News

Assistant Professor Jennifer Kaiser and Professor Jian Luo have been selected as faculty fellows for the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems. Among other things, they will foster the culture and community of sustainability researchers, educators, and students at Georgia Tech.

The Ramblin’ Royalty selection process begins with nominations from student organizations. The top candidates then participate in multiple interviews before being selected as a finalist. Fourth-year civil engineering student Aimee Ogando was selected as one of two 2023 Ramblin' Royalty honorees following a vote by Georgia Tech students.

A team from Georgia Tech won first place at the annual Water Environment Federation’s Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) “Water Environment” international student design competition in Chicago on Oct. 1. 

Third-year environmental engineering student Harrison Baro is now the executive vice president of the undergraduate Student Government Association. The new  leaders begin their terms at a critical moment in Georgia Tech’s history and want to bring students to the table.

In a breakthrough study, a cross-disciplinary team of Georgia Tech researchers discovered a previously unknown class of bacterial proteins that play a crucial role in the formation and stability of methane clathrates, which trap methane gas, preventing it from escaping and bubbling up into the atmosphere.

U.S. News & World Report has released its 2024 list of the nation’s best undergraduate engineering programs, cementing the top tier reputation of civil and environmental engineering at Georgia Tech. 

Karen and John Huff School Chair and Professor Don Webster has joined the top civil engineers in the country as a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Webster was selected as a fellow for his contributions as a researcher, educator, and administrator.

The water coming out of your faucet is safe to drink, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely clean. Chlorine has long been the standard for water treatment, but it often contains trace levels of disinfection byproducts and unknown contaminants. Georgia Institute of Technology researchers developed the minus approach to handle these harmful byproducts.

Ph.D. student Michael Thomas has been selected for the 2023 Public Health Informatics Fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thomas will focus on data analysis and technology evaluation, specifically targeting infectious viral diseases.

Since leaving Georgia Tech, Laura Stoy has continued to pursue her research, this time as an entrepreneur. The environmental engineering graduate founded Rivalia Chemical Co. and has been accepted into two prestigious business incubators with the goal of commercializing her work as a PhD student.

Professor Hermann Fritz and his former graduate student, Yibin Liu, are interested in a specific kind of tsunami, those caused by underwater volcanic eruptions and landslides. So, they built a volcanic tsunami generator in a wave basin — essentially, a large lab-in-a-tank for studying wave behavior.

At Georgia Tech, civil engineering has grown and evolved significantly since the program was established 125 years ago. What began with one instructor and a handful of students is now one of the top programs in the nation.

A research team led by Carlton S. Wilder Associate Professor Ameet Pinto received a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study the occurrence and concentration of pathogens and disinfection by-products in drinking water distribution systems.

Assistant Professor Ryan Sherman has been awarded the American Institute of Steel Construction’s (AISC) 2023 Milek Fellowship in recognition of his innovative research on metallic additive manufacturing. Since 2004, AISC has given a promising non-tenured university faculty member the four-year, $200,000 award.

Three faculty members received the University System of Georgia’s highest recognition for academic, research, and innovation excellence at the August meeting of the Board of Regents. Rafael Bras was named a Regents’ Professor, M. Talat Odman a Regents’ Researcher, and J. David Frost a Regents’ Entrepreneur.

Spenser Wipperfurth, a Ph.D. student in Ocean Science and Engineering, is one of five graduate students selected for the third class of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Graduate Fellows. The BBISS Graduate Fellows Program provides graduate students with enhanced training in sustainability, team science, and leadership in addition to their usual programs of study.

The Georgia Tech Alumni Association has announced the 2023 class of 40 Under 40, featuring three graduates from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering:

• Whitney N. Blanco, CE 12, is a real estate development manager with The Benoit Group.
• Nelson Davis, CE 07, MS CE 08, is the founder and CEO of Analytic Vizion.
• Kate Henry, CE 08, is vice president of Aulick Engineering.

Solar and wind power have been used as renewable energy for years, but what about waves, tides, and currents? Kevin Haas, a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been on the forefront of ocean energy for over a decade.