CEE magazine Summer 2012

CEE

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Summer 2012

Energized

The nexus of water, energy and the environment Alumni news and features

CEE

Excellence.

Flexibility.

Illinois.

CEE at Illinois Online • • • • • • • •

Earn your master’s degree entirely online.

Work with our top-ranked faculty.

Take the same classes as resident students.

Interact with other students through projects and assignments.

Earn the same M.S. degree with the same degree requirements as on-campus students.

Access lectures and course materials online.

Work toward professional development hours and certificates.

Enjoy the flexibility and convenience of an online program.

Professional Development Hours, Certificates You can register as a non-degree student for a single course or pursue a 3-course certificate as a non-degree student. Afterwards, you can apply for the M.S. program and transfer up to 12 hours (3 courses) to be used toward your 36-hour M.S. degree program requirement.

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CEE CEE is is published published twice twice aa year year for for alumni alumni and friends of the Department and friends of the Department of of Civil Civil and and Environmental Engineering at the Environmental Engineering at the University University of of Illinois Illinois at at Urbana-Champaign.

Urbana-Champaign. Those Those alumni who alumni who donate donate annually annually to to CEE CEE at at Illinois Illinois receive receive every every issue. issue.

Amr Amr S. S. Elnashai Elnashai Professor Professor and and Head Head John John E. E. Kelley Kelley Director Director of of Advancement Advancement and and Alumni Relations Alumni Relations Celeste Celeste Bragorgos Bragorgos Director Director of of Communications Communications Breanne Breanne Ertmer Ertmer External External Relations Relations Coordinator Coordinator Letters, comments and editorial submissions: Letters, comments and editorial submissions: CEE Magazine CEE Magazine Department of Civil and Environmental Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1117 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory 1210 Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory MC-250 MC-250 205 North Mathews Avenue 205 North Mathews Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801 Urbana, Illinois 61801 (217) 333-6955 (217) 333-6955 celeste@illinois.edu celeste@illinois.edu Advertising inquiries: Advertising inquiries: Celeste Bragorgos Celeste Bragorgos (217) 333-6955 (217) 333-6955 celeste@illinois.edu celeste@illinois.edu

cee.illinois.edu Front cover: Photo of the new M.T. Geoffrey Yeh Cover Photo: Student Center, completed in June. Photo: Erich istockphoto.com/ HansJoachim Adickes Follow CEE at Illinois: facebook.com/ceeatillinois twitter.com/ceeatillinois youtube.com/ceeatillinois

CEE Summer 2012

4 The building blocks of modern academic institutions/Amr S. Elnashai 7 Our mom is going to the spa/Lawrence P. Jaworski (BS 72, MS 73) 8 Energized: Special section on water, energy and the environment 9 New program: Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability 10 Kumar heading Indian water sustainability initiative 11 MariĂąas to lead Safe Global Water Institute 12 Converting biomass into hydrocarbon fuel 13 Optimizing the location of biofuel production plants 15 Minimizing postharvest food loss 16 Innovating better wastewater treatment systems 17 Working toward water sustainability in the Middle East

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18 Alumna visits Brazil for the U.S. state department 20 DOT establishes first-ever rail center in CEE 21 CEE alumnus conducts campus clock tours 22 Bridge team heads to nationals bigger, stronger 21

23 Canoe team floats light, aesthetic canoe 24 Global Leaders visit Australia 25 Class works toward greener Champaign-Urbana 26 Department news 31 Old masters: Chester P. Siess 32 Student awards 34 Alumni news 38 In memoriam 40 Chicago alumni dinner 41 Alumni awards 42 To thy happy children of the future

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11 Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 3

The building blocks of modern academic institutions Amr S. Elnashai, Professor and Head William J. and Elaine F. Hall Endowed Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering by

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hat distinguishes academic institutions in the short, medium and long terms? Why do some universities rise and overtake others? Why do some have sustained and others sporadic excellence? Is hiring excellent professors the be-all and end-all? Is it infrastructure, appeal to students, financial aid packages, advertising, location?

Whereas industries of various types have relatively straightforward, accessible and understandable business models, hence their rise and fall are amenable to modeling and to some extent prediction, academic institutions, especially public universities, have fiendishly complex operational models, or no model at all. In my article of summer 2010 in this magazine, I wrote, “The university is part corporation, working in a very competitive environment; part government agency, heavily regulated and controlled; part benevolent organization, offering moral and practical support to under-privileged individuals; part social welfare organization, working within communities to support prosperity and protect the environment; and part sports organization, running leagues and planning complex sporting events.” The consequential complexity, or the non-existence, of a university operational model, renders responding to the set of questions above quite challenging and uncertain. Finding or creating an operational model for academic units that reside in publicly-owned and run universities is an elusive yet exceptionally worthwhile endeavor. How many publications deal with university operational models? Compared to publications on business models for industries, very few. It therefore behooves us in academe to read, under-

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stand and project onto our organizations the business literature; to create a lingua franca for communication with the business world and among ourselves.

In their 1994 international best-seller “Built to Last,” Jim Collins and Jerry Porras studied many great companies and drew lessons pertinent to their excellence.

Hearing constructive criticism of their book — that it has focused exclusively on born-to-greatness companies — they embarked on a second research project to analyze companies that made the leap from “Good to Great,” which is the title of Collins’ 2001 book. The book’s prologue includes the statement “we don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools.” This sobering thought has driven the current leadership team of CEE at Illinois to go to great lengths to adhere to uncompromising excellence in every aspect of operation during the economically tough years that we have witnessed.

The book concludes with seven common features observed in great companies.

Comprehensively recasting these seven features in an academic context would take more than the space this article is meant to occupy in the CEE magazine. I will paraphrase and rearrange the seven issues, adjusting them slightly to suit our needs, leading to the following: 1. Establish leadership driven to do what is best for the academy 2. Bring in exceptional people regardless of their specific sub-disciplines 3. Confront the brutal truths without despairing 4. Focus on three elements: in what can we lead the world, what keeps us going, what ensures solvency 5. Deploy the most up-to-date tech-

nology in support of the above three elements 6. Adhere to the culture of excellence 7. Use multiple and simultaneous initiatives to energize and invigorate the academy The above group of seven featurescum-recommendations is a feasible starting point which requires implementation in a public university context, because of the complexity, or absence, of an academic operational model. Below, I discuss each of the seven features of great organizations, pointing out what we have achieved and to what we aspire.

1. Establish leadership driven to do what is best for the academy This has always been a strength of our department, whereby capable and inspiring leadership has led our path and guided our development. We need to train our best research and education professors in academic administration and share with them decision-making so that the stream of exceptional leaders continues.

We need to be liberal with providing college- and campus-level leaders from CEE and not view such appointments as a loss to the department, but rather as a very substantial gain, and indeed recognition of our professors as not only scholars but also academic leaders.

2. Bring in exceptional people regardless of their specific sub-disciplines We are starting to focus less on discipline and more on excellence in hiring faculty, a new feature of the management of the department that will bear fruit in the next 5-10 years. Of course it is not easy to define excellence, but with our department-wide search committee, it is clear

that those responsible for identifying exceptional talent are succeeding, having hired six amazingly talented professors, and searching for three more. While pursuing the goal of excellence-based hiring, we also need to be mindful of our educational needs and the expectations from our students and our stakeholders.

We are currently implementing an Engineer in Residence program to ensure the continued relevance of our educational programs to the professions that depend on our graduates, and we are looking into positions of “professor-of-the-practice” to complement our hiring of professors working on the peripheries of traditional areas.

3. Confront the brutal truths without despairing There are not many brutal truths to confront in our CEE universe, and there is no reason to despair. There are however important realizations that we have to account for, mainly that fundamental discoveries in mature engineering disciplines such as civil and environmental engineering are few, and breakthroughs are far between. Consequently, funding opportunities are a fraction of what they were in the past. There are sub-disciplines within civil and environmental engineering that call for reinvention and redeployment of research tools in, for example, biosensing, nanoimaging, biomechanics, and informational modeling. Examples of higher-level challenges are dynamic systems interaction and optimization, and adaptive smart infrastructure. We should strategically invest in the new challenges that derive from the pressing world problems and take advantage of new opportunities for integrative research and development.

4. Focus on three elements: in what can we lead the world, what keeps us going, what ensures solvency We can lead the world in global and interdisciplinary education and research, noting that most of the similar-sized CEE departments are somewhat lagging be-

In a longitudinal study of student satisfaction undertaken for the College of Engineering at Illinois, and released in late 2011, CEE at Illinois showed a unique and substantial increase in undergraduate student satisfaction, compared to the previous survey in 2009. hind in such an endeavor. What keeps us going, which we must protect and safeguard, is the widespread recognition of the Illinois brand for excellent engineering graduates at the bachelor’s and master’s levels, and the quality of our Ph.D. students as future leaders in industry and academe. Our current fiscal model is dependent on two main sources of income, namely graduate tuition and indirect cost recovery from research projects, with an increasing income from a third source: the generous contributions of our alumni and friends. Therefore maximizing our short-term income, which is the prelude to maintain our innovation in education and research thrusts, is dependent on our securing a steady and reliable income from these two sources, which in turn require concerted action to eliminate the possible impact of serving a much larger graduate program, and managing preand post- research grant business.

5. Deploy the most up-to-date technology in support of the above three elements Technology in education, through the best-equipped laboratories and classrooms and first-rate information infrastructure, has always been a high priority for our department and continues as such. We need to keep abreast of

emerging technologies in teaching, use of multimedia, online and blended educational models, and constantly upgrade our laboratories, both wet and simulation-based. Education and research in the globally-connected and increasingly interdisciplinary world requires continued investment in hands-on experiential education, and international outreach, both of which have technology infrastructure requirements that should be set at a high priority.

6. Adhere to the culture of excellence Many pressures are on a unit such as the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering which may lead to lowering of standards. Some of these are, for example, collaborative agreements with partners that allow admission assessed outside of the department, campus- or University-level agreements that may bypass our rigorous admissions standards via transferring students or faculty, administrative requirements that arise as a consequence of hiring at the college or campus level, and needs to support the educational programs in the short-term via hiring teaching faculty under pressures of time and/or the availability of faculty lines. We should resist such pressures no matter how tempting, and instead opt for short-term and reversible solutions that address the immediate requirement while developing a longer-term solution that is true to our central value of excellence.

7. Use multiple and simultaneous initiatives to energize and invigorate the academy In recent years, the department has embraced and vigorously applied concepts of positive urgency to great effect.

Urgency was imposed on us through the severe cuts in the summer and fall of 2009, and the concurrent hiring freeze, followed by the university-wide furlough program.

We have since embarked on positive encontinued on page 6

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 5

CEEAA Board of Directors

solidate strategic goals. We then articulate enabling actions that aim at impleergy enhancers, among which are plan- menting our strategy. Concurrently we ning and follow-up retreats, external are recasting our expenditure onto the reviews, reassessment of the budgeting strategic goals and thus redeploying our framework, curriculum reviews, opinion resources in direct service of the strategy surveys and extensive data collection and implementation plan. We then close the comparisons with peers. In parallel, the loop by defining the metrics for success effort of establishing new department- and mechanisms for corrective action as wide cross-cutting structures has suc- needed. The new CEE at Illinois is manceeded thus far in building the new and aged in a deliberate manner that matches exciting program on Sustainable and resource allocation with our strategic Resilient Infrastructure Systems, which goals in education, research, service and in turn has influenced the undergradu- governance. Our “operational model” is ate and graduate curricula, hired the first the academic equivalent to an industrial cohort of Ph.D. students, and launched a “business model.” We are well on our way new seminar series to defining this academic and an international equivalent to the indusexperience for our The new CEE at trial counterpart that has students. We are us for many years, Illinois is managed eluded in the process of a model that will enable us in a deliberate to secure our lead in edulaunching the second program on manner that matches cation, research and serEnergy, Water and vice to the technical and resource allocation professional communities.

Environment Sustainability, to be folwith our strategic The details of the academlowed shortly by the model will goals in education, icbe operational third and last prothe subject of a future research, service and article in this magazine. gram on Risk Management. MaintainChuck Vest, President governance. ing positive urgency of the National Academy requires community of Engineering, stated in support, which is in our case a reality. Our his 2011 annual address that ”we are failretreats are a testament to our unity and ing in some combination of inspiration, common purpose, our energy and our motivation, and learning,” to explain the determination to remain ahead of the observation that roughly half of the enpack. Our retreats are inspiring events, gineering students leave the field during where the faculty and senior staff discuss their university years. In a longitudinal freely their aspirations and tell the leader- study of student satisfaction undertaken ship of the department where they want for the College of Engineering at Illinois, us to be. and released in late 2011, CEE at Illinois The next phase of our work is per- showed a unique and substantial increase haps the most crucial in recent years. It in undergraduate student satisfaction, is nothing less than developing a com- compared to the previous survey in 2009. prehensive and novel operational model There is certainly no failing in this departfor academic units in public universities. ment, only pioneering steps to graduate We are developing this model from the the civil and environmental engineers of foundations of a singularly successful and the future, who will underpin prosperprosperous department. Our approach ity and wealth creation, while protecting is to use our vision and strategy to con- and enhancing our planet’s ecosystem. i Continued from page 5

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President Lawrence P. Jaworski, P.E., (BS 72, MS 73) Brown and Caldwell Beltsville, Maryland Vice President Tracy K. Lundin, P.E., (BS 80, MS 82) Fermilab Batavia, Illinois Second Vice President Allen J. Staron, P.E., (BS 74) Clark Dietz Inc. Chicago Past President Kenneth M. Floody, P.E., S.E. (BS 83) Ingenii LLC Oak Park, Illinois Secretary James M. LaFave (BS 86, MS 87) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Directors Daniel F. Burke (BS 92, MS 93) City of Chicago Department of Transportation Chicago David Byrd (BS 01, MS 06) EFI Global Inc. Addison, Illinois Lynne E. Chicoine (BS 78, MS 80) CH2M HILL Portland, Oregon Stanley M. Herrin, P.E., (BS 74, MS 78) Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc. Springfield, Illinois Alan J. Hollenbeck, P.E., (BS 75, MS 77) RJN Group Inc. Wheaton, Illinois Deron G. Huck, P.E., (BS 90) CH2M HILL Kansas City, Missouri John P. Kos, P.E., (BS 77) DuPage County Wilbur C. Milhouse, P.E., (BS 94, MS 95) Milhouse Engineering & Construction Inc. Chicago Paula C. Pienton (BS 85) AECOM Chicago Frank Powers (BS 82, MS 83) H.W. Lochner Inc. Chicago Colleen E. Quinn, P.E., (BS 84) Ricondo & Associates Inc. Chicago Julian C. Rueda (BS 80, MS 82) Geo Services Inc. Naperville, Illinois C. Wayne Swafford (BS 78, MS 82) Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. Oakland, California Scott Trotter (BS 90) Trotter and Associates Inc. Saint Charles, Illinois

Our mom is going to the spa

By Lawrence P. Jaworski, P.E., (BS 72, MS 73) President, CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors

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ore about the title of this President’s message later.

