Georgia Institute of Technology School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

The next time you’re sitting at a red light and cursing traffic, remember: it could be significantly worse. In fact, it would be worse for a number of major commuting corridors in the Atlanta area — if not for the efforts of people like two Georgia Tech civil engineering alumni who are involved in a pacesetting state program to make traffic flow more smoothly.

The American Chemical Society New York chapter will recognize alumnus Christopher Pappas later this year for his leadership of chemical firm Trinseo. The group announced April 6 that Pappas, BCE 1978, is this year’s recipient of the Leadership Award for Outstanding Corporate Reinvention from the society’s Chemical Marketing and Economics group.

The soon-to-be-released second State of the Carbon Cycle Report includes work from some of the nation’s leading scientists — including contributions from a civil engineer who just finished his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech.

Suzanne Shank still keeps two textbooks on her bookshelf from her days as a civil engineering undergrad at Georgia Tech. From her classes on differential equations and mechanics of deformable bodies, those two books remind her of a key lesson she learned in those days: “I was much stronger when I reached out and relied on the support of my peers. I realized I could only go so far on my own.”