend the ASTM International technical committee meetings taking place in San Diego, California on June 25-26 2018!  He was singled out by ASTM as having demonstrated the potential to be an industry leader in his field. As an ASTM EP, he will receive funding for a roundtrip economy class airfare to the meetings and a two night stay at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, San Diego, California.

 

UKZN Appoints Karan Venayagamoorthy as an Honorary Professor

Karan Venayagamoorthy has been appointed as an Honorary Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa. Karan received his BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from UKZN. The honorary professor is given to a distinguished teacher and/or researcher who is not a member of the faculty of UKZN.

The purpose of the honorary appointment is to enable the University of KwaZulu-Natal to engage the services of distinguished teachers and researchers, on an honorary basis, and to accord them titles befitting their academic status. The conferment of an appropriate honorary title will bring honor both to the teachers and/or researchers and to the University (UKZN).

 

Neil Grigg Joins Public Health Research Task Force

Neil Grigg has become a member of a new task force to assess CSU's current research assets in the public health arena. The Public Health Task Force will be charged by the VPR to conduct this assessment and to provide relevant data, observations, and recommendations for a fruitful path forward. These findings will be shared with the OVPR Executive Committee, the Dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, and key senior leadership of the University. It is the plan to use this information in coordination with the strategic planning efforts of the other system partners of the Colorado School of Public Health in Denver and Greeley.

 

Hussam Mahmoud Nominated to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences Conference Organizing Committee

Hussam Mahmoud has been nominated by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to the Organizing Committee for the 2018 Symposium Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering and Medicine symposium in Kuwait. He will be co-chairing a session titled: Next Generation Buildings & Infrastructure. The organizing committee members are selected based not only on their excellent credentials but also on their leadership skills and ability to work as a team across disciplines to identify the best speakers (and communicators) in the field.

 

Dr. Ryan Bailey and Graduate Student Saman Tavakoli Kivi receive IAHS Tison Award

The International Association of Hydrological Sciences awarded Dr. Bailey and Saman Tavakoli Kivi the 2018 IAHS Tison award for young hydrologists for their paper "Method for estimating available groundwater volume of small coral islands," Hydrological Sciences Journal, 62:14, 2381-2392, DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2017.1382703”

This award, established in 1982, aims to promote excellence in research by young hydrologists, and is granted for an outstanding paper published by IAHS in a period of two years previous to the deadline for nominations. The award consists of a citation in the name of L.J. Tison, a total monetary award of $1,000 and a free subscription to HSJ for one year. This award was presented in Genova this May. Pictured are (left to right) Christophe Cudennec (Secretary General IAHS), Ryan T. Bailey, and Gunter Bloschi (President IAHS). Photo courtesy of WMO.

Ashwin Dhanasekar Joins the Water Research Foundation

Ashwin Dhanasekar, Research Scientist in the Environmental Engineering program with Dr. Ken Carlson, has joined the Water Research Foundation in Denver, Colorado as a Research Project Manager. The Water Research Foundation is a not-for-profit research cooperative whose mission is to advance the science of water to protect public health and the environment. The Foundation is governed by utilities who provides sound research solutions and knowledge in all areas of water, wastewater, stormwater, and reuse.

 

Joseph Scalia Invited to Deliver Young Lecture

Dr. Joseph Scalia has been invited to deliver an invited Young Lecture on the topic of his choice for the 8th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (8ICEG). The conference will be held on October 28-November 1, 2018 in Hangzhou, China. The nomination of Young Lecturers was finalized by the Organizing Committee of 8ICEG after consulting with the chair of the Technical Committee. Dr. Scalia has also been selected as a recipient of a fellowship for the 2nd United States Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER) Workshop for Early Career Geotechnical Faculty. The workshop is targeted to help promising young geotechnical scholars launch their academic career, and will be held. May 20-22, 2018 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Bruce Ellingwood Receives 2018 Geerhard Haaijer Award

Dr. Bruce Ellingwood was notified that he has been selected to receive the 2018 Geerhard Haaijer Award for Excellence in Education from the American Institute of Steel Construction. This award is given "in special recognition to individuals who have had a profound and lasting impact in developing a unique application for engineering practice or in the mentoring of future leaders." The award will be presented at the North American Steel Construction Congress in Baltimore on April 11, 2018.

Suren Chen Elected to ASCE Fellow

Dr. Suren Chen has been elected to ASCE Fellow effective January 31, 2018. This status must be attained by professional accomplishments via application and election by the Membership Application Review Committee (MARC). Minimum requirements for fellowship inlcude 10 years of responsible charge in the grade of ASCE member and a P.E. or P.L.S. License.

