The Charles E. Via, Jr. Department
of Civil and Environmental Engineering
2014 Via Report • No. 28
Every drop counts.
Read articles, pages 6 and 11
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Department Head’s Message................................................................................... 3
Research News
• Eatherton’s self-centering beam aims to protect lives, limit repair costs,
reduce downtime due to earthquakes.............................................................. 4
• Does your tap water have a bad taste?............................................................... 6
• Marr investigates the health and environmental impacts
of engineered nanomaterials............................................................................ 8
• Virginia Tech researchers look into wastewater pollution issues
in modernizing Caribbean communities......................................................... 11
Faculty Honors and Achievements....................................................................... 13
New Faculty........................................................................................................... 14
Faculty Retirement
• Kamal Rojiani spearheaded his own destiny..................................................... 16
Student News
• Undergraduate scholarships............................................................................ 19
• Graduate scholarships and fellowships............................................................ 20
• Ph.D. degrees awarded..................................................................................... 21
Alumni News.......................................................................................................... 22
Program Areas
• CEE Faculty by Program Areas........................................................................ 23
• Vecellio Construction Engineering and Management Program.......................... 24
• Environmental and Water Resources Program................................................. 27
• Geotechnical Program...................................................................................... 32
• Structural Engineering and Material Program.................................................. 35
• Transportation Infrastructure and Systems Engineering Program.................... 39
Via Scholars........................................................................................................... 42
Via Alumni – Where Are They Now?..................................................................... 59
Via Donors............................................................................................................. 69
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 1
This area of Virginia Tech’s
Duck Pond is used by the civil
and environmental engineering
students in their survey classes.
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DEPARTMENT HEAD’S MESSAGE
Greetings from Blacksburg! This
time last year I wrote to you about
“change” and I feel compelled to use
that theme again. We were in the very
early stages of the search for Virginia
Tech’s 16th president. As you know
by now, Dr. Timothy D. Sands joined
Virginia Tech last June to assume the
leadership of our university. It is clear
we have an outstanding leader at the
helm. Speaking on behalf of the CEE
Department, I’m looking forward to
great things to come under President
Sands’ leadership.
Within the CEE Department, we
again find ourselves in the midst of
challenges and opportunities. We have
three open teaching/research faculty
positions for which we are conducting
searches. Two of the three vacancies
were created by the retirement of two
long time faculty members that provided a combined 77 years of service
to our department. Clearly, when an
organization loses that kind of service,
it presents a challenge. I am inherently an optimist so I prefer to view
these challenges as opportunities for
the department. Bringing talented,
enthusiastic new faculty members to
our ranks will without a doubt open
up new opportunities for instruction,
research, collaboration, and outreach.
Once again, the cycle of change
and opportunity is also reflected in the
pages that follow. You’ll find a section on New Faculty that once again
reminds me how extremely fortunate
and proud we are to have been able to
attract faculty of such high caliber to
our department. There are brief bios
included for Dr. Kevin Heaslip, Dr. Kyle
Strom, and Dr. Katerina Ziotopoulou.
I hope you have an opportunity to
interact with each of them in the near
future. I am very confident that they
will all be wonderful and productive
colleagues.
The CEE Department has also experienced challenges due to retirement
in our staff ranks. Between December
2013 and December 2014, we’ll have
seen the retirement of four individuals who have a combined service to
Virginia Tech, with most of their time
being in CEE, of 134 years. It may be
hard to imagine the changes and growth
these ladies experienced during the past
25 to 41 years. I know that many alumni
reading this will have interacted with one
or more of these staff members during
their time at Virginia Tech. We all owe
a tremendous debt of gratitude to Ann
Crate, Mary Hunter, Sandy Simpkins,
and Betty Wingate. The CEE Department
and Virginia Tech are better organizations
because of the dedication and service that
these women have provided.
I want to call your attention to a very
prestigious award
that Mary Hunter
received recently.
