Page 2 - CEGE Magazine Spring 2017

College of Science and Engineering
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING
Greetings from the Department Head
Dear Alumni and Friends,
Here at CEGE, we have been preparing for our periodic
external review, a deep examination process that gives me
a chance to review every aspect of our teaching, research,
faculty, students, facilities, and budgets. This process has left
me very excited about what is going on in the department. In this issue of our magazine, we share just a fraction of all that we do, and I am sure you will enjoy reading about it.
Of course, you know we have three undergraduate degree programs. We share three stories with you this time, one from each of the three majors. These stories give a sense of the richness of the three areas and the individual students who add so much to our department.
Marcus Thomas, an alumnus from 1994 and principal at Bolton & Menk, has an opti- mistic view of our students and young graduates and what they promise for the future of engineering. CEGE is very lucky to have such accomplished and involved alumni. Sadly, over the last several months, we have said good-bye to three very good friends of our department. Memorials appear on page 8.
The faculty continue to do great work. You will read about an impressive young scholar and engineer, Associate Professor Jia-Liang Le. His models will help improve the design of concrete (more precisely, quasibrittle) structures, and his work has been recognized by the Engineering Mechanics Institute. Le has been chosen to receive the 2017 EMI Leonardo da Vinci Award.
I am also excited to highlight some of our laboratory spaces in the building and the new banners hanging in the Galambos structures lab. Not highlighted in this issue—but know that it is still a large part of what we do—are the research of our graduate students and the many visits we have had with prospective students, both graduate and undergradu- ate. Nonetheless, you will read about some student activities in the news section.
As I said, there is much going on in CEGE. Thank you so much for keeping in touch, for coming to visit when you can, for supporting us in our work, and for being excellent agents of inspired and innovative engineering for society.
Best regards, Joe
Joseph Labuz
MSES/Miles Kersten Professor & Head
Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering
Photo of Malpasset Dam (on cover, p. 14, and p. 16) by Eolefr (Self-photographed) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
CEGE
Spring 2017
News 3 Memorials 8 Alumni Profile:
Marcus Thomas 9 Lab Facilities 12 Faculty Profile:
Jia-Liang Le 14
Warren Lecture Series 17 Student Profiles:
Rena Weis 18 Doug Novak 19 Emily Erhart 20
Donors 22 Dominik Schillinger
2017 NSF CAREER Award 24
Connect with us: cege.umn.edu
© Copyright 2017 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
CEGE Magazine is published twice
a year by the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering College of Science and Engineering University of Minnesota
500 Pilsbury Drive SE
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Merry Rendahl, editor.
Layout and design by Lisa Anderson. For more information, visit www.cege.umn.edu.
Comments, updates, and story ideas may be sent to cegenews@umn.edu. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
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