Page 3 - CEGE Magazine Fall 2023

UNIVERSITY / DEPT
CEGE honored the exceptional schol- arly achievements of ZDENEK P. BAŽANT by awarding him
an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota. Bažant’s generative scientific
contributions shaped the frontiers of solid mechanics and structural engineering. His discovery of the size effect law and his development of crack band, micro- plane, and concrete creep models have profoundly impacted engineering prac- tice. As part of the celebration at Walter Library, Bažant presented a lecture titled “Scaling in size, time and risk—the hurdle of huge extrapolations overcome by multi-sided asymptotic matching.”
RANKINGS. The US News and World Report ranked UMN’s Environmental Engineering graduate program #9 and the Civil Engineering graduate program #19 among all universities, public and private. https://twin-cities.umn.edu/ news-events/u-m-graduate-programs- excel-latest-us-news-rankings
For the second year in a row, the University of Minnesota participated in the Times Higher Ed Impact Rankings (THE Impact Rankings), which compares educational institutes for their commit- ment and efforts to conduct research, outreach, stewardship, and teaching in areas of building a more sustainable, equitable and healthy future. Submissions included 1,591 institutions from 112 countries/regions. The U of M system ranks eighth in U.S.
The University of Minnesota has been recognized among the top public schools in the country for undergraduate
CEGENEWS education in a number of categories by
U.S. News and World Report. The Twin Cities campus was named the No. 23 public university in the United States. Among all 435 institutions (public and private) considered for the National Universities category, the U of M Twin Cities climbed nine spots to be ranked No. 53 nationally, placing the campus among the top 13 percent of all ranked universities.
The Dean’s Advisory Board visited CEGE April 28, shown here touring Paige Novak’s lab.
CEGE supports students in their writing skills by participating in the University of Minnesota’s Writing Across the Curric- ulum (WAC) program, which received international recognition by winning two prestigious awards. The 2023 Exemplary Enduring Program Award, bestowed jointly by the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum and the WAC Clearinghouse, recognizes extraordinary achievements in establishing, main- taining, and sustaining effective WAC programming. The selection committee noted that the University’s 35-year-old WAC program is doing more than supporting writing across the curriculum; it is making shifts to the culture of writing on campus and beyond. The program also received the 2021 Council of Writing Program Administrators Best Book Award for Writing Enriched Curricula: Models of Faculty-Driven and Depart- mental Transformation, edited by Pamela Flash and Chris Anson.
STEVE BARBACHYN joined CEGE as the manager and research associate in the Theodore V. Galambos Structural Engi- neering Laboratory and the Multi-Axial Subassemblage Testing System (MAST) Structural Laboratory. The MAST Lab is the largest test system of its kind in the world and provides a powerful tool for investigating the effects of earthquakes, hurricanes, and other extreme events on large structural components up to several stories tall. The Galambos Structural
Lab is a four-story space designed for modeling and testing large-scale struc- tural components. We are expecting big things from our new colleague!
FACULTY
The Minnesota Federation of Engineering, Science and Technology Societies (MFESTS) Awards Dinner, held Tuesday September 26, honored award recipi- ents for both 2022 and 2023. Awardees included GARY DAVIS, ASCEMN 2022
Charles W. Britzius Distinguished Engineer; WILLIAM ARNOLD, ASCEMN 2023 Charles W. Britzius Distinguished Engineer; RAPHAEL STERN, ASCEMN 2022 Young Engineer of the Year;
and BOYA XIONG, ASCEMN 2023 Young Engineer of the Year.
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 3