Lots of good stuff continues to happen around campus and our department. The CEEAA board had our winter meeting in Chicago in March. We always combine this meeting with the annual Alumni Dinner in Chicago, which includes the alumni awards ceremony. We had a record attendance this year and if you weren’t able to make it, we hope you will plan to come next year. This is a wonderful opportunity to catch up on what’s happening with our department and see old friends. This year’s awards ceremony carried on the fine tradition of acknowledging outstanding achievement by CEE alumni by recognizing four Distinguished Alumni and one Young Alumna. You can read about this year’s award winners elsewhere in this edition of the CEE magazine. We also received an update from our department head, Amr Elnashai. The department remains on strong foundations and has regained our (deserved) ranking of number one for our graduate civil engineering program. The ranking for undergraduate programs will be out this fall, and I’m thinking we’ll make it a clean sweep!

In other events, the spring job fair was held on campus in late February. There were 62 companies there to try to choose among the top CEE students in the country. The job fair is now hosted twice a year. If you are interested in recruiting our students, contact Breanne Ertmer, ertmer@illinois.edu, (217) 265-5426.

Hopefully, many of you were able to partake of the first-ever CEE Beer Tasting at Revolution Brewery in Chicago on May 22. Indeed, one of the disadvantages of living on the East Coast is the inability to make it back for key events like the beer tasting! In addition, our second annual CEE Golf Outing is scheduled for July 12 at Gleneagles Country Club in Lemont. Last year’s participants had a great time. In the category of future events, the CEEAA Board will hold our fall meeting on campus September 14, and many of us will stay for the football game that Saturday, September 15. If you are going to be there for the game, look

us up — we’d love to see fellow alumni.

We have been in the Yeh Center for almost a full academic year. As evidence of the critical need for this facility, it is reported that the center is already over capacity and some functions are having to find other locations! In other news, the department recently underwent a detailed external review by a blue ribbon panel. The findings of the panel support our standing as the leading CEE department in the country.

To continue our tradition of excellence, an Academic Advisory Board consisting of six distinguished members has been established to further academic standing. The professional M.S. program continues to grow. From tuition income in 2008–2009 of $36,000, the program has grown to $1.7 million of income this academic year. The online M.S. program is seeing similar growth and now includes 20 courses. Finally, our department is approaching having 52 professors — the highest in many years!

So the department is in excellent shape and continues its position as the top-ranked CEE program. This continued excellence is due to the dedication and very hard work of the department staff under the direction of Professor Elnashai. As I have come to know Amr since his assuming the position as department head, I have come to appreciate that his position is as much business leader and fundraiser as it is academic leader. Obviously, supporting Amr is the entire department staff. My thanks and sincere appreciation goes out to all of them.

Now, what about that title? As you might be aware, our beloved Alma Mater is heading for the spa. Yes, after more than 82 years, Alma Mater will be removed for a much-needed major refurbishment. After decades of being climbed upon by students (including yours truly), she was in need of repairs. Plans are that she will be back in her spot welcoming us all to campus by May 2013.

And finally, all good things must come to

The department remains on strong foundations and has regained our (deserved) ranking of number one for our graduate civil engineering program.

Continued on page 8 Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012

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Continued from page 7

an end. This is my last article as president of the CEEAA board. It has been an honor for me to be able to give something back to the department and the University that helped me achieve success in my profession. As many of you know, I live in the Washington, D.C., area and don’t have many chances to get back to Illinois and especially to campus. Being able to visit the campus during our board meetings has been an absolute delight. A very special thanks to all those board members that I have had the good fortune to work with these years. My sincerest thanks to department staff — John Kelley, Breanne Ertmer and Celeste Bragorgos — for all the help provided over the years. And finally, thank you to all the department heads with whom I have come in contact — Amr, Bob, Nick and Dave — for making this department the best in the country. I urge you to consider stepping up your support to our department. Attend the Alumni Dinner in Chicago, contribute financial support, and consider volunteering to serve on the CEEAA board. I guarantee it will be one of the most rewarding experiences of your life.

Until we meet again, go Illini!i

Are you interested in serving on the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors?

Application available online at cee.illinois.edu/alumni. For more information, contact John Kelley, Director of Advancement, jekelley@illinois. edu, (217) 333-5120.

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Energized I

ncreasingly, CEE at Illinois is focusing its research and instruction on multidisciplinary, global research projects and instructional programs that address three of society’s most pressing civil engineering challenges: renewal of the infrastructure; the nexus of water, energy and the environment; and the management of risk to society from natural and human-made disasters.

Researchers in the department are conducting innovative research with the power to address these challenges and, through instructional innovations, are preparing students to be leaders with the knowledge and vision to meet them. On the next few pages, we focus on just a sampling of the work being done in the area of the nexus of water, energy and the environment.

Energy and water are at the heart of our economy and way of life. Energy production requires a reliable, abundant and predictable source of water. At the same time, the energy required for the treatment and delivery of water accounts for as much as 80 percent of its cost.

While the interrelationship of water and energy is critical, there are also potentially devastating environmental impacts at all stages of energy production and water development.

CEE researchers are doing groundbreaking work in these areas, such as developing sophisticated computer models designed to optimize the location of biofuel production plants, designing better, more sustainable water treatment technologies, and exploring the science of creating hydrocarbon fuel from biomass waste. Students and faculty alike have extended their research beyond the lab into real-world projects in developing countries, where Illinois innovations are already making a real difference. The department’s new program in Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability, currently under development, will prepare a new generation of civil and environmental engineers who are armed with the knowledge and tools to lead in these critical areas.

The result will be safer, more efficient, greener energy and water solutions for today’s world and future generations.

istockphoto.com

Energy and water are at the heart of our economy and way of life. While the interrelationship of water and energy is critical, there are also potentially devastating environmental impacts at all stages of energy production and water development. CEE researchers are leading the way in meeting these challenges today and preparing the next generation of civil and environmental engineers to tackle them tomorrow.

New program: Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability

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new program, Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability (EWES), currently under development in CEE, will focus on sustainable solutions for the exploration, production, delivery and use of energy, and the intersection of these activities with water and the environment.

The EWES program will enable students interested in a cross-disciplinary civil and environmental engineering education to earn a degree that focuses on integrating scientific principles, engineered processes and systems analyses to address diverse challenges related to society’s growing energy needs and their nexus with water and the environment.

New integrated course offerings and undergraduate primary and secondary options are planned. A flexible graduate degree curriculum will be designed to accommodate students with backgrounds in various sub-disciplines within civil and environmental engineering, as well as other engineering disciplines. The graduate program will also be designed so that students meeting the degree requirements of the EWES program will have also completed the requirements of the College of Engineering’s graduate option program certificate in Energy and Sustainability Engineering (EaSE).

The program is projected to launch in 2013. i

© istockphoto.com/landbysea

Civil Civiland andEnvironmental EnvironmentalEngineering EngineeringAlumni AlumniAssociation—Summer Association—Summer2012 2012 99

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ater sustainability is one of the greatest challenges facing the country of India. The urgent need for a clean, reliable water supply is complicated by a burgeoning population, agricultural demands, unreliable energy, and the monsoon system, which subjects the country to devastating floods during three months of the year and droughts during others.

To address the problem, the Indian government has launched an initiative called the Information Technology Research Academy for Innovations in Water Resources Sustainability in India (ITRA-Water).

Its goals are to educate the next generation of Indian water sustainability professionals, develop scientific and technological capacity, and lay the groundwork for sound economic and policy decisions surrounding water use. Its leader is CEE Professor Praveen Kumar, who brings expertise in water resources and information technology, as well as a holistic view of water problems—a critical perspective for India, where “every challenge becomes a water challenge,” Kumar says. Water scarcity limits economic growth, the production of food and the search for sustainable energy solutions, he says.

“Here is the water-energy-environment nexus in a very real, social context,” Kumar said. “It’s really not possible to

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solve one problem without addressing Agriculture is the largest user of water in India.

Information delivered directly to farmers, such the others.”

Kumar led a Strategy Formulation as that pictured above, transmitted via cell phone, has the potential to improve agricultural Meeting in Delhi in September, at which practices. Information technology-based serparticipants from India and abroad—in- vices, one of the many strategies being explored cluding representatives from academia, by ITRA-Water, have significant potential to afgovernment, industry and NGOs—gath- fect water sustainability, according to Professor ered to identify four Grand Challenges, Praveen Kumar, pictured at left. toward which research efforts by multi- a situation that could be prevented by disciplinary teams will be focused. These information as to where groundwater is are: improving hydro-meteorological located. prediction for economic development, ITRA-Water defines information techimproving groundwater nology as “cyberinfrastruclevels and quality through that includes commu“Here is the ture enhanced water use efnication, computational, water-energy- and collaborative technoloficiency in agriculture, the achievement of 24/7 environment nexus gies; sensors and sensor availability for total urban systems; data management water management, and in a very real, social and data mining technolointer-basin transfer for incontext. It’s really gies; and knowledge and tegrated water resource support systems.” not possible to decision management.

Still, technological adsolve one problem vances stemming from Information technology will be key in alleviating without addressing ITRA-Water research projIndia’s water problems, ects, as critical as they will the others.” be, will not be the most Kumar says, because many of them stem from a lack valuable result of the initiaof information. For examtive, Kumar said. ple, farmers who need to pump water for “The goal is to develop a new genirrigation have been granted free electric- eration of professionals who are trained ity, but energy is not always available, so in inter-disciplinary thinking,” he said. whenever it is, they pump water wheth- “The hope is that they will be in charge of er they need it or not. This practice has making decisions and policies to actually led to water waste and depletion of the address these problems in the system. groundwater. Irrigation scheduling can So while we are tackling some challengbe done better with knowledge of state ing problems, and working on research, of soil-moisture and reliable weather and setting up prototypes and addressforecast that can be delivered using mo- ing some of these things, we are hoping bile phones to the farmer. Digging new that the key product of this effort is actuwells without knowing where the water is ally the trained professionals who will adlocated has put many farmers into debt, dress this problem.” i

Farmer photo: © istockphoto.com/N. Vasuki Rao

Kumar heading Indian water sustainability initiative

safeglobalwater.com

Mariñas to lead new Safe Global Water Institute

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ith the goal of seeking sustainable solutions to the world’s safe water and sanitation challenges, the College of Engineering has established the Safe Global Water Institute (SGWI) under the direction of CEE Professor Benito Mariñas.

Approximately 10 percent of the world’s population lacks access to improved water, and one-third of the world’s population—2.5 billion people—lack adequate sanitation, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Many hundreds of millions more must drink unsafe water from improved sources, according to a report by the International Finance Corporation. The work of SGWI researchers will focus on Sub-Saharan Africa—one of the regions most severely affected by these problems—and Mexico.

“The new institute will integrate engineering with the natural and social sciences, building upon the 10-year success of the University of Illinois’ WaterCAMPWS, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems,” said Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College of Engineering.

“Because of his extensive work with projects related to water treatment in various parts of the world, Professor Mariñas is a natural choice for leading this effort.”

The SGWI will develop partnerships with more than 20 domestic and international academic institutions, U.S. federal agencies, international governmental agencies, industrial partners, non-governmental organizations and targeted communities.

The SWGI’s objectives include:

l Creating innovative sensors and information systems to impact how communities make decisions about safe water and sanitation and to improve public health and economic outcomes. l Developing transformative, culturally relevant technologies and socially embraceable solutions to novel, affordable, safe water systems to solve community-identified water crises. l Transforming sanitation from a burden to a communityvalued resource regeneration through innovative technologies and governance institutions, which are able to recover energy and nutrients from sanitation media while providing protection of public health. l Developing new materials and technologies to integrate renewable energy components within safe water and sanitation systems. l Building capacity at local institutions that will sustain the safe water and sanitation infrastructure.

Mariñas has made the Sub-Saharan region a focus of his work for the past three years. As part of his environmental lab course (CEE449), students work on design projects related to water treatment, collaborating with college students in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mexico. The students travel to these countries to visit their project sites and participate in joint design sessions with students there. Since 1995, Mariñas has taught graduate and undergraduate courses covering various fundamental, laboratory experimenta-

Photos: Students and faculty from CEE at Illinois, the University of Nairobi, and Bondo University college analyze the water quality at a drinking water pond where livestock also go to drink (above). Students from CEE at Illinois and the University of Nairobi interview local women about water practices, uses and preferences (below). Below left: Professor Benito Mariñas.

tion and design aspects of environmental engineering and science with particular emphasis in physico-chemical treatment processes for water quality control.

The first major research grant awarded to SGWI, in partnership with the WaterCAMPWS and the University of Nairobi, is from the NSF/USAID Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research program. The project is entitled, “Kenya - Project 207 Addressing drinking water quality challenges in developing countries: Case Study of Lake Victoria Basin.”

The institute will host an international summit on Safe Global Water in Arusha, Tanzania, during the second week of October 2012. The event will bring together researchers, stakeholders, and decisionmakers to develop a strategic plan for overcoming current and pending water and sanitation challenges. The summit will be funded by the NSF, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 11

Converting biomass into hydrocarbon fuel Researchers explore and perfect the science behind it

By Thomas Thoren ucked away in the far southwest corner of campus, near where the South Farms’ manure smells the strongest, is a team of researchers that could one day take said manure and transform it into fuel to power your car toward fresher air.

A team of environmental engineers and collaborators from the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center is making progress in taking biomass waste — algae, manure or leftover grease from kitchens, for example — and recovering it into hydrocarbon fuels such as petroleum, diesel or gasoline. This is not a new concept, however this team uses several unique approaches that set their work apart from any other when used together.

The general concept remains the same: biomass wastes contain carbon, so when they are combined with a hydrogen source, such as waste glycerol or formic acid, they can form hydrocarbon liquid fuels. How this process is carried out is the key difference between research teams.

Heading the group is Associate Professor Timothy Strathmann, who with Professor Gary Parker is developing the department’s new Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability program. Strathmann and Ph.D. student Derek Vardon (BS 10, MS 12) are working to better understand the fundamental science behind these conversion processes rather than to simply learn how to use them for large-scale conversions.

They make the chemical reactions more efficient in terms of time and energy

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by using nanotechnology to design cata- Assistant Professor Timm Strathmann, left, and lysts, Strathmann said. These can lower Ph.D. student Derek Vardon display algae, from the temperature and pressure needed which lipids have been extracted, and the fuel for the conversion from waste to fuel, and resulting from the conversion process. therefore the amount of energy needed to bring about the same reactions that fed into the reactor to make biofuel. were previously energy-intensive.

