Research

Research Overview

Research in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences focuses on multi-disciplinary problems relevant to society. Areas under study by researchers in the department include:

• Natural and Manmade Hazards (winds, waves and currents, floods, earthquakes, blast, fire, nuclear forensics)
• Civil Infrastructure (buildings, bridges, shelters, towers, dams, levies);
• Fluid Flow and Transport (atmospheric, surface water, and groundwater flows)
• The Environment (sustainable water and energy resources, water and wastewater treatment, environmental protection);
• Energy (solar, nuclear, wind, bio)
• Earth and Planetary Systems (geochemistry, mineralogy and petrology, hydrology, geomicrobiology, contaminants, planetary science and exploration, global climate change)

Dynamic and thriving undergraduate and graduate programs are integrated into our research enterprise. Students at all levels have opportunities to engage in research with significant practical and societal impact. Faculty, students, and staff work together to create and sustain a quality culture of learning, discovery, and creativity.

Environmental Engineering

Our group uses fundamental knowledge in engineering, math, chemistry, biology, and geology to address critical environmental challenges in the areas of sustainable water and energy resources, water and wastewater treatment, and environmental protection in both developed and developing countries.

In the past, environmental engineers were tasked mostly with designing water and wastewater treatment plants, managing solid waste, developing and overseeing regulations, monitoring air quality, and remediating contaminated soil and water areas like Superfund sites. While these problems are still relevant, our focus is now on preventing problems, and on developing new generations of graduates who understand sustainability, population growth, and food, water, and energy demands.

Faculty

Environmental Fluid Dynamics

This group studies flow and transport in a diverse range of environmental systems, including the atmosphere, the oceans, lakes, streams and subsurface environments (e.g. groundwater, oil) as well as the interfaces that connect these diverse systems.

Our work focuses on understanding the fundamental processes in these systems to improve our ability to work harmoniously with nature. We seek to better design infrastructure to mitigate against natural disasters; manage and remediate air and water quality; improve our ability to forecast weather in extreme environments; and develop sustainable plans to deal with future conditions that evolve under climate change.

Our work encompasses laboratory and field scale experiments, the development of improved theories and the development and application of numerical models.

Research Interests in Environmental Fluid Dynamics

Faculty in Environmental Fluid Dynamics

Environmental Earth Sciences

Earth Sciences research is highly quantitative and multidisciplinary, integrating advanced laboratory, field, and modeling approaches. It focuses on the fundamental controls on environmental and geologic process, with strengths in geochemistry; mineralogy and petrology; hydrogeology; geomicrobiology; planetary science and exploration; and environmental science.

Research interests

Faculty

Structural Engineering

This group focuses on wind and earthquake engineering, structural health monitoring, steel and concrete systems, risk analysis and mitigation, extreme loads, structural optimization, computational statistics, and design and optimization of kinetic structures.

Structural faculty are involved in multidisciplinary research programs that focus on multiple and often interacting hazards (wind and waves, fires and earthquakes, blast and collapse). They develop novel risk mitigation and management strategies and solutions and develop infrastructural systems that can withstand multiple hazards, for the benefit of current and future generations.

Research interests in Structural Engineering

Faculty