News

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.

The GT Sustainable Solutions Team won first prize at the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships. The team focused on creating a successful future around growing roots in communities for the 2023 ASCE Sustainable Solutions Competition–Envisioning a New Downtown. Georgia Tech was also named the fan favorite of the competition.

Sustainable Solutions student teams from around the world competed in ASCE’s regional student symposia throughout the spring, with 16 teams advancing to the Society-wide finals at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville June 10-12.

This year’s competition challenged teams to create a downtown block of “Engineer Street” site design for the fictional “City of ASCE” that could revitalize an underutilized area into a gathering place for the community while incorporating Envision sustainable infrastructure standards.

Carlton S. Wilder Associate Professor Xing Xie has won the College of Engineering's Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research Award (Early Career). Xie is one of eight faculty members selected for this year's awards.

Mike Messner, CE 76, received an honorary PhD from Georgia Tech, the highest honor that the Institute can confer to an individual.

Environmental engineering students in the capstone design course were recognized for their work by industry professionals, winning first, second, and third place in a regional competition.

Williams Family Associate Professor Iris Tien is one of five faculty members selected to become Cybersecurity Fellows to help grow the College of Engineering’s work in high-impact cyber-physical systems security.