The project began as part of his masThe team’s specific approach to this ter’s thesis and continues to be funded by hydrothermal process is not common in his fellowships from the Environmental this field of research Protection Agency and National because it uses water Foundation. Since then, The general Science as a reaction medium. he has partnered with Brajendra concept Sharma, senior research scientist Water’s properties change as its temper- remains the same: at the Illinois Sustainable Techature rises and falls, nology Center, to continue buildbiomass wastes ing this project that began from so it can be manipulated throughout the contain carbon, scratch. Researchers from the conversion process to of Agricultural and so when they Department give the best results Biological Engineering have also are combined been involved in the work. for each stage. When heated high enough, While it may seem odd to with a hydrogen water can dissolve research ways to create hydrosource they can carbon fuels in the midst of adoils for the conversion process. As the form hydrocarbon vances in solar energy, electrical mixture cools, the oils and other alternative enliquid fuels. engines condense and sepaergies that try to diminish our rerate from the water liance on these fuels, Strathmann once again, leaving an improved product said there will always be a need for liqthat is no longer waste. uid hydrocarbon fuels. Heavy machinery The group’s research is fairly young; and airplanes, for example, cannot run Vardon began in 2010. He said his team on electrical engines, so the demand for will likely continue their current work for these fuels will still exist for the foreseetwo to three years. After that, they will able future. likely work for two more years as part of Because of this need for liquid fuels, his Ph.D. research to apply his knowledge Strathmann said there should be coordito more complex feedstocks, a term that nation between the manufacturing and refers to chemicals or biomass that are Continued on page 14

Optimizing the location of biofuel production plants

By Leanne Lucas here are many aspects to the complex issue of biofuel production. One such aspect is the placement of biofuel production plants and the overall logistics planning. Researchers in CEE, as part of a larger project funded by the National Science Foundation, are tackling this topic, taking into account the impact production plants have on engineering infrastructure, local communities and the environment.

CEE Associate Professor Yanfeng Ouyang is one of nine faculty members on a multi-disciplinary team working on the project, titled Interdependence, Resilience and Sustainability of Infrastructure Systems for Biofuel Development. Their goal is to build a large-scale mathematical model that will integrate cutting-edge research efforts on agricultural, economic, transportation, water, natural resources and social issues to address the sustainability and resiliency of biofuel development.

“The placement of bio-refineries faces challenges at all stages of the production and logistics supply chain,” said Ouyang.

The location of biomass production is a major component of the equation, he said. Most farms produce bulky, low-density, high volume biomass which is later converted into liquid fuels. Shipment efficiency from the farm to the plant, then the plant to the pump dictates in large part where a production plant should be, he said.

“Plants should probably be closer to the side where shipping efficiency is not as high, in order to keep those costs

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as low as possible,” he said. “Usually, the shipment from the farm to the plant is the least efficient, so the plant should ideally be close to the farms. However, farms can be very scattered, and

“The placement of bio-refineries faces challenges at all stages of the production and logistics supply chain.” the crop yield could significantly vary, making the selection of optimal locations challenging. “ A second consideration is proximity to a transportation network. Land near interstate highways costs more than rural land, but transportation costs rise when plants are located in rural areas, Ouyang says. Through collaboration with CEE Professor Imad Al-Qadi, the team is exploring the effects of preserving and expanding relevant roadways or

railways.

The availability of water is another consideration, said Ouyang. A group of researchers including CEE Associate ProPhotos, left to right: Associate Professor Yanfeng Ouyang, Professor Imad Al-Qadi, Associate Professor Ximing Cai, Professor Murugesu Sivapalan.

fessor Ximing Cai, CEE Professor Murugesu Sivapalan and Professor Emeritus Gregory McIsaac of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences is estimating the water consumption in the cultivation of agricultural energy crops, and the impact that consumption has on the water quantity and quality in that area’s watershed, Ouyang said.

“The fermenting and refinement process also requires a significant amount of water. Fortunately, water is abundantly available in Illinois, so that’s not usually a problem here. But it could be an issue in other states,” Ouyang said.

The impact a production facility will have on the local communities must also be addressed.

“Will the water consumption from biomass production and processing have a social, economic, environmental impact on the rest of the community?” Ouyang said. “Will large shipments going in and out of an area change traffic conditions?

How will the local government and other stakeholders view this added industry and intervene? How would the diversion of agricultural crops into energy feedstocks affect food market equilibrium and local agricultural economy?”

Ouyang said the project, which started in 2008, is expected to conclude in 2013. To date, the team has published about 30 journal papers on various aspects of the project.

“We hope to refine a model that can be used to forecast how the biofuel industry will function most efficiently and effectively, and also assess how much impact the industry will have on other parts of society,” he said. i

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Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 13

Converting biomass Continued from page 13

waste recovery sides of production processes so waste can become a viable and more efficient source of energy.

“We’ll really have to change how we manufacture things and change the waste we create, so hopefully we can make waste that we can recover energy from,” Vardon said. “There’s this idea of a biorefinery, where you just grow biomass and instead of using petroleum crude oil to form our fuels and all of our chemicals and products that we need, we just take biomass, control the chemistry of how you’re breaking it down and converting it and have a bio-substitute.”

One biomass waste source that is already produced in vast quantities is vegetable oil from restaurant kitchens. This resource is already being taken advantage of by Engineers Without Borders, a registered student organization on campus, who converts the waste vegetable oil from dining halls to biodiesel for the University’s campus vehicles. This is not as desirable as converting the waste to a hydrocarbon such as diesel or gasoline, Vardon said, because biodiesel requires a modified engine whereas hydrocarbons can simply replace the diesel purchased at any gas station or be converted into gasoline or other petroleum-derived products.

Though many biofuels contain more energy than ethanol, also a biofuel, they still have less than a pure hydrocarbon fuel such as gasoline because the biomass that helps to create biofuels contains oxygen, nitrogen and other “poorly behaving elements” that lower the energy content levels, Strathmann said. Hydrocarbon fuels do not contain these elements.

An added benefit of hydrocarbon fuels is that they can be used in existing car engines, which means drivers could use them while continuing to use their current vehicles. This is beneficial because car technology and transportation infrastructure are already prepared to make 14

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“It always blows me away to think: what happens to all this stuff? It just goes and gets buried in a landfill somewhere. ... We’ll really have to change how we manufacture things and change the waste we create, so hopefully we can make waste that we can recover energy from.” use of these recovered fuels as soon as they become more readily available.

In addition to creating their own catalysts, Strathmann’s research group is also trying to understand how catalysts are deactivated, or poisoned, he said. Many catalysts are only functional for a few uses, but the group hopes to understand their behavior well enough to create catalysts whose activity can be sustained over longer periods of time. The group is also exploring ways to treat feedstocks so they will not harm and deactivate the catalysts.

The group is currently using model compounds to better understand the fundamental science behind the waste conversion process and in turn design more robust catalysts, Vardon said. After learning to process waste grease, the project will then analyze even more complex wastes such as swine manure or algae, which can have thousands of different compounds.

But no matter where the team is along their research’s progress, the goal will remain the same: to make use of what used to be thought of as waste.

“It always blows me away to think: what happens to all this stuff? It just goes and gets buried in a landfill somewhere and we treat it like, well, we got what we wanted out it; we’ve got to dispose of it.

You can’t just keep on piling waste up,” Vardon said. “I don’t think that we’re going to magically solve the waste problem, but I think we can learn a lot.” i

Water, land, human labor and non-renewable resources such as energy and fertilizer are used to produce, process, handle and transport food that no one consumes.

“What if we could reduce those losses by half?”

Cai asks.

“How would that affect, for example, water sustainability?”

Minimizing postharvest food loss

By Leanne Lucas around $4 billion a year. ... This lost food he postharvest loss of staple crops could meet the minimum annual food rearound the world has global implica- quirements of at least 48 million people.” tions in areas such as food security, malThese losses also contribute to higher nutrition, poverty, and food waste. Re- food costs and impact environmental searchers within CEE are working with the degradation and climate change. Water, ADM Institute for the Prevention of Post- land, human labor and non-renewable harvest Loss to develop practical strate- resources such as energy and fertilizer gies to combat those losses. The Archer are used to produce, process, handle and Daniels Midland Company established transport food that no one consumes. the Institute in January of 2011 with a $10 “What if we could reduce those losses million grant to the University of Illinois at by half?” Cai said. “How would that affect, Urbana-Champaign. for example, water sustainability?”

Associate Professor Ximing Cai is leadIn many regions, agricultural water ing the CEE team, which use has been increasing “It’s a very while the water available for includes faculty from construction materials, different project use has been declining beconstruction manageof the climate, Cai said. for civil engineers, cause ment, environmental en“Agricultural engineers gineering and science, but it is within have worked to develop efgeotechnical engineerthe realm of a fective irrigation systems to ing, and structures. They help farmers save water, but new direction no matter what we do, we will investigate optimal engineering solutions that we are going, need a certain amount of and infrastructure investto grow the crops,” he which is systems water ment required to minisaid. “In some places, after mize postharvest loss. and sustainable harvest, a third of the crop is “We believe people solutions. ... We lost. If we could reduce that from different areas of loss by half, then we could civil engineering can hope to be leaders produce more and use less work together to utilize in a new area.” water, less land, less energy, traditional civil engineeretc.” ing tools to address the The project will focus problem of postharvest on postharvest loss mitigafood loss,” said Cai. “This interdisciplinary tion in India. The team is divided into four collaboration will provide benefits and in- sub-groups, each working on a different sights that result in better solutions.” component of the project. Professor WenAlthough losses vary greatly by crop, Tso Liu, of the environmental engineering country and climatic region, Cai said es- and science group, and Assistant Profestimates of postharvest loss range any- sor John Popovics, of construction matewhere from 35 to 50 percent around the rials, will develop bio-sensors to monitor world. According to a 2011 United Nations grain degradation in stockpiles.

Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) “Wen-Tso will evaluate the mechastudy, “Roughly one-third of food pro- nisms of degradation from a biological duced for human consumption is lost or point of view,” said Popovics. “CO2 is one wasted globally, which amounts to about indicator [commonly the result of respira1.3 billion tons per year.” An example Photos, top to bottom: Ximing Cai, Khaled Elgiven in an FAO/World Bank report stated Rayes, Youssef Hashash, Praveen Kumar, Wenthat “[t]he value of postharvest grain loss- Tso Liu, Paramita Mondal, Yanfeng Ouyeng, es in sub-Saharan Africa [are estimated] at John Popovics.

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tion by insects and microbial life forms such as mold and fungus], but we both believe that there are other indicators that might be better than carbon dioxide — possibly moisture, temperature, or some other indicator. My job is to develop a sensing system to monitor whatever indicates the presence of that degradation. The system has to be robust, costeffective and rugged, to be used in situ.”

Popovics is also working with Assistant Professor Paramita Mondal, of construction materials, to look at materials that can be used to build or repair storage facilities.

“There seems to be some emphasis from the Indian government to build more warehouses or repair the old ones,” said Mondal, “but what seems to be most interesting for us at this point is to work at the village or on-farm storage level. Right now that is very limited. Storage facilities are made of adobe or wood, and sometimes they just pile the grain on the ground or dig a pit and pour it in. It’s very Continued on page 16

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 15

Innovating better wastewater treatment systems

The system represents a new generation of wastewater treatment technology.

It is very environmentally friendly and demands much less energy.

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs), used increasingly to treat wastewater in cities, offer a variety of advantages over conventional wastewater treatment technologies. They occupy a smaller footprint, generate less sludge and produce a better-quality effluent, which can be further processed for potable and non-potable water reuses. But current MBR designs require a lot of energy to operate and maintain, and some of them don’t remove micropollutants, such as pharmaceuticals, a growing pub-

lic health concern. Professor Wen-Tso Liu is designing a new MBR system that addresses these drawbacks and offers some benefits as well.

Current MBRs use aerobic biological processes with submerged membrane separation units using microfiltration or ultrafiltration membranes. A submerged membrane unit consists of a membrane module placed below the water level.

As the water passes through the membrane, solids and dissolved materials are removed. This approach has a higher energy demand than traditional methods, both for aeration and for the intensive membrane cleaning that is necessary.

Liu’s three-year project aims to develop advanced ultra- and nano-filtration membranes and apply them to an

integrated anaerobic MBR system that can degrade and convert organic contaminants in wastewaters to methane as a biogas, achieve almost zero-liquid discharge — which means minimal water waste — minimize membrane biofouling, remove micropollutants and produce good-quality water that can be used for direct non-potable or indirect potable uses.

“The system represents a new generation of wastewater treatment technology,” Liu says. “It is very environmentally friendly, as it produces little sludge that must be incinerated or landfilled, dis-

Minimizing postharvest loss

“We need to understand two things,” said Hashash. “First, what goes on in the process of moving the product from the farm to storage? What is the mechanical aspect of this process? How do they carry it, put it in a sack, put it in a truck, stack it in a warehouse, bring it back out, and distribute it? Can we improve the conveyance systems that are being used?

Second, how are the logistics of storage managed? How is it organized?”

Like all the members of the team, Hashash emphasized the importance of visiting India to further understand the needs. “Visiting the area is a very important component of this because farming practices are very different from, say, farming practices in the United States.

The systems in place to collect, consolidate, and redistribute the harvest are really quite different. It’s significantly less industrialized. Taking solutions that may work here or in other countries is not the

approach that will work best.”

Finally, Professor Praveen Kumar, of the environmental hydrology and hydraulic engineering group, is working with Cai to develop a model which takes the information that will be gathered by all the different sources and provides scenarios that will enable the farmers and decision-makers to take appropriate actions to mitigate postharvest loss.

“To what extent can we integrate technologies across the entire postharvest supply chain to find the optimal way to manage the loss?” Kumar asked.

Cai said he believes the project will provide some unique opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

“CEE has just launched a new program, Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems. It hosts people from different traditional CEE areas to work together for more efficient infrastructure systems design. So this project provides an example

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makeshift, it doesn’t last long, and it doesn’t prevent any of the degradation mechanisms John was talking about,” she continued. “We are thinking about how to use locally available material, so that the people have ready access to it. And construction of storage facilities should not be difficult, so farmers can hire villagers or do it themselves.”

Materials being considered include rice husks, a waste product from rice production that can be burned to an ash that has cementing capacities, natural fibers such as jute, or recycled fiber from the paper industry.

Professor Youssef Hashash, of the geotechnical engineering group, is working with Associate Professor Khaled El-Rayes, of construction management, on grain transport and storage.

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for the new program to work on in the future.

All the team members agree that the issue of postharvest food loss is a non-traditional area for civil engineers.

“I’m operating outside of my comfort zone,” said Popovics, “in as far as working on agricultural issues. But postharvest loss is a huge issue, and we have to figure out where we can apply our knowledge.”

Hashash said, “It’s a very different project for civil engineers, but it is within the realm of a new direction that we are going, which is systems and sustainable solutions. When you view the problem as a system, not as individual components, our combined expertise will allow us to address the problem. It’s part of our struggle to achieve a sustainable lifestyle, and we have a skill set that we can apply. We hope to be leaders in a new area.” i

Jinyong Liu

Above, the KAUST campus. At left, Professor Charlie Werth, right, with CEE graduate students Xin Xu, left, and Spurti Akki at KAUST. Xin Xu

charges effluent water with a better quality than its influent, and demands much less energy.

To operators, it is also very easy and robust to operate.”

The project is sponsored by industry and in partnership with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. Professor Mark Shannon of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering is collaborating. i

Partnership works toward sustainable water development in Saudi Arabia

By Professor Charlie Werth aculty in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the National Science Foundation Center of Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems (Water CAMPWS) are nearing the end of a third year of collaborative engagement and research with faculty at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia faces a number of growing challenges related to sustainable water development. These include economic desalination of seawater for urban areas, development of advanced technologies for water reuse, depletion of non-renewable groundwater resources, and safe distribution of drinking water.

