News

Reporter David Owen interviewed CEE Professor Jay Lund and WFCB Professor Emeritus Peter Moyle for a feature about the Sacramento River Delta and how best to protect the freshwater that millions of people depend on for drinking and agriculture. The piece covers the industrialization of the Delta, conservation issues like the Delta smelt, land subsidence, levee failures, and more. You can read the full article here.

Professor Kimberly Stillmaker was recognized with the Fresno State 2022 Provost Award for Promising New Faculty. Prof. Stillmaker graduated from UC Davis in 2013 with a master's in structural engineering and in 2016 with a Ph.D. in structural engineering. She currently teaches at Fresno State and researches the seismic performance of steel and timber structural elements. Congratulations, Prof. Stillmaker! Go Ags!

Every year, we see more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road. By 2035, all new passenger vehicles sold in California will be EVs to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants. As EVs take over, we need new approaches to deal with manufacturing EV batteries and the end-of-life challenges EV batteries face.

Professor Emeritus Wilfried Brutsaert was awarded the 2022 Stockholm Water Prize for his groundbreaking work on quantifying terrestrial evaporation and its role in the energy balance of Earth. His work has allowed for accurate estimations of evolving precipitation levels, along with new ways of understanding groundwater storage. Professor Brutsaert's work is especially important given the climate crisis.

The UC Davis ASCE Student Chapter hosted the 2022 Mid-Pacific Competition from March 31 to April 2. Student teams from the West Coast and beyond competed in a variety of activities, from constructing and racing a concrete canoe to designing, fabricating, and building a 22-foot-long steel bridge. UC Davis came in third overall out of 16 competing teams!

Civil and environmental engineering professor Sabbie Miller has received $1.5M in federal funding from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E agency to advance the methods and metrics necessary to quantify greenhouse gas (GHG) sequestration in building materials.

We are proud to announce that Graduate Program Coordinator Lauren Worrell received the 2022 NACADA Region 9 Award for Excellence in Advising for her primary role as an academic advisor.

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California - Davis anticipates openings for temporary lecturers for the 2022–2023 academic year to instruct courses in civil and environmental engineering.

For brief course descriptions, see the following links: https://ucdavis.pubs.curricunet.com/Catalog/eci

Requirements:

Professor Boris Jeremic and his colleagues Alain Pecker and James J. Johnson have published a book on seismic soil-structure interaction analysis in the design and assessment of nuclear interactions. His work is printed through the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency and is summarized as follows:

Zoe Kanavas, an MSc/Ph.D. candidate in Water Resources Engineering, has been honored for her outstanding work through the American Geophysical Union. She was selected to join the first cohort of AGU's Local Science Partners program, which empowers ambassador AGU members to build sustainable partnerships with their local policymakers. Ambassadors will receive skills-building workshops and have the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. to visit Congress members. Congratulations, Zoe!

The department is honored to be hosting Dr. Amit Varma as he delivers his 2021 T. R. Higgins Lecture "SpeedCore and Steel-Concrete Composite Construction: The Best of Both Worlds." This lecture will be held from 4-5 pm on March 11, 2022, in 1003 Giedt Hall. There will be a reception after the event.

The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced in a press release on Feb. 9 that Professor Dan Sperling has been elected as a member of the 2022 class of the NAE for leadership and outstanding entrepreneurial contributions in transportation energy, advancing alternative energy policies and promoting government-industry-university collaborations.

In a continuation of the Bischel team's work on wastewater analysis with Healthy Davis Together, Hannah Safford, Karen Shapiro, and Professor Bischel published an op-ed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The article, titled Opinion: Wastewater analysis can be a powerful public health tool—if it’s done sensibly, can be found here. Congratulations, Hannah and Professor Bischel!

Professor Alejandro Martinez is one of two recipients of the 2022 Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award, with the other recipient being Professor Brett Maurer of University of Washington, Seattle.

The paper “Experimental investigation of postearthquake vertical load-carrying capacity of scoured reinforced concrete pile group bridge foundations” has been selected as Editor’s Choice for 2021’s 12th issue of the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering. This paper was co-authored by CEE Professor Michele Barbato and is the result of an ongoing research collaboration with Tongji University. Congratulations, Professor Barbato!

 CA Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed landmark legislation by State Senator Josh Becker that will make California the first state to directly target greenhouse gas emissions from cement. Senate Bill 596 also is the first bill in any California sector to focus on achieving net-zero emissions.

 Fire has always been part of the Western landscape, but the fire season gets longer and more severe every year. So far this year, California has seen four of the largest wildfires in its history, and the Dixie Fire, the second-largest in state history, is still burning after two months. 

Fire is part of our future. What can we do to protect homes, neighborhoods and communities and make them more resilient to fire hazards? Hear from two UC Davis experts on these and related questions Sept. 30. 

Congratulations Professor Amit Kanvinde for receiving the 2022 American Institute of Steel Construction T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award. This award recognizes outstanding researchers whose technical papers made outstanding contribution to the literature on fabricated structural steel. 

Each year, AISC's T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award recognizes an outstanding lecturer and author whose technical paper or papers, published during the eligibility period, are considered an outstanding contribution to the engineering literature on fabricated structural steel.