Message from the Chair Greetings from Tampa Bay! We have completed another remarkable academic year at the University of South Florida’s (USF) Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) department.
Directors of the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors (AEESP). Dr. Sarina Ergas was designated a prestigious 2015 Water Environment Federation Fellow.
At the beginning of this academic year two outstanding transportation academics joined the department; Dr. Fred Mannering, former Department Chair and Charles Pankow Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue University and Dr. Xiaopeng Li, NSF CAREER Award winner from Mississippi State University. In addition, Dr. Robert Bertini, former Deputy Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) at the U.S. Department of Transportation is expected to join USF as Director of the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) and Professor in the department.
In addition, several graduate students won national recognition over the past year. Gregory Hinds (CEE MS graduate), won the 2016 American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists William Brewster Snow award. Matthew Verbyla (Ph.D. Environmental Engineering graduate) won the 2016 W. Wesley Eckenfelder Graduate Research Award given annually by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES).
It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. James Mihelcic, Florida 21st Century World Scholar as the Julia M. and Samuel L. Flom Endowed Chair in the department. A number of our faculty members were also recognized nationally for their outstanding achievements. Dr. Gray Mullins received the ASCE 2015 Charles Pankow Award for Innovation. Dr. Maya A. Trotz was elected to a three-year term on the Board of
I acknowledge the efforts of Ms. Barbara Johnson, Administrative Assistant of the CEE dept. for her collection of news items and Mr. Ryan Wakefield, Communications and Marketing Department of the College of Engineering for his efforts in publishing this newsletter. Finally, as a recently designated emerging pre-eminent university in Florida, we are excited about the imminent prospects of being elevated in the near future to the ranks of America’s most preeminent universities.
Manjriker Gunaratne, Ph.D., P.E. Professor and Chairman 2
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