 

Faculty Published Papers Recognized

Several recently published papers co-authored by Department faculty have been selected for special recognition by the journals in which the papers were published. Dr. Ryan Bailey (left) co-authored a paper entitled, "Method for Estimating Available Groundwater Volume of Small Coral Islands" that has been recognized as a Feature Article by the Hydrological Sciences Journal (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02626667.2017.1382703). Also, two papers co-authored by Dr. Charles Shackelford (right) have been selected as Editors' Choice papers, viz., "Membrane Behavior of Compacted Sand-Bentonite Mixture" published in the Canadian Geotechnical Journal (http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/story/10.4141/news.2017.10.12.495#.Wl9ueFFG2Ci) and "Membrane Behavior of Unsaturated Sodium Bentonite" published in the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. Finally, a third paper co-authored by Dr. Shackelford entitled, "Apparatus for Measuring Coupled Membrane and Diffusion Behavior of Unsaturated Sodium Bentonite,"  published in the Vadose Zone Journal has been selected for special recognition in Crop, Soils, Agronomy News Magazine (see: https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/csa/abstracts/63/2/14/preview).

Three Faculty Join Editorial Boards

Three Department faculty are joining the editorial boards of three prestigious journals. Dr. Ryan Bailey (left) is joining the editorial board of the Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, published by Elsevier, Amsterdam. Dr. Chris Bareither (middle) is joining the editorial board of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia. Dr. Joe Scalia (right) is joining the editorial board of the Canadian Geotechnical Journal, published by the National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa. Congratulations Ryan, Chris, and Joe!

Karan Venayagamoorthy receives the Meroney Family Chi Epsilon Faculty Teaching Award

On December 11, Karan was awarded this award which was established by our Emeritus Professor Bob Meroney and his wife Joan. This Fund was made possible with a cash gift from Envirodyne Systems, Inc. on behalf of Dr. Robert and Joan Meroney in May 2016. Other gifts or bequests may also be allocated to this Fund.

The purpose of the Fund is to reward current mid-career faculty (between 5 to 20 years’ service period) whose accomplishments and contributions to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department through outstanding advising, teaching and innovation. Preference is given to those faculty members who exhibit the greatest potential for continuing and long-term impact and who will make significant contributions to the continued success of the programs and reputations therein.

The candidates are nominated and selected by a committee comprised of the Chi Epsilon honor society student executives and their advisor in consultation with the Department Head and Dean of the college.

Neil Grigg appointed Adjunct Professor for the Colorado School of Public Health

Congratulations to Neil Grigg for his appointment to the rank of Adjunct Professor for the Colorado School of Public Health, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health as approved by the Provost of the University of Colorado, Denver. The appointment was effective December 1, 2017.

Beyond wind speed: A new measure for predicting hurricane impacts

Hussam Mahmoud and graduate student Stephanie Pilkington develop new approach to assessing the resiliency of coastal communities to hurricanes.

Mahmoud and Pilkington's impact model uses artificial neural networks and machine learning to "teach" a computer program how to predict a pending storm's damage, by dollar figure.

Read the full story.

Yufen Zhou Invited to MIT's CEE Rising Star Workshop

Yufen Zhou (Ph.D., civil, 2016) was one of the top 20 early career women interested in academia in Civil and Environmental Engineering who was invited by MIT to participate in the CEE Rising Stars Workshop held on the MIT campus October 12 -13, 2017.  This is the second year of this event.  The goal of the workshop is to bring together the next generation of CEE academic leaders for two days of scientific interactions and career-oriented discussions. It featured research presentations by the participants, faculty talks, panels on issues relevant to academic careers, and opportunities for informal networking with faculty members at MIT.  Yufen’s presentation was entitled “Advancing performance-based multi-hazard engineering:  risk-informed approaches considering combined serviceability and ultimate strength of critical infrastructure.”

 

Navid Attary receives ASCE 2017 Best Journal Paper

In spring 2017 the Board of the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering (JSE) decided to initiate a new set of awards to recognize best journal papers in three categories: Analysis & computation,  recognizes papers in the SHM/structural system identification, optimization, computing and reliability areas; Structural Hazards: recognizes papers in the seismic, wind, dynamic effects, and shock and vibration areas; and Materials and Structural Response: Recognizes papers in the metal, concrete, masonry, wood and composites areas. Selection of the award-winning papers was conducted by a committee of Associate Editors.  The 2017 Best Journal Paper in Structural Hazards was awarded to Navid Attary,(Research Scientist) John W. van de Lindt, Vipin U. Unnikrishnan, Andre R. Barbosa and Daniel T. Cox for the paper entitled “Methodology for Development of Physics-Based Tsunami Fragilities.”

 

Dr. Bruce Ellingwood was awarded the prestigious ASCE 2017 Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure "for significant advancement of and outstanding contributions in the field of probabilistic risk analysis and management of civil infrastructure, notably in performance-based design structural safety, reliability, and resilience in relation to abnormal loads and progressive collapse. An interesting note, Alfredo Ang was Dr. Ellingwood's Ph.D. advisor.

Congratulations Bruce!