KAUST initiated a collaborative relationship with the University of Illinois to realize the ambitious goal of developing a world-class program in Environmental

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Engineering and a Center for Water Desalination and Reuse. Since that time, Illinois faculty in CEE and the Water CAMPWS have helped KAUST realize this goal by contributing to the recruitment of seven new faculty members and by initiating six new collaborative research projects with newly hired faculty funded at more than $2.5 million.

The research projects span a range of topics in sustainable water development; they focus on microbiology and water quality of distribution systems, disinfection challenges of water after reverse osmosis, new sensors for pollutant detection in water, anaerobic treatment of wastewater using membrane bioreactors, and novel catalysts for removing oxyanions in drinking water. A new call for proposals was just issued, and Illinois faculty are again developing proposals with KAUST faculty to initiate a new round of collaborative research that will be funded in excess of $2 million. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 17

Delegação A CEE alumna is selected for a U.S. state department delegation of women scientists to Brazil

By Amy Patrick t was a total long shot, and I didn’t expect anything to come of it.

A friend from college had forwarded an email to me from the Department of State, soliciting applicants for a delegation of women scientists to Brazil. The friend, a graduate student in sustainable design, was busy incubating her firstborn and so international travel wasn’t a good idea for her. She told me I should send in my bio so that she could live vicariously through me. I laughed and told her that if I were selected, I’d bring back a golden tamarin monkey for her baby. I submitted my resume, and that was that.

I received a call the following Monday from the Department of State telling me that I’d made the short list, and after a rapid series of interviews, I got the call that I’d been selected out of the applicant pool of more than 500 women. I would travel to Brazil as a member of the U.S. delegation of women scientists as part of the Memorandum of Understanding between our two countries aimed at advancing women, and we would study the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields.

The credentials of my peers in the delegation were formidable. Diane WrayCahen, Ph.D., clones pigs, works for the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service, and was an investigator following the bird flu outbreaks. Erin Pettit, Ph.D., is a professor of glaciology at the University of Alaska

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Photos: At right, Amy Patrick. At left, the Estação das Docas in Belém, Brazil. Backdrop: the Cristo Redentor statue in Rio de Janeiro. All courtesy of Patrick, except the golden tamarin monkey, above right.

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at Fairbanks. Candace Carroll, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at St. Jude Children›s Hospital, and Ofelia Olivero, Ph.D., is at the National Cancer Institute—they’e both curing cancer. Parinaz Massoumzadeh, Ph.D., (noticing a pattern?) is a medical physicist with the Mallinckrodt Institute. Donnette Sturdivant is an air quality engineer with the Environmental Protection Agency. Lauren Armstrong’s Ph.D. is in progress. She works as a researcher with the United States Army, formulating “energetics.” (She designs explosives. We had an excellent discussion about explosive concrete.)

The trip was an utterly transformational experience. We traveled to four cities during the 11-day trip: Recife, Belem, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, the capital. We met a multitude of scientists. We saw archaeological artifacts being restored and toured nanotechnology facilities, seeing some very incredible microscopes. We

met with members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. We sailed on the Amazon and toured the botanical archives of the Amazon rainforest. We toured Brasilia with one of the senior structural engineering professors at the university there, hearing incredible stories about the design of Oscar Niemeyer’s daring reinforced concrete structures. In Brasilia, we also had the opportunity to hear Dilma Rousseff, the (first female) president of the country, speak at the opening of the Third National Conference on Policy for Women. Finally, we got to sit down with Ambassador Thomas Shannon in his private office at the U.S. Embassy for about an hour to discuss our findings and make recommendations for the future of our countries’ partnership.

Such a packed and diverse schedule afforded us the opportunity to absorb so much of Brazil, its culture, how it functions as a country, what their citizens’ values are, and the role of science and engineering in everyday Brazilian life.

From an engineering viewpoint, Brazil is growing at a tremendous rate, due not only to its increased economic standing in the world, but also due to the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games to be held there. A massive quantity of infrastructure is being placed under an accelerated schedule, while construction and engineering practices in many parts of the country aren’t up to the challenge.

While Brazil typically hasn’t reached out to countries with more established engineering communities like the United States, that may be changing, and we may have opportunities to lend them engineering talent and even to form mentoring relationships between professionals in our respective countries.

My other set of observations is borne of my experience as a woman working in the engineering industry. In the United States, there’s an undercurrent to the thought that more women should be in STEM fields. There’s always the unspoken tendency to assume that someday, women will try and struggle and work

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and eventually be capable of reaching the same heights that men have reached in these fields. In Brazil, there’s an undercurrent of thought, too, but it’s much more overt. It’s “What on earth have we done to alienate half of our potential workforce? What are we doing wrong?” It was refreshing to see this perspective. When you’re in an environment that constantly tells you that you must do twice as much in order to be considered half as effective, it’s easy to accept sole responsibility for your success or failure based upon your ability to work your fingers to the bone.

While Brazil may look to us as a technology leader, I think perhaps we would benefit to learn from them, as well. i

In the United States, there’s an undercurrent to the thought that more women should be in STEM fields. There’s always the unspoken tendency to assume that someday, women will try and struggle and work and eventually be capable of reaching the same heights that men have reached in these fields. In Brazil, there’s an undercurrent of thought, too, but it’s much more overt. It’s “What on earth have we done to alienate half of our potential workforce? What are we doing wrong?”

Amy Patrick, P.E., (MS 06) is the principal and CEO of Thalia Engineering Studio in Houston, Texas.

She may be contacted at apatrick@thaliaengineering.com. No golden tamarin monkeys were disturbed in the making of this article.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 19

www.nurailcenter.org

DOT funds first-ever rail transportation center in CEE

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he U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded a grant of $3.5 million to a national, multi-university consortium led by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to establish a rail transportation and engineering research center. The National University Rail (NURail) Center will focus on rail research and education to improve railroad safety, efficiency and reliability. Particular focus will be on challenges associated with rail corridors in which higher-speed passenger trains share infrastructure with freight trains.

The NURail Center will be the first DOT University Transportation Center (UTC) focused solely on rail, and the proposal received broad support from a large number of public, private sector, and international rail organizations. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign leads a consortium of research universities including the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan Technological University, RoseHulman Institute of Technology, the University of Kentucky, and the University of Tennessee. Within the theme of shared rail corridors, research projects will focus on track and structures; train control; rolling stock; human factors, and other topics identified based on Federal Railroad Administration and Association of American Railroads priorities. The center will be under the direction of Professor Christopher P.L. Barkan, the Krambles Faculty Fellow and director of the Illinois Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC).

The University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign has been a leader in rail edu20

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Chancellor Phyllis Wise speaks at the NURail kickoff meeting in the Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory on May 17. The meeting brought together representatives from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the various universities that make up the center’s consortium.

cation and research for more than a century. The railroad engineering program at Illinois has the most extensive curriculum in railroad engineering of any university in North America, complemented by an extensive research program in rail engineering and transportation through RailTEC. These research grants are part of $77 million in DOT grants to 22 UTCs—involving a total of 121 different universities across the country—to advance research and education programs that address critical transportation challenges facing the nation. The UTCs conduct research that directly supports the priorities of the DOT on transportation-related issues such as shared rail corridors, innovations in multimodal freight and infrastructure, bridge inspection methods, and reducing roadway fatalities and injuries. i

Save the date

Railroad Environmental Conference

October 16-17, 2012. Registration will open in August. http://ict.uiuc.edu/railroad/RREC/ overview.php

CEE alum offers campus clock tour

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mong the most interesting historical artifacts on the University of Illinois campus are its clocks. An 1820 English grandfather clock that stands in the university president’s outer office features a hand-painted moon dial with a thoughtful expression. The Library Archives room is home to an 1850s timepiece that once served as the alarm clock of Gregor Mendel, the founder of genetics. The University’s very first public clock, built in 1878 and once boasting a 9-foot, 200-pound pendulum, now resides in a Mechanical Engineering Laboratory reading room.

Each clock has a story and its own place in the history of the University of Illinois. Eight of the most significant are featured on the Campus Clock Tour, offered several times per year at no charge

by CEE alumnus and retired Geography professor Bruce Hannon (BS 56). Hannon restored some of them personally and keeps a watchful eye on all of them, making sure they are properly cared for.

Hannon earned three degrees from the University of Illinois—his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering (1956) and a master’s degree (1965) and Ph.D. (1970) in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. After 12 years conducting energy research in the Center for Advanced Computation, he joined the faculty of the Department of Geography and taught dynamic modeling of biological and economic systems for more than 30 years.

He became interested in clock restoration 40 years ago, when he couldn’t find anyone to repair an antique clock he had bought for his wife. Tackling the problem himself ignited a new passion.

“I eventually managed to get it running, and that did it!” he said. “There is a constant contrast with my theoretical work and the reality of mechanical clock repair.”

Word got around, and Hannon began receiving requests to restore antique clocks on campus. He began offering the clock tour last year. About 50 people have taken it so far, he said. During the course of the 90-minute walking tour, Hannon talks about the history of mechanical timekeeping, the individual clocks on the tour and the history of the buildings that house them.

Hannon’s personal favorite is one that hangs in the Engineering Dean’s office, an 1898 self-winding wall clock that controlled all the bells and clocks on campus from 1898 until the 1960s by means of an electric signal sent over connecting wires.

A daily signal from the Western Union Company kept the clock accurate. Hannon restored this clock in April 2011, and he would welcome the opportunity do the same with additional clocks from the University’s past.

“If anyone knows of a clock once used here that could be donated back to the University, I would fix it, find a prominent place for it and include it on my clock tours,” Hannon said. i To receive information about upcoming tours, email Bruce Hannon at bhannon@illinois.edu.

Photos, top to bottom: Detail of the moon dial on the grandfather clock in the University president’s office. Bruce Hannon with the 1898 self-winding wall clock in Engineering Hall, his personal favorite. The grandfather clock in the Altgeld Library.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 21

Bridge team heads to nationals bigger, stronger

By Joseph Riddle, Captain he Steel Bridge Team, this year dubbed the “Iron Illini,” once again has completed a successful year designing, fabricating and constructing a 1:10 scale steel bridge. As usual, the new specifications were released in August 2011, at which point the design team got right to work. Similar to last year, the bridge needed to consist of a 17-foot-long main span with a 6-foot-long cantilever on one end. We did a little research to determine what types of designs worked well last year and began discussing conceptual design ideas.

After the somewhat disheartening end to last year — we failed the lateral test at the regional competition — we had every intention of designing a stiffer (especially laterally) bridge this year. Due to dimensional requirements in the rules,

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no piece of the bridge could exceed 3 feet by 4 inches by 6 inches, and the deepest vertical truss that could fit within dimensions was 1-foot-3-inches deep.

Based on these dimensional restrictions and our observations from last year, we decided to use a 6-inch-deep girder acting as the top chord of a 1-foot-3inch truss. As soon as we detailed all the connections and got all of our new members shop-trained, we were ready to begin fabrication.

Fabrication was very hectic, but as always it was also enjoyable to get in the shop again and get our hands dirty.

We also had the largest team in recent history with a total of 16 members who stayed committed throughout the year.

The previous few years we have averaged closer to eight members. This large involvement is very exciting as it is a sign that our steel bridge program is growing in strength, in numbers, and — as we saw at the regional competition — in notoriety.

We finished bridge fabrication a little later than we had hoped, which left us with minimal time to practice timed construction. However, after only about 15 practice runs, we improved our time from our first run of 38 minutes to 12.5 minutes. To absolutely ensure that we would not repeat our failure of the lateral test from last year, we retested the bridge after construction practice. Sure enough,

the bridge passed by a very large margin.

We took 14 members to the regional competition and were joined by two previous captains from the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons and by our faculty adviser, Professor James Lafave (BS 86, MS 87). We had a bit of a scare during timed construction with a few pieces not fitting correctly, but our abbreviated yet thorough preparation helped us overcome and still finish with a decent construction time. We placed third in each of the six categories: Economy, Efficiency, Lightness, Stiffness, Construction Speed, and Aesthetics and third overall, which qualified us for the national competition at Clemson University over Memorial Day weekend.

We accomplished our goal of qualifying for Nationals this year, making this the fourth time that Illinois has qualified in the last six years. We look forward to continuing this growing tradition of excellence as a new season begins in August. i The team came in 44th out of 47 teams at the national competition and won a Quiz Bowl, for which the prize was a new welder.

Photos: (Left) Scott Earnest and Joe Riddle load the bridge. (Right) Near the beginning of timed construction, Tom Dehlin hands a girder to Joe Riddle as Scott Earnest is waiting for the next piece and Alex Lakocy and James Triezenberg work on constructing the cantilever.

Canoe team’s light, aesthetic Maverick 3rd at regionals

By Raphael Stern and Arielle Malinowski, Captains

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his year, the Concrete Canoe Team honored its tradition of striving for excellence by constructing a “Top Gun” movie-themed canoe, “Maverick.” This year’s canoe featured a pristine white concrete finish, which was wet sanded to produce a smooth surface for staining. The acid stain used on the canoe depicted the blue outline of an aircraft carrier, with orange lettering giving the name of the university. The interior showed off the school colors with a large orange and blue “I” overlay in the middle. Additionally, a blue overlay stripe ran around the inside of the canoe, meeting up with the “jet blast” of two jets stained onto the bow and stern.

This gave the canoe a streamlined image, representing the speed the canoe can attain. The art work was designed by sophomore Hong Kim and featured a tribute to Professor Emeritus Clyde Kesler, the inventor of the concrete canoe, who died in December.

Due to modifications in this year’s mix design, the lightweight concrete was strong enough that the canoe needed only a one-half-inch hull thickness to support the stresses induced during paddling. This light hull allowed for a canoe that weighed only 130 pounds, significantly lighter than anything the University of Illinois has put forth in recent years, and significantly lighter than any other canoe at the regional competition.

The team began practicing paddling in the fall and continued once the weather permitted in the spring. This rigorous training schedule produced an excellent paddling team. Together with a stream-

lined, light canoe, these paddlers were able to show off the university’s talent in the races at the regional competition and secured the team a second-place finish in paddling.

Overall, the team put in close to 3,000 labor hours in designing, constructing and racing this canoe. The team competed in the regional competition hosted April 19-21 by Bradley University, in Peoria, Ill. There the team competed in racing, final product judging, a design paper, and a design presentation.

The team achieved second place in every category except for final product judging—stronger individual standings than any in recent times. This score qualified the University of Illinois Concrete Canoe Team for an overall third place finish.

We are very thankful to all of our sponsors, our graduate advisers Armen Amirkhanian; Jason Mote, P.E.; and Roman Vovchack (BS 11), as well our faculty adviser, Jeffery Roesler (BS 92, MS 94, PhD 98). Without their help and motivation, we would not have made it as far as we did.

Anyone interested in joining the team for future seasons, or financially supporting the team may contact next year’s captains, Hong Kim, hongkim3@illinois. edu, and Min Yin, minyin2@illinois.edu. i

This year’s Concrete Canoe team entry was “Maverick.” Thanks to an innovative concrete mix, the canoe was remarkably light at just 130 pounds. Sophomore Hong Kim created the art work, which featured a tribute to the late Professor Emeritus Clyde Kesler (middle photo, the name “Kesler” is painted on the wing of the plane). Kesler is known as the Father of the Concrete Canoe, having conceived of the idea in 1970 when he gave his class the assignment of building a concrete canoe. In 1971, the first concrete canoe race was held at Kickapoo State Park against Purdue University, after which the Illinois team was, briefly, the world concrete canoe racing champions. Kelser’s obituary appears on page 39.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 23

glcm.cee.illinois.edu

By Daniel Malsom hen he was a child, Chas Crump (BS 10) often spent his time playing with toy dump trucks. This January, he and 10 other construction management students had the opportunity to view the real, 300-ton payload variety in action at the Mt. Owen coal mine near Sydney, Australia.

