June 23, 2020 

By Rachel Steere

From studying environmental and molecular biogeochemistry to addressing water quality issues, Jasquelin Peña looks forward to sharing her knowledge and connecting with UC Davis students this fall.

Washington, DC, June 23, 2020 —

Eighty-five of the nation’s brightest early-career engineers have been selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 26th annual US Frontiers of Engineering (USFOE) symposium. Engineers who are performing exceptional research and technical work in a variety of disciplines will come together for the two-and-a-half day event. The participants -- from industry, academia, and government -- were nominated by fellow engineers or organizations.

Professor Michele Barbato has been awarded the 2020 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize for “his outstanding research in structural engineering and engineering mechanics, with emphasis on finite element response sensitivity analysis, seismic response steel-concrete composite systems, seismic pounding mitigation, performance-based hurricane engineering and hurricane hazard mitigation, nonstationary stochastic dynamics, multi-hazard performance-based engineering, and sustainable construction materials.”

Alejandro Martinez, assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program, for his proposal, “Soil Penetration Through Bioinspired Stress State Manipulation.”

The grant is worth up to $500,000 over five years. Martinez studies bioinspired geotechnics, a field that looks to biological organisms for inspiration to solve problems in geotechnical engineering.

Professor James Cheney passed away on Nov. 22, 2019, just before Thanksgiving.  He was one of the first faculty hired in the Civil Engineering in 1962 and remained with the faculty until his retirement.  Please follow the link here to read more about his life, both personal and professional. 

Assistant Professor Alexander Forrest's environmental-engineering research is the subject of a new Seeker video article.

UC Davis CEE Professor Michele Barbato was recently named ASCE Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) Fellow.

Professor Emeritus at the UC Davis Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Ed Idriss received the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s (EERI) 2018 George W. Housner Medal at the 11th US National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (11NCEE) in Los Angeles last month.