Page 5 - CEGE Magazine - Fall 2021

recent advances in the physics and mathematics of elastic films. Most participants were from physics, so I had an opportunity to learn about theories
in circulation in that community. I also had an opportunity to showcase my research, which was relevant to some of the participants.”
SOFIA MOGILEVSKAYA received NSF funding ($301,741 over 3 years) for her project “Theoretical-Computational Framework for Modeling of Compos- ite Materials with Thin Coatings and Two-Dimensional Reinforcements.” Mogilevskaya will work on developing novel methodologies to accurately
and efficiently model the emerging generation of composite materials
that have thin coating layers used to prevent damage, increase durability, and enhancement performance of structures and products in a variety of industries.
OTTO D. L. STRACK received the King Hubbert Award from the National Groundwater Association (NGWA). The award is presented to a person who has made a major science or engineer- ing contribution to the groundwater industry through research, technical papers, teaching, and practical appli- cations. The formal presentation of the award will be at the NGWA meeting in December 2021.
ALUMNI
PAUL D. BURLEY (BCE 1980; BS Geology 1987; MS Geological Sciences 2016) began his career as a construc- tion engineer, then turned to consulting in the areas of geotechnical engineering and environmental geology. In tandem with his professional services, he has always had a particular interest in the history of architecture, engineering, science and technology, and indige- nous and ancient cultures. He has authored several articles on the topic and two books, The Sacred Sphere (2012) and Stonehenge: As Above, So Below (2014).
CHRISTINE DETOURNAY (MS 1980, Ph.D. 1985), Principal Engineer at Itasca Consulting Group, delivered the 35th Interna-
tional Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering (ISRM) Online Lecture. Her title is “Findings from Numerical Modeling at the Site of a High Dam on the Jinsha River.” Her expertise is in the development of numerical models for application to coupled fluid-thermo-mechanical problems. Online lectures are available from the ISRM webpage.
PANAYIOTIS “PANOS” DIPLAS (MS 1983, Ph.D. 1986) has been named recipient of the 2021 Hunter Rouse Hydraulic
Engineering Award. The annual award from the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of ASCE honors Diplas for “fundamental contri- butions to the role of turbulence in sediment transport, ecohydraulics, stream restoration and scour.” He presented the Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Lecture at the 2021 EWRI World Environmental & Water Resources Congress, held virtually, June 7-11, 2021. Diplas is the P.C. Rossin Professor of Water Resources Engineer- ing at Lehigh University. He returned to UMN in 2007 as the J.S. Braun/Braun Intertec Visiting Professor in CEGE.
MELISSA DUHN
(BCE 2012), former laboratory manager at the Minnesota Traffic Observatory (MTO), completed her Master of Urban
and Regional Planning degree (2021). She was featured on the website of the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs in June 2021.
NOAH GERMOLUS
(BEnvE 2018), who graduated with high honors, is now a Ph.D. candidate
at the MIT-Woods
Hole Oceano- graphic Institution. He has published
a paper that grew out of his honors thesis. The paper, “Long-term water color and flow trends in the Mississippi River Headwaters, 1944–2010,” was co-authored by NOAH P. GERMOLUS, PATRICK L. BREZONIK, RAYMOND M.
HOZALSKI, and Jacques C. Finlay (Ecology, Evolution and Behavior). It was published in Limnology and Oceanogra- phy in July (doi: 10.1002/lno.11898).
ROLF HALDEN (MS 1994, Ph.D. 1997) is director of the Center for Environmen- tal Health Engineering at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. His lab had been analyzing the wastewater of Guadalupe, Arizona, for nearly two years. In 2018, they started fishing out molecular fingerprints of different kinds of opioids consumed across the city. The next year, they got a National Insti- tutes of Health grant to use that mon- itoring network to track influenza. But when SARS-CoV-2 emerged that winter, they quickly pivoted to testing for the new coronavirus instead. For decades, Halden had been a lonely evangelist for the emerging field of wastewater-based epidemiology, and he believes Guada- lupe illustrates the potential of water- based epidemiology has to transform public health in the US by creating a near-real-time monitoring network that could identify pathogens and even chronic conditions like cancer, Alzhei- mer’s, and mental health disorders.
AMY HANSEN (Ph.D. 2012) led the research on a new tool to assess watershed management approaches. The work started when she was a postdoctoral researcher in CEGE and continued in her current position as an assistant professor at the University
of Kansas. She had several collabora- tors from UMN and other universities. Hanson said, “Our rivers integrate what’s happening across the landscape, so that location that you love to go and fish or swim—whether that continues
to be a great place to fish or swim has a lot to do with the choices that people are making further upstream.” The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (doi: 10.1073/pnas.2024912118).
KONSTANTINOS KOUTSOUKOS (MSCE 1992, advised by Gary Davis) has been elected as chairman of the Board of Directors at Hellastron (Hellenic Associ- ation of Toll Road Network) where, until recently, he was the general secretary. Koutsoukos is a Civil Engineer and Transportation Specialist with over 30 years of experience in Greece and the US. He is also CEO of Egnatia Odos SA.
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 5