The mine was one of more than nine construction sites and corporate offices the group visited while touring the cities of Sydney and Brisbane as part of the Global Leaders in Construction Management (GLCM) annual winter trip. An international trip is part of the two-year program, which prepares students to work in the increasingly global construction management industry.

“There is a lot of investment [in Australia] right now, including several of the largest construction projects in the world,” said Brent Young (MS 06), program director. “They are surviving what they call the GFC—Global Financial Crisis—better than many other places, mainly due to abundant natural resources.”

The GLCM team visited a wide variety of projects, touring each site with knowledgeable project managers.

“Everyone who was there seemed like they were on top of their game … like they had at least 15 years of experience in

Pedro Alvarez

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the field,” Crump said.

One of Crump’s favorite site visits came on the first day of the trip, when the group toured 1 Central Park, a 623-unit apartment complex managed by Watpac Construction. Crump was impressed with the “heliostat,” a massive cantilever with aluminum panels designed to reflect sunlight off one apartment complex and down to a space otherwise hidden in the shadows of surrounding buildings.

According to Young, trips like the one to Australia really help students understand the nature of construction work in a way that is not possible through classroom instruction.

Travel expenses for GLCM international trips vary based on the choice of destination, how remote each project site is, and the number days spent at each location. The GLCM program defrays some of the cost, and corporate sponsors Turner Construction and the Walsh Group support the GLCM interns they hire each summer by sponsoring them on the international trips. Turner Construction sponsored Crump for the Australia trip, and CEE student Matt Sullivan is the next Turner Scholar. He will work for Turner as an intern this coming summer and will benefit from sponsorship on the January 2013 trip.

Students in the GLCM program enter as seniors and graduate with M.S. degrees two years later. In addition to participating in an international trip, they complete multi-disciplinary coursework and an independent project based on their career interests, go on domestic site visits, work at a summer internship after their senior year, and in general are given many opportunities to interact with industry.

Graduates of the program are in high demand, Young said, with many GLCM students receiving multiple employment GLCM students view an elaborate architectural model of the 1 Central Park project.

Pedro Alvarez

Global Leaders in Construction Management visit Australia

Ron Halicke, CEE senior, views the construction of 1 Central Park, $600 million dual residential towers being constructed by Watpac in the Chippendale neighborhood of Syndey.

offers even during the toughest times of the recent construction recession.

Past international destinations have included China, where students toured the Olympic Village construction site; Panama, where they viewed the canal expansion; Dubai, where they saw the Burj Khalifa during its construction; and Canada, where they learned about oil sands mining. Young is confident that the hands-on, global experiences his students receive from the trips prepare them to become some of the brightest construction management leaders down the line. He is always looking for additional corporate sponsors to ensure the longevity of the program.

“After six years and 30-plus alumni, GLCM has proven its value both to our students and to our industry partners, who host, sponsor and hire our graduates,” Young said. “Our task now is to ensure that GLCM is sustainable for the long-term and many more students have this opportunity in the future. I’m confident that as the program ages, GLCM alumni will rise in industry, strengthening the GLCM brand even more.”

Crump graduates from the program this May and plans to return to work with Turner this summer. After three trips with GLCM, he no longer feels intimidated by the 300-ton payload trucks and nine-figure contracts that characterize the construction management industry.

“This program has prepared me to go out into the work force,” Crump said. i For more information about the GLCM program, visit glcm.cee.illinois.edu.

Sustainable Urban Systems class works for a greener C-U

By Thomas Thoren s sustainability continues to gain more of the national spotlight, civil engineering students are shifting their focus to local and regional opportunities thanks to a new department course.

Sustainable Urban Systems, one of the special topics offered as CEE 598, debuted in the fall 2011 semester with Professor Barbara Minsker and her teaching assistant, CEE graduate student Tristan Wietsma. The course’s 19 students, split between five project groups, worked on various projects designed to improve sustainability in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Through site visits and communications with local residents and city officials, the students gained an understanding of two issues plaguing the community: storm water runoff and poverty. The groups were free to choose any project topic as long as they stayed true to the essence of sustainability.

“Their requirement was that they had to address the three dimensions of sustainability—social, economic and environmental—and it had to be about Champaign-Urbana,” Minsker said.

The groups chose topics that suited the unique skills and strengths of their members. They worked toward solutions with nothing more than the skill sets they brought to the first day of class, along with assistance from Wietsma, Minsker, and a large team of consultants from the community and university.

“What I was trying to do was teach them systems thinking and how to integrate their previous knowledge with what sustainability is about,” Minsker said.

Sammy Rivera, a CEE graduate student studying sustainability, said he thought this teaching style was beneficial for his growth as an engineer.

“I think what Barbara wanted us to see was the actual world of sustainability and not having someone there backing you up every time you have a doubt,” he said.

“I know that most of my group feels more

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confident attacking sustainability issues.”

“What I wanted them to understand is how you go from a very mushy, open-ended problem and define it down to something you can carry out as an engineering analysis,” Minsker said. “When they leave, that’s what they will have to do all the time. It’s a big shock when you get out there and discover the real world is very messy, and all those nice equations aren’t doing you any good whatsoever.”

All in all, Minsker said she enjoyed watching them use their creativity while working on projects.

“It was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences I’ve ever had in 15 years,” Minsker said. “It was really fun working with the students on their projects and just fascinating learning about the sustainability issues in ChampaignUrbana, especially some of the poverty issues. People don’t think about that a lot when they work on sustainability.”

For a handful of students, the openended nature of the course was difficult, Wietsma said.

“When you provide a blank slate for everybody, some students are okay with that and some get a little lost,” he said.

Minsker is planning a more structured approach for the fall 2012 class, which would also make the course more similar to a typical relationship between engineering consultants and clients, who usually have a problem in mind, Minsker said. This could be recreated in the course by having community members and city officials identify problems and present requests for proposals to the students.

The course was designed to evolve with each teaching, Wietsma said. This involves use of the Medici data and information management system developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

Students in CEE 598 Sustainable Urban Systems visit the John Street stormwater project in Champaign.

“The idea is that every semester we can create a body of work on specific topics and upload that to this management system, and then future courses will be able to draw on that,” he said.

This work would include collected data, topic-related papers, and previous course projects, for example, and would give future students reference points to jumpstart their own projects.

At the end of the course, the students made a final presentation attended by about a dozen local leaders. Their final reports will be sent to the city governments of Champaign and Urbana.

Maria Jones, a CEE graduate student studying environmental engineering, continues to work toward making her group’s project a reality. Her group consisted entirely of students from developing countries, so social justice was the primary reason for her group’s topic selection. They examined a vacant lot at Fifth Street and Hill Street — a low-income area of Champaign — for a possible sustainable development with features such as urban farming. Jones said engineering projects typically focus on how to meet a system’s demand by only examining the technological solutions and ignoring the most important part of all: the people who will be affected by these projects.

Though she says her project is currently “standing on shaky ground” as she navigates the politics of working with municipalities, she is dedicated to the task.

“I’m willing to take it on as long as I’m in this community,” Jones said. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 25

department news

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Professor Christopher P.L. Barkan received the National Association of Railroad Professors Academic Award in recognition of his excellent record of promoting knowledge about the progress of transportation by passenger train in the United States and Canada. This is the second time that NARP has presented this award. The NARP Academic Award was established in 2011. Barkan was cited, “For major contributions addressing the challenge of providing the U.S. railroad industry with the skilled personnel required for the nation’s expanded passenger and freight rail services, for his work as an educator and researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and for his writings and leadership efforts supporting the national need for expanded rail programs at North American Colleges and Universities. America’s travelers are grateful.”

CEE graduate students Victoria Boyd and Xin Wang won the Clean Energy Education Fellowship. The award is given to students who are passionate about promoting and researching clean energy literacy.

Professor William Buttlar has been selected to serve on a working group that will assess opportunities for a Universitywide online education initiative. The group will consist of faculty and chancellors from each of the three Illinois campuses.

Buttlar currently serves as CEE’s Director of Online Programs.

Professor Ximing Cai was awarded the 2012 Best ResearchOriented Paper Award from the EWRI-ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. Cai’s paper was titled, “Value of Probabilistic Weather Forecasts: Assessment by Real-Time Optimization of Irrigation Scheduling.”

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.S. News & World Report named the civil engineering graduate program at Illinois number one in their Best Graduate Schools rankings in the category, Best Engineering Schools: Civil.

The University of Illinois ranked third in the category, Best Engineering Schools: Environmental/ Environmental Health. Undergraduate program rankings are announced in the fall.

CEE graduate student Evan J. Coopersmith (MS 08) has been selected for the 2011 CEE Alumni Graduate Assistantship for Teaching Excellence.

Mark Denavit (MS 09), a CEE Ph.D. student, won the prestigious Vinnakota Award from the Structural Stability Research Council at the 2012 Annual Stability Conference held in Dallas, Texas, in April. The award is given for the best paper at the conference, as presented by and based on the work of a graduate student. Denavit’s paper was “Stability Analysis and Design of Steel-Concrete Composite Columns,” by M.D. Denavit, J.F. Hajjar and R.T. Leon.

Ph.D. student Evgueni Filipov has been selected by the College of Engineering as a participant in the MF3 Program. The highly competitive MF3 program was developed to provide experience in the focus areas of research, teaching and mentoring for doctoral students interested in teaching engineering as a profession.

New advisory board established

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n Academic Advisory Board has been established in the department to advise on all aspects of operations, including curricula, education, research, governance, finances, climate, outreach and global engagement.

The inaugural board will include:

• • •

Glen Daigger, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, CH2M Hill David Daniel, President, University of Texas at Dallas Nicholas Jones, Dean of Engineer-

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Visit CEE on the web at http://cee.illinois.edu

ing, Johns Hopkins University Andrew Whittle, Head, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Linda Abriola, Dean of Engineering, Tufts University Robert Street, Professor Emeritus, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University The six- member team will meet on campus for one day each year. Terms of service will be for four years, renewable once.

• • •

CEE Ph.D. student Arun Gain (MS 10) has won an FMC fellowship. An advisee of Professor Glaucio Paulino, Gain is working on an interdisciplinary project on structural topology optimization.

Professor Marcelo García has received the 2012 ChandlerMisener Award from the International Association for Great Lakes Research. It is presented annually to the author of the peer-reviewed paper in the current volume of the Journal of Great Lakes Research judged to be “most notable.” García was honored for his paper titled, “Bed morphology, flow structure and sediment transport at the outlet of Lake Huron and in the upper St. Clair River,” which was published in 2011.

García also spoke in April at the Panama Canal Congress. His talk was titled, “Building the Canal that Saved Chicago and its impact on the Panama Canal Construction.” At the congress, García was presented with an award for significant contributions in science and technology from the National Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation. In May, García delivered the Enrico Marchi Lecture at the University of Florence.

CEE graduate student Allison Goodwell was one of four students to receive the Roy J. Carver Fellowship in Engineering.

She is currently working with Professor Praveen Kumar on a project that studies the effects of flooding and other natural or human-induced stressors on natural landscapes.

Professor Emeritus Neil Hawkins (MS 59, PhD 61) was named an honorary member of the American Concrete Institute.

Earlier in the year Hawkins was also named a distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a fellow of ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute.

Ph.D. student Nolan Kurtz (MS 10) has been selected as the Sandia National Laboratories Excellence in Science and Engineering Research Program Fellow for the 2012-2013 academic year. Kurtz will receive a stipend of $45,000 for one year, renewable for up to three years. He is invited to spend time at Sandia National Laboratories and participate in internships and other activities for research advancement. He will be working on a research project led by Associate Professor Junho Song to advance computer modeling technology that predicts the response of lifeline infrastructure networks to extreme events and enables effective risk-informed decisionmaking.

Professor David Lange received a 2012 Certificate of Commendation from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for his work as a faculty adviser for the ASCE Student Chapter at the University of Illinois. Lange also received the 2012 Engineering Council Excellence in Advising Award in the College of Engineering.

Graduate student Nanxi Lv (MS 09) has received the Yee Fellowship for 2012. Lv was also selected by the College of Engineering as a participant in the MF3 Program.

Ph.D. student Kaitlin Mallouk (MS 09) has been selected by the College of Engineering as a second-year participant in the

Kumar invested as Lovell Professor

Herricks honored for bird radar work

Professor Ed Herricks, right, is pictured with Steve Osmek, a wildlife biologist at SeattleTacoma Airport.

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rofessor Praveen Kumar was invested as the Colonel Harry F. and Frankie M. Lovell Professor on February 3.

Speakers included Interim Vice Chancellor for Research Robert A. Easter, Executive Associate Dean Michael B. Bragg, and Professor and Head Amr S. Elnashai. Special guests included Kumar’s wife, Charu, and daughter, Ilina.

“I am filled with deep gratitude for this honor,” Kumar said. “The University of Illinois has provided an environment that nurtures scholarship, and I am immensely fortunate that I am a part of this tradition of excellence.”

Kumar joined the faculty in 1995.

He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in hydrosystems engineering, engineering modeling under uncertainty, surface water hydrology, hydroclimatology, stochastic hydrology, non-linear methods in hydrology and hydroinformatics.

Kumar is an expert in the use of computer models and informatics to increase our understanding of hydrologic processes over a range of space and time scales, with particular em-

Professor Praveen Kumar, left, poses on the day of his investiture with his daughter, Ilina, and his wife, Charu.

phasis on understanding and modeling the complex non-linear interactions among processes. His research is developing a predictive understanding of the hydrologic cycle that integrates across ecosystems, climate and human impacts, and involves the study of hydroclimatology, ecohydrology, geomorphology and hydroinformatics.

The late Colonel Harry F. Lovell (BS 32) was born on May 20, 1910, in Fulton County, Illinois. His 31-year military career included serving in WWII and in the Army Corps of Engineers. He retired in 1961.

Through a series of significant gifts to the Colonel Harry F. Lovell and Frankie M. Lovell Endowment Fund, Colonel Lovell generously supported the University of Illinois Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He died on Aug. 9, 2005, in Sun City, Ariz. i Full story at cee.illinois.edu/kumar_lovell_ professorship.

rofessor Emeritus Edwin E. Herricks received an award for Distinguished Service to the Port of Seattle from the organization’s Aviation Division. The award cited Herricks’ work, through his Airport Safety Management Program, to establish an avian radar program at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

“Your support through the Center of Excellence for Airport Technology at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign has been unprecedented,” wrote Michael Ehl, Director of Aviation Operations in a letter of commendation to Herricks.

Over the past 10 years, Herricks and his team deployed three avian radars to support the airport’s Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Program, advanced its Geographic Information System capabilities by digitizing 23 years of wildlife data, and providing in-kind support including cameras and visual analytics to support surface and gate management technologies.

