2021 Civil and Environmental Engineering Outstanding Recent Faculty Hires

OUTSTANDING RECENT FACULTY HIRES Jerome F. Hajjar, CDM Smith Professor and Chair of Northeastern’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, is proud to recognize our exceptional recent faculty hires.

Fatemeh Ghoreishi

Assistant Professor PhD: Texas A&M University, 2019 Postdoctoral Researcher: University of Maryland, 2019-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021 Scholarship and Focus: Design and decision-making under uncertainty, machine learning and data analysis, multidisciplinary design optimization, autonomous and cyber-physical systems Awards and Recent Projects: • Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2020 • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Institute for Systems Research (ISR) at the University of Maryland, 2019-2021 • Rising Stars in Computational and Data Sciences, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, 2019

Julia Hopkins

Assistant Professor PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017 Postdoctoral Associate: Delft University of Technology, 2017-20 Joined Northeastern: August 2020 Scholarship and Focus: Coastal morphodynamics, including effects of extreme weather events on sediment transport in the surf zone; wavecurrent interactions in the nearshore; developing and implementing field-verified numerical models to study coastal processes, informing coastal management with process-based research Awards and Recent Projects: • “SBIR Phase I: The Emerald Tutu,” NSF (Co-PI), 2020 • MIT Climate Changed Design Competition – First Place, 2018

Jack Lesko

Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, jointly appointed in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director for Engineering Research at the Roux Insitute PhD: Virginia Tech, 1994 Professor: Virginia Tech, 1995-2021 Joined Northeastern: July 2021 Scholarship Focus: Emerging interdisciplinary design involving lightweight polymeric multifunctional materials, structural design and reliability, with additional experience in distributed energy systems (storage, power transfer, packaging, and manufacturing), polymeric separation membranes, building energy efficiency design and construction, technology transfer Awards and Recent Projects: • “Engineering Research Center for the Global Environmental Nitrogen Network – GEN2 Planning Grant,” NSF (Co-PI), 2019 • “Manufacturing Education for Electromagnetic Functional Composites,” ONR (Co-PI), 2019

NORTHEASTERN ENGINEERING

Kelsey Pieper

Assistant Professor PhD: Virginia Tech, 2015 Research Scientist: Virginia Tech, 2018-19 Joined Northeastern: August 2019 Scholarship and Focus: Applied environmental chemistry; corrosion; drinking water quality, treatment, and infrastructure; post-disaster drinking water recovery; public health engineering Awards and Recent Projects: • “Inequity in Access to Safe Drinking Water after Natural Disasters in North Carolina,” NASA (PI), 2021 • “Extreme Water use Patterns and their Impact on the Microbial and Chemical Ecology of Drinking Water,” NSF, (Co-PI), 2020

Julia Varshavsky

Assistant Professor PhD: University of California, Berkeley, 2017 Research Scientist: California Environmental Protection Agency, 2020-21 Joined Northeastern: July 2021 Scholarship Focus: Environmental exposures and maternal-child health outcomes and will continue to work on biomonitoring studies and advancing risk assessment in vulnerable communities Awards and Recent Projects: • National Science Foundation Systems Approach to Green Energy (SAGE) Fellowship Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT), 2015-17 • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship, 2012-15

Yang Zhang

Professor and Distinguished Fellow PhD: University of Iowa, 1994 Professor: North Carolina State University, 2009-2019 Joined Northeastern: January 2020 Scholarship Focus: Atmospheric and environmental research at the interface of earth system sciences that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries including energy, air, water, forest, ocean, soil, food, and health Awards and Recent Projects: • “U.S. EPA Air, Climate and Energy (ACE) Centers: Solutions for Energy, AiR, Climate, and Health (SEARCH): Project 3: Improving Projections of the Spatial and Temporal Changes of Multi-Pollutants to Enhance Assessment of Public Health in a Changing World,” U.S. EPA (PI), 2015 • “Towards Optimal Configurations of NAQFC Chemistry and Aerosol Representations,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (PI), 2019

INNOVATING FOR SOCIETY

The department has 45 tenured/tenure-track and affiliated faculty, and $28M in external research funding received from 2019-2021. Strategically focused on urban engineering, we are preparing students for global challenges by exploring the unique ways in which the built and natural environment interact. Our faculty are conducting critical research in civil infrastructure security, environmental health, and sustainable resource engineering.

About Northeastern Civil and Environmental Engineering

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