Most recently, Herricks’ work saved the airport more than $4 million, when the bird-use data his technology helped collect proved the effectiveness of a less expensive method for making the airport’s stormwater ponds less attractive to birds.

Herricks accepted the award in October at a luncheon held in his honor at the airport. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 27

department news

MF3 Program. The MF3 program provides experience in the focus areas of research, teaching and mentoring to Ph.D. students interested in teaching engineering.

Professor Arif Masud has been elected a Member-at-Large of the Executive Council for the U.S. Association for Computational Mechanics.

Graduate student Mark Messner (BS 10, MS 11) will receive a 2012 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship to pursue Ph.D. studies in CEE. The fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense and administered by the American Society for Engineering Education. Messner’s advisers are CEE Professor Robert H. Dodds Jr. (MS 75, PhD 78) and Mechanical Science and Engineering Professor Armand Beaudoin.

Professor Barbara Minsker received the 2012 Earth and Water Resources Institute’s Service to the Profession Award. The EWRI Planning and Management Council selected Minsker because of her work with the WATERS Network and campus sustainability initiative at Illinois and her participation in global and multidisciplinary activities within CEE. CEE student William G. Nichols and teammates took first place at WATERCON, a conference of the Illinois Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Illinois Water Environment Association held on March 21 in Springfield, Ill. Nichols presented the results of a mock design project the team completed through CEE 437 Water Quality Engineering, taught by Professor Wen-Tso Liu. The project was designed with the help of Andy Martin, P.E., (BS 98) and Anant Sriram, P.E., both of Greeley and Hansen, and Greg Swanson, Moline Utilities General Manager. The goal was to expand the

capacity of the water treatment plant in Moline, Ill., while meeting the new cryptosporidium regulations set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Nichols will now go on to represent the team at the AWWA National Conference in Dallas, Texas, in June.

Assistant Professor Helen Nguyen was named a recipient of the University of Illinois College of Engineering 2012 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research.

Professor Gary Parker was selected to receive the 2012 British Society for Geomorphology (BSG) Wiley Blackwell Award for the best paper published in the BSG’s journal, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. “A New Framework for Modeling the Migration of Meandering Rivers” was written by Parker, Y. Shimizu, G.V. Wilkerson, E.C. Eke (MS 08), J.D. Abad (MS 02, PhD 08), J.W. Lauer, C. Paola, W.E. Dietrich and V.R. Voller. Parker also received the Tau Beta Pi Daniel C. Drucker Eminent Faculty Award from the University of Illinois College of Engineering.

The following professors were ranked as excellent by their students for fall 2011: Robert H. Dodds Jr., Larry Fahnestock, Marcelo García, James LaFave, Liang Liu, Benito Mariñas, Scott Olson (BS 94, MS 95, PhD 01), John Popovics, Junho Song, Bill Spencer, Albert Valocchi, Charles Werth, Daniel Work, Brent Young, and Julie Zilles.

Academic Adviser Rebecca Stillwell received the 2012 Engineering Council Excellence in Advising Award.

Tristan Rickett recently joined Hanson and is working in the company’s Seattle-area office. Rickett, a railroad designer, currently assists with track assessment reports and design summary drawings.

Nguyen

Stillwell

CEE students Amna Mahmud and Ana Lucuta were honored as Knights of St. Patrick for 2012.

The following CEE students are Bronze Tablet honorees, meaning they rank in the top three percent of the students in their graduating class: Steven Gresk, Vincent Kania, You Li, and Andrew Rehn.

The following CEE students were honored at the College of Engineering’s annual awards ceremony: Laurie DeHaan, Andrea J. Culumber Award Ashley Williams, William L. and Elizabeth A. Ackerman Scholarship Gregory Williams, Edward E. and Elizabeth Joanne DeZwarte Engineering Scholarship Jill McClary, Fred Eggers Engineering Scholarship Joshua Moore, Calvin Barnes Niccolls Memorial Scholarship Gregory Johnson, John W. Page Scholarship Carrie Desmond, Caterpillar Foundation Engineering Merit Scholarship Andrzej Tatkowski, Caterpillar Foundation Engineering Merit Scholarship Jeffrey Geldmyer, Illinois Engineering Achievement Scholarship Matthew Jarrett, Richard L. and Virginia Johnson Scholarship Bethany Myelle, Kirkwood Scholarship for Women in Engineering Jonathan Dandurand, Vincent E. O’Brien Iroquois County Scholarship Elizabeth Tewolde, Shell Incentive Fund Scholarship Anna Waldron, George L. Bridwell Memorial Scholarship

Algorithm leads to patents for CEE faculty

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EE faculty members were awarded situations in which engineers and others patents recently for two innovations: need to know the properties of a material, but some materials are a faster way to model the difficult, if not impossible, to behavior of materials and analyze, Ghaboussi said. In an improved method for many of those cases, though, eye doctors to measure init is possible to measure the retraocular pressure. sponse of the system, he said.

Both patents are based Ghaboussi collaborated on an autoprogressive alwith Professor Emeritus David gorithm developed by CEE Professor Emeritus Jamshid Pecknold (MS 66, PhD 68) and Ghaboussi Ghaboussi to determine CEE Professor Youssef Hashash the properties of materials by measuring to develop the new material modeling the response of the structural system of system, U.S. Patent No. 7,447,614, “Methwhich they are a part. There are many ods and systems for modeling mate-

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Visit CEE on the web at http://cee.illinois.edu

rial behavior.” CEE alumnus Tae-Hyun Kwon (MS 02, PhD 06) worked with the three to apply the algorithm to the problem of measuring eye pressure, U.S. Patent No. 8,070,679 B2, “Method for accurate determination of intraocular pressure and characterization of mechanical properties of cornea.”

The patents demonstrate just two of the algorithm method’s applications in engineering and medicine — the tip of the iceberg in terms of its versatility, Ghaboussi said. i Full story at cee.illinois.edu/algorithm_patents.

New faculty

Paolo Gardoni

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ssociate Professor Paolo Gardoni joined the faculty in December. He will teach undergraduate and graduate courses in structural engineering, including structural analysis, and interdisciplinary courses including engineering risk analysis, reliability analysis and engineering ethics.

“The new frontiers of engineering are interdisciplinary,” Gardoni said.

“My teaching and research are focused on developing a new kind of engineer and researcher that has interdisciplinary knowledge and, as a result, the unique skills required to solve the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century.”

cee.illinois.edu/faculty/paologardoni Gardoni’s areas of expertise include sustainable development and planning; reliability, risk and life cycle analysis; decision making under uncertainty; performance assessment of deteriorating systems; ethical, social, and legal dimensions of risk; policies for natural hazard mitigation and disaster recovery; and engineering ethics.

Before joining Illinois, Gardoni was an associate professor at Texas A&M University. The degrees he holds are a Laurea (equivalent to a B.S. and M.S.) in structural engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy (1997); a Master of Engineering in structural engineering from the University of Tokyo (1997); a Master

of Arts in statistics from the University of California at Berkeley (2001); and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California at Berkeley (2002). i

More than 60 companies attend 2012 spring job fair

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osted twice a year in the Newmark Lab crane bay, the CEE job fair brings company recruiters to campus and offers students the opportunity to find internships and fulltime positions. Fairs are held the last Thursday in September and the last Friday in February. Registration opens in June for the fall fair and in November for the spring fair. Approximately 65 companies and nearly 600 CEE students attend the events.

The department thanks the following companies for sponsoring lunch: Silver Sponsors Civiltech Engineering, Inc. Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc.

Bronze Sponsors Bowman, Barrett, and Associates Inc. Carollo Engineers Ciroba Group Sargent & Lundy

For more information about hosting a booth at the CEE job fair, please contact Breanne Ertmer, (217) 2655426, ertmer@illinois.edu. i

Watch the job fair video Point your smart phone at this QR code to watch a three-minute video about the job fair or visit the department’s YouTube channel at youtube. com/ceeatillinois. Photo: Andre Hunter, CEE junior.

cee.illinois.edu/alumni/jobfair

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 29

department news

Students plan, execute EKS retreat

By Thomas Frankie ach year, during the coldest month of the Illinois winter, several dozen student researchers leave campus to attend a two-day conference at Allerton Park and Retreat Center in nearby Monticello, Ill. There they present their research, attend a poster session, and socialize with colleagues and professors. The major difference between this gathering and any other professional conference is that this one is planned, organized and attended almost entirely by Illinois CEE students.

The 8th annual EKS Retreat, named for the three professors who sponsor the event for their students — Amr Elnashai, Dan Kuchma and Bill Spencer — was held this year February 4-5. Approximately 40 students participated.

Student researchers look forward to this yearly opportunity to spend a weekend together away from campus in a setting that has the feel of a small-

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scale conference experience. Each year, participants spend a day and a half attending student presentations, a poster session, and a keynote lecture. These professional experiences are complemented by social events; attendees spend the night at the conference center and share meals together. The annual event is planned and coordinated by a student committee consisting of one student representative from each group and is funded by the three advisers.

The keynote speaker for this year’s retreat was Professor Jennifer T. Bernhard of U of I’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department.

She spoke on the features and benefits of pursuing a career in academia.

Saturday evening featured an array of social activities and games, includ-

EKS participants inside the Allerton Mansion Library. Photo by Nicholas Wierschem.

ing friendly ping-pong and poker competitions, as well as get-to-know-you games, karaoke, and even a magic show.

The event always fosters a great sense of unity within the groups. The impact of these experiences and perspectives gained, as well as the strong relationships built between students, will be felt far beyond their years at Illinois.i Full story at cee.illinois.edu/EKS. Thomas Frankie (BS 08, MS 10) is a CEE Ph.D. candidate studying the effects of combined actions on reinforced concrete structures in the Illinois NEES MUST-SIM facility and instructing the Spring 2012 offering of the department’s Experimental Methods course (CEE 498).

CEE faculty win grant to redesign core courses

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rofessors Praveen Kumar and David Lange will lead an initiative to redesign the department’s two foundational undergraduate courses, CEE201 Systems Engineering and Economics and CEE202 Engineering Risk and Uncertainty, thanks to a grant from the College of Engineering through its Strategic Instructional Initiatives Program (SIIP).

The goal of the college-wide program is to improve the efficiency of delivering

30 Visit CEE on the web at http://cee.illinois.edu

important gateway classes and to better relate learning to engineering practice.

The CEE proposal was one of five proposals chosen for the first phase of SIIP. The department will receive $100,000 for the project, renewable for up to three years.

Kumar and Lange will lead the redesign, but all eight faculty members who teach the courses will be involved in its redesign. The classes were chosen because they are considered critical to

student success. Most students take them as sophomores when they are deciding their primary and secondary areas of study, decisions that affect their career paths. The goals of the redesign include developing new content that reflects the emerging needs of the CEE profession, improving students’ ability to communicate technical matters, and developing new instructional methods. i

Old Masters

Engineering giants of the department’s history

Chester P. Siess

1916-2004 Educator, researcher, engineer

By Professors emeritus William J. Hall, John D. Haltiwanger and Narbey Khachaturian Chester P. Siess was born on July 23, 1916, in Alexandria, La. He earned his B.S. in civil engineering from Louisiana State University in 1936 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering with a structures concentration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1939 and 1948, respectively. He entered the engineering profession during the Depression as a survey party chief in the Rural Road Inventory Program of the Louisiana Highway Commission, and while there also organized a soil testing laboratory within the commission. In 1937 he began his graduate studies at the University of Illinois working as a Special Research Assistant in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. In June 1939 he joined Ralph B. Peck in the Chicago Subway Soils Laboratory. When that work was completed in April 1941, Siess assumed a short-term position in the New York Central Railroad Bridge Office in Chicago.

Siess returned to the University of Illinois in September 1941 as a Special Research Associate in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and in 1945 he was promoted to Special Research Assistant Professor. In 1949 he transferred to the Department of Civil Engineering as a Research Assistant Professor, where he participated in the programs of the Structural Engineering Laboratory, specializing in concrete research.

He proceeded through the ranks, becoming Professor of Civil Engineering in 1955 and serving as head of the department from 1973 to 1978, at which time he retired and was appointed Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering.

Siess’ contributions to the profession came about through tireless efforts in his

research studies and his instruction of more than 1,100 students (including 35 doctoral students), many of whom contributed greatly to the advancement of our knowledge in concrete. His intensive educational and research activity centered on the development of modern codes and standards; his published work was directed to practical applications for improving our understanding of the behavior of reinforced and prestressed concrete elements in bridges and buildings.

All of these activities contributed to improvement of the bases upon which our structures are more safely and economically designed and constructed.

Further exemplifying his contributions to the profession was his extensive participation in technical societies, particularly the American Concrete Institute (ACI) for which he served as president (1974-75). He was a member of ACI for more than 50 years and was a long-time member and chairman of Committee 318, which is responsible for the “Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete.” During his tenure as a professor at Illinois, he conducted research that provided the basis for much of the thinking behind the building codes for reinforced and prestressed concrete. During this era of great design and construction difficulties in concrete structures, Siess’ work

His intensive educational and research activity centered on the development of modern codes and standards. ... [improving] the bases upon which our structures are more safely and economically designed and constructed.

made the industry ultimately realize the sensitivity of shear to moment in reinforced concrete elements; this was a landmark contribution to structural engineering.

Among his numerous awards and honors are the following: American Concrete Institute Wason medal (1949, jointly with N.M. Newmark), Turner Medal (1964), the R.C. Reese Award (1956 and again in 1970, the latter jointly with J.O. Jirsa and M.A. Sozen), and Honorary Membership (1969); Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute Award (1956); American Society of Civil Engineers Research Prize (1956), Ernest E. Howard Award (1968), and Honorary Membership (1978). He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1967), was a Charter Member of Louisiana State University Engineering Hall of Distinction (1979), and received the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Distinguished Service Award (1987).

In 1994 Siess was chosen to be the 51st National Honor Member of Chi Epsilon, the Civil Engineering Honor Society.

The Chester and Helen Siess Endowed Professorship in Civil and Environmental Engineering was established in 2001.

Siess died on January 14, 2004. i

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 31

2012 CEE Student Awards A. Epstein Award in Civil Engineering Vince Kania

Peter Stynoski Jiansong Zhang

Alvord, Burdick & Howson Award Anna Waldron

Chicago Outer Belt Contractors Association Scholarship Anna Delheimer

Anna Lee and James T.P. Yao Scholarship Aditya Nagpal ASCE Outstanding Instructor Award Liang Liu ASCE Outstanding Student Award Jacob Thede Bates and Rogers Scholarship Brittany Cook Elliott Smith Nora Sadik Bob Zieba Memorial Scholarship Samantha Bryant Bowman, Barrett & Associates Outstanding Scholar Award David Kan C.S. and Ruth Monnier Scholarship Jenna Diestelmeier Cesar Rojas Carroll C. Wiley Traveling Award Ryan Smith

Thompson-McClelland

Caterpillar Scholars Scholarship Daniel Mosiman Reshmina Williams

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Civil Engineering Class of 1943 Undergraduate Leadership Award Bethany Myelle Crawford, Murphy, & Tilly Inc. Scholarship Si Si Laura Walsh CRSI Education and Research Foundation Scholarship Michael Kuo Delores Wade Huber Scholarship Ryan Chan DFI Educational Trust Berkel & Company Contractors Inc. Scholarship Justine Brennan Alex Lakocy Megan Wallace Doris I. and James L. Willmer Endowed Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Jessica Reifschneider Earle J. Wheeler Scholarship Luke Livers Paul Papazisi

CEE Outstanding Advising Award Helen Nguyen

Eli W. Cohen – Thornton Tomasetti Foundation Scholarship Hong Kim

CH2M Hill Transportation Endowed Scholarship Amanda Budnik

Ernest L. Doctor Memorial Award (IAPA) Ugwem Eneyo

Chester P. Siess Award

George L. Farnsworth, Jr. Scholarship Hanting Wang

Photos, top to bottom: Dan Malsom, left, received the Illinois Association of County Engineers Award, presented by Professor William Buttlar. Bethany Myelle received the Civil Engineering Class of 1943 Undergraduate Leadership Award, presented by Sidney Epstein (BS 43). Christopher Naranjo, right, received the Industry Advancement Foundation of Central Illinois Builders of the AGC Scholarship, presented by John B. Meek (BS 73), president of Felmley-Dickerson Co. Jose Martinez received the Max Whitman APWA Memorial Scholarship, presented by Nancy Whitman Ford.

Visit CEE on the web at http://cee.illinois.edu

Geotechnical Scholarship Gift Adam Blumstein Golf Course Builders Association of America Foundation Scholarship (GCBAA) Kyle Koenig Grant W. Shaw Memorial Scholarship Alek Heilstedt Christine Rhoades Harold R. Sandberg Scholarship Veronika Tomanova

Harry R. Hanley Memorial Scholarship (IAPA) Gilberto Chaidez Harvey Hagge Concrete Scholarship Illinois Ready Mix Concrete Association Alex Brand Henry T. Heald Award Denglin Wu Illinois Association of County Engineers Award Matthew Jarrett Andrew Kimmle Daniel Malsom Raphael Stern Industry Advancement Foundation of Central Ilinois Builders of the AGC Scholarship Christopher Naranjo Ira O. Baker Prize - First Prize Andrzej Tatkowski Ira O. Baker Prize - Second Prize Andrew Rehn Ira O. Baker Memorial Scholarships Michael Dodge Daniel Levitus Jack and Kay Briscoe Scholarship Richard Gutierrez Joseph Staats Klein and Hoffman Inc. Scholarship Daniel McCarthy Koch Scholarship in Civil and Environmental Engineering Ugwem Eneyo Leigh F. J. Zerbee Scholarship Civil Engineering Eric Lebow Erich Maxheimer Maude E. Eide Memorial Scholarship Laurie Dehaan Yesenia Gramajo Max Whitman APWA Memorial Scholarship Jose Martinez Melih T. Dural Undergraduate Research Prize Stephanie Tong Norman Carlson Scholarship Scott Schmidt

RJN Foundation Civil Engineering Scholarship Carlton Hlasten Road Builders Charities Scholarship Maria Warnock The Lawrence J. and Margaret J. Fritz Undergraduate Scholarship John Berg Walker Parking Consultants Scholarship Mona Patel Thierno Kane Walter L. and Carole A. Crowley Scholarship Andrew Rehn Wayne C. Teng Scholarship Rajarshi Bhakta Yuri Kim Marika Nell Winson Teng Wilfred F. and Ruth Davison Langelier Scholarship in Sanitary/Environmental Engineering Daniel Mosiman Alexandra Knicker William A. Oliver Endowed Scholarship Anthony Ali William C. Ackermann Sr. Civil Engineering Scholarship Andrew Bishop William E. O’Neil Award Ryan Altemare

Photos, top to bottom: Assistant Professor Thanh H. (Helen) Nguyen, posing with her son, Karl Vu, received the CEE Outstanding Advising Award, presented by Associate Professor Liang Liu, who won the American Society of Civil Engineers Outstanding Instructor Award.

Joseph Staats, left, and Richard Gutierrez, right, received Jack and Kay Briscoe scholarships, presented by Richard Briscoe. Andrew Rehn, center, received the Walter L. and Carole Crowley Scholarship, presented by the donors. Rehn also received the Ira O. Baker Second Prize. Si Si, left, and Laura Walsh received Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc. scholarships, presented by company representative Timothy P. Tappendorf (BS 80).

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012

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alumni news

2010s

© Shapiro Photography

Daniel D. Katz (BS 12) was hired by Manhard Consulting as a staff engineer in their Vernon Hills, Ill., office.

Michael King (BS 12) was hired by Manhard Consulting as a staff engineer in their Lombard, Ill., office.

Michael Musgrove (BS 10, MS 11), a civil engineering intern, recently joined Hanson and is working in the company’s St. Louis office. He currently is assisting with engineering during construction on a large earth dam project. Musgrove had worked with Hanson as a geotechnical engineering intern prior to accepting the full-time position.

2000s

Michael Grussing (MS 02), Lance Marrano (BS 97) current CEE graduate student Louis Bartels and Joe Karbaz, all employees of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) won the James D. Prendergast Technology Transfer Award from CERL. They were recognized for adoption of the BUILDER management system, a technology transfer that allows facility owners to manage their assets strategically and cost-effectively.

Michael Mendenhall, P.E., S.E., (BS 02), a structural engineer at Hanson Professional Services Inc. in Springfield, Ill., was named Young Engineer of the Year by the Capital Chapter of the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers.

Robert G. Pekelnicky (BS 00, MS 01) was named a Rising Star in Civil and Structural Engineering by business management consulting firm ZweigWhite. The award recognizes engineers aged 40 or younger who have excelled in their profession.

Pekelnicky is an Associate Principal at Degenkolb Engineers in San Francisco. For the past 10 years, Pekelnicky has been active in the development and improvement of codes and standards. He promotes and advances disaster resilience, multi-hazard mitigation, and code and standard development, as well as the idea that engineers can holistically address hazards.

Dziugas Reneckis (BS 02, MS 03, PhD 09) received an Outstanding Dissertation Award for his Ph.D. thesis, “Seismic Performance of Anchored Brick Veneer.” The Masonry Society recognized Reneckis at their annual meeting in November 2011. Currently, Reneckis works as a project engineer out of Thornton Tomasetti’s London office.

Ryan J. Solum (BS 03) was promoted to Project Manager at Manhard Consulting in Vernon Hills, Ill. 34

Visit CEE on the web at http://cee.illinois.edu

Scott Nacheman (MS 97) is a structures specialist with Illinois Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 and has served as a firefighter.

1990s

Mat Fletcher (BS 94) was named a Rising Star in Civil and Structural Engineering by business management consulting firm ZweigWhite. The award recognizes engineers aged 40 or younger who have excelled in their profession.

Fletcher works with Hanson in the company’s Peoria, Ill., office as a senior bridge engineer and railway project manager. He serves as a member of the American Railway EngiFletcher neering and Maintenance-ofWay Association’s Committee 15 on Steel Structures and is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Thomas A. Moore (BS 95, MS 97) recently had an article published in the spring issue of Wood Design Focus, a journal published by the Forest Products Society. The article was titled, “Using Structural Insulated Panels in Non-Residential Structures—a Case Study.”

Nominations invited: CEE alumni awards If you know of a deserving colleague who graduated from CEE at Illinois, consider nominating him or her for a CEE Alumni Association award. The Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award and the Young Alumnus/Alumna Achievement Award recognize those who have distinguished themselves in the field at different career stages. The next deadline is Aug. 1, 2012. For more information, please visit our alumni awards page of the CEE website at cee.illinois.edu/ CEEAAawards.

Scott G. Nacheman (MS 97) was named a Rising Star in Civil and Structural Engineering by business management consulting firm ZweigWhite. The award recognizes engineers aged 40 or younger who have excelled in their profession.

Nacheman is a Vice President at Thornton Tomasetti Inc. in Chicago. He specializes in building investigations, failure analysis and property loss consulting, as well as restoration/ repair design, and has served as a firefighter. He serves as a structures specialist with Illinois Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1, as well as DHS/FEMA US&R IN-TF1 and the FEMA Us&R IST incident management team.

John Peisker (BS 84, MS 94) was elected to serve as President of the Associated General Contractors of Illinois (AGCI) at this year’s AGCI convention in Normal, Ill. He has now served in every AGCI officer position.

Peisker’s goals for the year include funding for highways and airports, and advocacy at the state and federal level. He has worked with MACC of Illinois, the parent company of O’Neil Bros., for more than 15 years. Now serving as the vice president of O’Neil Bros., Peisker manages Peisker the safety, estimating, equipment, and construction aspects of operation.

1980s

William F. Baker (BS 80) was named a member of the National Academy of Construction this March. He is known for his work on tall buildings and long-span roof structures. Baker was the chief structural engineer for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest manmade structure. Baker began working with Skidmore Owings & Merrill in 1981 and was elected Partner in 1996. He was also the featured speaker in December at the College of Engineering Commencement.

Koch visits as first engineer in residence

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Pekelnicky Thomas DeJarld (BS 82) celebrated 25 years of service with Hanson Professional Services Inc., where he works as a senior structural engineer in Hanson’s Peoria, Ill., office. Since joining Hanson in 1987, DeJarld has worked on bridges, commercial and industrial structures and renovations, and water DeJarld and wastewater facilities. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Steel Construction, Building Officials Code Administrators, and is an elected member of the City of Peoria’s Construction Commission.

Nancy Love (BS 85, MS 86) is now a Board Certified Environmental Engineer of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. She serves as a professor at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor.

EE’s first Engineer in Residence, Paul Koch (BS 66, MS 68), visited the department on April 20.

The new program is an effort to bring accomplished alumni back to campus to interact with students and faculty.

Koch’s main presentation was entitled, “Now I’m an Engineer. Do I Want to be a Consultant?” About 85 students attended the talk, which also included a pizza lunch. Koch spent the rest of the day in the department, meeting one-on-one with students and faculty.

Koch has been the owner, Corporate Officer, and/or Chief Engineer of three consulting engineering companies and currently serves as a private consultant, supporting the efforts of several firms across the country to provide engineering, construction and/or IT services. Since 1971 he has been a pioneer in the development and application of GIS technology

for environmental engineering and water resource projects. He has experience in all aspects of environmental engineering, including planning, design, construction, facilities operation and financial/management support. He has provided professional engineering services in all media–water supply, stormwater, wastewater, solid/hazardous wastes and air quality.

This year, Koch received the College of Engineering’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Service and the University of Illinois Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award.

If you have questions about the CEE Engineer in Residence Program or would like to submit nominations for upcoming alumni visitors, please contact Breanne Ertmer by email at ertmer@illinois.edu, or by phone at 217-265-5426. i

CEE at Illinois Corporate Partners Program cee.illinois.edu/cpp The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering gratefully acknowledges the following companies who contribute to CEE at Illinois as Corporate Partners.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 35

alumni news Dan Pape (BS 87) recently celebrated 25 years of service to Crawford, Murphy & Tilly. He specializes in the design, construction and site development of airfields. Over the course of his career, Pape has provided services on numerous airfield construction projects, including the DuPage Airport in West Chicago, Ill., St. Louis – Lambert Airport, and O’Hare International Airport. He currently is working on rehabilitation projects that will prepare Chicago Rockford International Airport for the new Boeing 747-8 series planes and other wide body cargo aircraft. Pape resides in St. Charles, Ill. Pape Michelle Halle Stern (BS 88) began working for HDR Architecture as their director of sustainable design services. She is a nationally recognized leader in LEED building design and previously was an associate at Perkins + Will.

1970s

Rodger B. Jackson (BS 67, PhD 79) was awarded the first Distinguished Alumni Award of the Morrill Engineering Program (MEP) for his years of service to MEP and to the College of Engineering.

James K. Wright (PhD 73) was elected as president of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) for 2012-2013 at this year’s ACI convention in Dallas, Texas. He currently works as a professor of civil engineering at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate classes in structural engineering. Wright’s research focuses on the design of earthquake-resistant concrete structures and postearthquake damage studies.

1960s

Paul Koch (BS 66, MS 68) received the College of Engineering’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Service and the University of Illinois Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award.

Richard Lanyon (BS 60, MS 61) has published Building the Canal to Save Chicago, a book that details the city’s endeavor to construct a massive public works system to save Chicago from a public health disaster. The book recounts the history that led to the building of the canal and addresses in words and pictures the technical aspects of the engineering and construction that made the project a reality. Lanyon worked with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago for 48 years.

Ward R. Malisch (BS 61, MS 63, PhD 66) received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC) on September 17, 2011. He serves as the technical director for ASCC and was the editor of Concrete Construction magazine for 14 years. He was also a senior managing director for the American Concrete Institute.

Alumnus, Jess C. Brown (BS 98, MS 99, PhD 02), right, pictured with Professor Emeritus Vern Snoeyink, gave the keynote speech at the Environmental Engineering and Science Symposium April 6. Brown is a Vice President and Research and Development Practice Director for Carollo Engineers in their Sarasota, Fla., office. He spoke on “Overcoming Conventional Wisdom in the Drinking Water Industry.” Snoeyink was Brown’s adviser.

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Visit CEE on the web at http://cee.illinois.edu

1950s

Bernie Schwartz (BS 56) and his wife, Charlotte Adelman, have published their book, The Midwestern Native Garden – Native Alternatives to Nonnative Flowers and Plants; An Illustrated Guide. The book offers suggestions for gardening with wildflowers while avoiding the use of invasive plants and includes color photographs.

Marcus Dersch (BS 09, MS 10), left, and J. Riley Edwards (MS 06) pause for a picture in the Yeh Center before embarking on the AREMA C-30 and International Concrete Crosstie and Fastening System Symposium Technical Tour June 6.

The technical tour, hosted by Union Pacific, was the first main event of the symposium, which drew more than 100 attendees. Two buses took participants to a number of sites, including the department’s Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory in Rantoul, Ill.

Cookie giveaway brightens EWeek The department celebrated national Engineers Week 2012 with a cookie giveaway, made possible by alumni gifts, in the Yeh Center lobby on February 21. Point your smart phone at the code to watch a one-minute video of it, or visit the department’s YouTube page: youtube.com/ceeatillinois.

“Bond, Amr Bond” Professor and Head Amr Elnashai tries out the Jaguar. Below, the interior of the Q Boat.

Several items from the James Bond collection of Electrical and Computer Engineering alumnus Mike VanBlaricum, above, Chief Scientist and President Emeritus of Toyon Research Corporation, were on display for the 2012 Engineering Open House. The Jaguar XKR and Bombardier Rev 800 MXZ Ski-Doo from “Die Another Day” and the Q boat from “The World is Not Enough” were showcased in the Newmark crane bay. VanBlaricum is president of the Ian Fleming Foundation, dedicated to the study and preservation of Fleming’s literary works. In addition, the foundation acquires and preserves subsequent products of the original works, including films, merchandise and memorabilia. Mike’s daughter, Ann (BS 03, MS 05) is a CEE alumna and an engineer with Wiss, Janney, Elstner in Boston. Mike VanBlaricum is a history buff in addition to Bond memorabilia afficionado; he is working on a College of Engineering history and a distributed museum of engineering innovations here on campus.

CEE bids farewell to Bob Dodds at retirement reception CEE faculty and staff gathered in the Yeh Center May 10 for a retirement reception honoring Professor Robert H. Dodds Jr. (MS 75, PhD 78), who served as department head from 2004-2009.

Dodds and his wife, Deana BlandDodds, have moved to Maryville, Tenn.

Dodds will consult with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Dalton Nuclear Institute at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom on material/structural issues in commercial nuclear power plants and hold a position as a part-time research professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

“I’m very fortunate to leave CEE at a time of great strength in the department — in our outstanding leadership, faculty and staff, finances and facilities,” Dodds said. “In academics, just as in athletics, it’s always best to leave at a high point.” i

Bob Dodds and his wife, Deana Bland-Dodds, at his retirement reception in May.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 37

to select new officers for the CEE Alumni Association Board of Directors According to the bylaws of the CEE Alumni Association,the board is required to publish the slate of nominations for constituent approval. All CEE alumni are asked to cast their votes and return this ballot by mail or email to the addresses below.

Open positions for Board of Directors for the new term: President 2012-2014:

Tracy K. Lundin (BS 80, MS 82), Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois Write-in: Past President 2012-2014:

Lawrence P. Jaworski (BS 72, MS 73), Brown and Caldwell, Beltsville, Maryland Vice President 2012-2014:

Allen J. Staron (BS 74), Clark Dietz Inc., Chicago, Illinois Write-in: 2nd Vice President 2012-2014:

Colleen E. Quinn, Ricondo & Associates Inc., Chicago, Illinois Write-in: Directors 2012-2014 (vote for two):

James M. Daum (BS 77), Bowman, Barrett and Associates Inc., Chicago, Illinois Dana B. Mehlman (BS 99, MS 01), Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, Chicago, Illinois Write-in: Please mail to: Breanne Ertmer External Relations Coordinator 205 N. Mathews Ave. Urbana, IL 61801 Or email your choices to: ertmer@illinois.edu.

in memoriam

Ballot

2000s

John J. Hausman (BS 99, MS 01) died Jan. 24. He was 34. Hausman published a paper in 2000 that won the Transportation Research Board’s Fred Burggraf Award, given for his excellent research and publication of a “paper of outstanding merit.”

He also worked as a civil engineer for Applied Research Associates in Champaign.

alry Unit in the Army and was a WWII veteran. He also served at the U.S. HQ Command in Shanghai as sergeant in charge of the motor pool.

William D. Holmes (BS 51) died Nov. 30, 2011. He was 82.

Norman M. Lucas (BS 51) died Feb. 5. He was 82. Lucas worked with Western Electric for 32 years, eventually becoming the Manager of Northeast Labor Relations for the company.

Jeffrey P. Impens (BS 76, MS 81) died Jan. 24. He was 58.

Impens worked for Clark Dietz, SEC Donahue, Rust International, URS, Earth Tech and AECOM.

Donald W. Pfeifer (BS 59) died Dec. 4, 2011. He was 75.

Pfeifer worked for Wiss Janney Elstner & Associates from 1976-1998 and served on technical committees for the Precast Concrete Institute and the American Concrete Institute.

He published more than 70 technical papers over the course of his career.

1970s

1940s

1980s

David D. Moore (MS 72) died Sept. 2, 2011. He was 65.

Moore served as the dam safety-emergency action plan supervisor for the Grant County Public Utility District in Ephrata, Wash., for 25 years.

1960s

Richard McConnell (MS 60) died Jan. 15. He was 87. McConnell was an aerospace engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and also a Director of Structural Engineering Service for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Robert S. McLeod (BS 62) died Nov. 25, 2011. McLeod specialized in groundwater modeling, remediation, and environmental cleanup. He founded Robert S. McLeod and Associates in 1982.

Richard L. Rolf (MS 60) died Jan. 31. He was 76. Rolf worked for 35 years at the Alcoa Research Laboratory and was a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania.

He was issued three patents for his work. By the time he retired in 1995, he also had earned a reputation as a product design consultant and advised on problems that arose in the fabrication of aluminum products.

Lt. Col. John P. Beeson (MS 47) died Nov. 28, 2011. He was 91.

Beeson worked as a civil engineer for the Army for 25 years and later worked for the Texas Water Development Board and Brown & Root. He finished his career at the University of Texas, where he served as the chief of construction inspection for the entire university system.

Col. Howard W. Spence (BS 40) died Sept. 21, 2010. He was 93. Spence served in the Army Air Corps during WWII and joined the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps after retiring from the Army.

Paul R. Tutt (BS 49) died Dec 16, 2011. He was 85. Tutt worked as a traffic engineer for the Texas Highway Department for 27 years. He then served as the assistant director at the University of Tennessee Transportation Research Center.

1930s

1950s

William L. Bost (BS 52) died Jan. 21. He was 81. Bost served in the Army from 1954-56.

He worked with ET Simonds Construction Company from 1970 until 2005, serving as Vice President and Operations Manager until 2004.

Dean R. Felton (BS 51) died Feb. 10. He was 85. Felton served as a member of the last mounted Cav-

Dan S. Bechly (BS 43) died Dec. 24, 2011. He was 89. Bechly was a nationally recognized railroad bridge engineer who worked with the Illinois Central Railroad for 40 years. He was a life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Railway Engineering Association, and the American Railway Bridge and Building Association.

Dean Felton

Josiah S. Cooper Jr. (BS 39) died Dec. 26, 2011. He was 93.

Cooper served in the Navy and was stationed on the USS Alabama during WWII. He also worked as a cartographer for the U.S. Geological Survey and later as a civil engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Thomas B. Sear (BS 36) died Dec. 14, 2011. He was 97. Sear taught at Cornell and at Rochester University and was named Engineer of the Year by the Rochester Engineering Society in 1969. Sear also began his own firm, the Sear-Brown Group, which specialized in residential land development.

Clyde E. Kesler (BS 43, MS 46) (1922-2011)

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lyde E. Kesler, CEE professor emeritus, died Dec. 30, 2011. He was 89.

Born on May 7, 1922, in Condit Township, Ill., Kesler graduated from Champaign High School in 1939 and from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 1943.

After earning his undergraduate degree, Kesler enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving during WWII in General Patton’s Third Army and attaining the rank of captain. After the war, he served until 1946 in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Reserves with the ultimate rank of major. He received his M.S. degree in 1946 in civil engineering with an emphasis on structural engineering from the University of Illinois.

Beginning in 1947, Kesler held positions in the University of Illinois’ Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM), becoming a Professor in TAM in 1962. Thereafter he held appointments in TAM and Civil Engi-

neering jointly. He retired in 1982 with the rank of Emeritus Professor.

During his career, Kesler was active in a number of technical and professional organizations, including the American Concrete Institute (president in 1967), the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American Society of Engineering Education. Technically, Kesler was an expert in the properties of cements, additives (for example, fibers, for which he held a patent), and aggregates of many kinds for reinforced concrete. He carried out basic research on fatigue strength, cracking and durability of concrete materials. He was called to be a consultant by scores of companies in the United States and overseas.

Kesler was honored with many awards, including the prestigious American Concrete Institute Landau Award in 1971 and the Halliburton Education Leadership Award from the University of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign College of Engineering in 1982. In 1977, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering.

Kesler achieved fame when in 1970 instead of having his concrete class cast the usual cylinders and small beams, he challenged them to build a concrete canoe as a class project. A year later Purdue had joined in the building and racing competition, and the concept blossomed nationally and internationally, today involving thousands of college students worldwide. By 1987 the American Society of Civil Engineers had agreed to manage the competitions. The Illinois Team, named the Boneyard Yacht Club after a creek going through campus, marked its 40th year in 2011. Kesler remained a supporter of the team until his death, and he is known at Illinois as the Father of the Concrete Canoe. —W.J. Hall

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Wilson H. Tang

Tang had a distinguished academic career in which he made significant contributions in the areas of safety and reliability analysis in civil engineering. He had led the profession in promoting and pioneering the use of reliability-based methods for risk mitigation and design in various areas, particularly in geotechnical engineering. His expertise covered application of probability methods to the wide area of civil infrastructure engineering and management. He had more than 250 technical publications and his co-authored book (with A. H-S Ang), “Probability Concepts in Engineering Planning & Design,” revised in 2007, has been widely adopted by top universities worldwide.

Tang’s many awards included the State of the Art award, Fellow and Dis-

tinguished Member from the American Society of Civil Engineering, T.K. Hsieh Award from the Institution of Civil Engineers U.K., U.S. Offshore Energy Center’s Hall of Fame, Guggenheim Fellow, Harza Best Paper Award, Natural Science Award from the Ministry of Education of China, Fellow and Vice President of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, and Honorary Professorship at several major universities. A prestigious keynote lecture, the Wilson Tang Lecture, of the serial conferences of International Symposium on Geotechnical Safety & Risk, was inaugurated in 2009 to recognize and honor Tang’s significant contributions. i

(1943-2012)

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ilson H. Tang, who taught in the department for 27 years, died Jan. 5 in Chicago. He was 68.

Born in Hong Kong, Tang earned bachelor’s (1966) and master’s (1967) degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate (1969) from Stanford University, all in civil engineering. He taught in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 27 years, until joining the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Civil Engineering in 1996.

Under his leadership, that department evolved into one of the best in Asia. He retired in 2009, but remained active in research, teaching and public service.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 39

CEE at Illinois Alumni Dinner in Chicago

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hicago-area alumni, CEE faculty, students and friends of the department gathered March 4 at the Union League Club in Chicago for the annual CEE at Illinois Alumni Dinner in Chicago. The event included a cocktail reception, dinner, the presentation of the CEE Alumni Association awards, and a department update

by Professor and Head Amr S. Elnashai.

For the CEE students who signed up to attend the dinner, the day also included a tour of the project to improve Lower Wacker Drive. The department would like to thank the following individuals for hosting the tour and making presentations to students: Oswaldo Chaves, Anthony Albert, Cliff Olszewski, John Naughton (BS 89, MS 91), Brian Racine (BS 00), Dan Burke (BS 92, MS 93) and Andrew Keaschall (BS 04, MS 05).

With gratitude, CEE acknowledges the following sponsors of the alumni dinner: Gold Level

Trotter and Associates Inc.

Silver Level

AECOM Benesch Bowman, Barrett & Associates Burns & McDonnell Greeley and Hansen Hanson Professional Services Inc. H. W. Lochner Inc. Milhouse Engineering & Construction RJN Group TranSystems Above, Pedro Cevallos (MS 77, PhD Wight and Company 80), Primera Engineers. Below left, Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. Christopher King (BS 81) of Robin-

Bronze Level

Baxter & Woodman Inc. CB&I Clark Dietz Crawford, Murphy & Tilly Inc. Donohue & Associates Inc. Epstein F. H. Paschen John Frauenhoffer HDR Inc. HNTB Ingenii LLC Larry Jaworski, Brown & Caldwell Tracy Lundin, Fermilab MWH Global Ricondo and Associates Steve Raupp, Sargent & Lundy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP W. E. O’Neil Construction V3 Companies

40

son Engineering Ltd. with students (from left) Nam-Jeong Choi and Hao Luo. Below right, student Chenchen Liu with Paula Pienton (BS 85), AECOM, and Jack Barrett (BS 52), Bowman, Barrett and Associates.

Visit CEE on the web at http://cee.illinois.edu

At left, Assistant Professor Cassandra Rutherford speaks at the dinner. Below, (from left) Professor Charlie Werth, David and Frances Sabatini, and Professor Al Valocchi.

cee.illinois.edu/alumni_awards_2012.

2012 CEE Alumni Awards The Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association is pleased to announce the 2012 recipients of its Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award and Young Alumnus/Alumna Achievement Award. The Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award recognizes professional accomplishments or unique contributions to society by alumni of the department. The Young Alumnus/Alumna Achievement Award recognizes a recent graduate who has achieved distinction in his or her field and reached a level of accomplishment significantly greater than that of other recent graduates. The honorees were recognized at the Chicago Regional Dinner Meeting in March.

From left: (front row) Adrienne Menniti, Ralph Anderson and Gary Klein, (back row) David Sabatini and Michael Kohn, the son of award winner Starr Kohn, who was honored posthumously.

Starr Kohn

Distinguished Alumnus Award Young Alumna Award Adrienne Menniti, Ph.D. (MS 03, PhD 08) Process Engineer CH2M HILL Portland, Oregon For technical expertise and leadership in the evaluation, modeling and design of wastewater treatment facilities, and for outstanding performance in teaching and training of process principles to wastewater treatment operations personnel.

Ralph E. Anderson (BS 77) Project Manager Fehr-Graham & Associates Springfield, Illinois For outstanding commitment to the advancement and implementation of bridge design concepts in the state of Illinois; for extensive dedication to research in the areas of design, seismology and bridge capacity; for superior technical and administrative leadership as State Bridge Engineer; and for exemplary service to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Illinois.

Gary J. Klein, P.E., S.E. (BS 73, MS 75) Senior Principal and Executive Vice President Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. Northbrook, Illinois

Starr D. Kohn, Ph.D., P.E. (BS 76, MS 78) (1953-2008)

Awarded posthumously, for outstanding leadership in the development of innovative solutions in pavement engineering in the areas of For significant and lasting pavement management, impact on research and non-destructive testing, practice in the fields of failure improved long-term paveinvestigations and strucment performance, forensic tural assessments, and for studies and construction outstanding contributions troubleshooting, and for conveying knowledge from dedicated service to the civil these investigations to the engineering profession. structural engineering community.

David A. Sabatini, Ph.D. (BS 81) David Ross Boyd Professor & Sun Oil Company Endowed Chair of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science University of Oklahoma Norman, Oklahoma For outstanding leadership and pioneering contributions in the field of hazardous waste remediation using surfactants and the development of appropriate and sustainable technologies for addressing water quality issues in remote villages of developing countries.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association—Summer 2012 41

“To thy happy children of the future, those of the past send greetings.”

C

lass of 2012 graduates might enjoy seeing this photo of their counterparts of 100 years ago. Frederick S. Simmons, the son of CEE alumnus John W. Simmons (BS 1912), sent this photo showing the University of Illinois civil engineering graduating class of 1912. His father is the third from the left in the front row.

“John W. Simmons Jr. (1888 - 1958) was born in Keithsburg, Ill.,” Frederick Simmons writes. “His father, John W. Simmons Sr., had moved there from Pennsylvania a few years earlier to supervise the construction of a railroad bridge spanning the Mississippi. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1912 with the degree B.S. in Civil Engineering. (His brother James L. received a B.S in Pharmacology also from Illinois in 1914.) Following graduation, he worked for a construction company in Illinois before entering the Army in 1917. After his discharge in 1919, he returned to Illinois, where he married his sister Winifred’s friend Grace. Shortly thereafter he accepted a position with a consulting firm in New York City that specialized in bridge design and construction. Around 1930 he took a position with the New Jersey Department of Highways; subsequently he worked as a civil engineer within the federal civil service. He had three children: John W. III, a computer programmer; Dorothy A., a U.S. Army nurse ; and Frederick S., an aerospace engineer.”

Our observation is that the graduates of today are more numerous, more diverse, and less somber — maybe because they get to wear fancy caps and gowns instead of those stiff collars.

Aviation Bridges Buildings Construction Services Cost Management Electrical

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