She received a 2014
President’s Award for
Excellence at Virginia
Tech. The President’s
Award for Excellence
is presented annually
to up to five Virginia
EASTERLING Tech staff employees who have made
extraordinary contributions. Additionally,
she was selected to be the Virginia Tech
nominee for career achievement to the
annual Governor’s Award program. These
collective honors, and the supporting
comments from reference letter writers
that you can read on the Virginia Tech
website announcing her award, speak
to the respect that many from around
campus have for her. Likewise, her CEE
colleagues have the highest respect for
the work she has so tirelessly done on our
collective behalf. Although she would not
readily accept the assertion, I can assure
you that Mary deserves tremendous credit
for the stature and respect that many
have for our department.
On a positive note related to personnel changes, we’ve hired outstanding
individuals, both staff and administrative/professional faculty, to help take us
forward. The notion of great opportunities
once again comes to the forefront. These
new members of the CEE family are great
colleagues and already doing a wonderful
job!
I hope you enjoy the excellent articles
on several of the outstanding research
efforts that are in progress within the
department. The work highlighted in
these articles is not only supporting
students in the department but serving
society in general and in particular the
Commonwealth, as many of the issues
that our faculty are researching are
highly important in Virginia. These are
but a few of the many great things in
progress.
The highlight of the document each
and every year is the section on our Via
Scholars. The CEE faculty and staff
have the privilege of getting to know and
work with these outstanding students
on a day to day basis. I hope that the
student biographical sketches contained
in the report help you as alumni and
friends get to know them. Hopefully,
you’ll have the opportunity to interact
with the Via Scholars as well as the
many other outstanding students in the
department through your on-campus
visits, professional activities or as future
employers. Each year with the influx of
new students, we as a faculty are reminded just how fortunate we are to be
part of the Via Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering.
As always, I am extremely appreciative of the great work done by members of the department and College of
Engineering to bring you this document.
There are a number of our staff and
faculty that are responsible for pulling
together various parts of the Via Report.
I want to thank them for the work they
do in helping bring this document to
reality each year. In particular, I want
to acknowledge the efforts of Shelly Key
and Courtney Long for their leadership
in the process within CEE. I want to
close my remarks by thanking Lynn
Nystrom for the exceptional job she does
each year as editor and David Simpkins
for his wonderful design work. I know
you’ll enjoy the results of their exceptional talent and dedication to bringing
you the 2014 Via Report!
With kind regards,
Sam Easterling
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RESEARCH
Matt Eatherton has National Science
Foundation support to develop a
structural building component.
Eatherton’s self-centering beam aims
to protect lives, limit repair costs,
reduce downtime due to earthquakes
Economic losses from earthquakes
are often devastating. The financial
damages from the earthquakes in Chile
in 2010, Kobe, Japan in 1995, and
Northridge, California in 1994 were
estimated at $30 billion, $100 billion,
and $20 billion respectively. This total
does not include lives lost.
Traditionally, designing buildings
to withstand earthquakes has focused
on protecting the lives of building occupants, “but the consequence of this
type of design is that conventional
seismic systems do not explicitly limit
the amount of structural damage,” said
Matt Eatherton, assistant professor of
civil and environmental engineering at
Virginia Tech.
For the past two years, Eatherton
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has used a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop a structural
building component called a self-centering beam (SCB). This self-centering
beam would serve several purposes:
protect lives, limit or eliminate structural repair costs, and reduce business
downtime due to earthquakes.
In the event of an earthquake, the
current conventional seismic systems
used in construction will experience
structural damage in primary structural components throughout the buildings, and can be left with permanent
residual drifts that can make repairs
uneconomical. Or, if they are reparable,
it will “require significant business
downtime because of the complexity
and extent of required repairs,” Eather-
ton said.
By contrast, the self-centering
beam virtually eliminates residual
drifts and concentrates damage in
replaceable elements of the building, he
explained.
Eatherton is not alone in his quest.
In the past two decades, engineers have
developed several self-centering seismic
systems. However, the system complexities, erection challenges, and cost
premiums associated with implementing prior self-centering seismic systems
in building construction has limited
their use.
Eatherton’s novel approach allows
the self-centering beam to be fabricated
in a shop and put in place by conventional field construction methods. It
also uses approximately the same
amount of steel as conventional seismic systems, thereby holding down
its costs.
Eatherton is an experienced
structural engineer, working for five
years in the earthquake prone state
of California. Employed by GFDS
Engineers of San Francisco from
2001 until 2006, Eatherton designed
buildings for a multitude of seismic
provisions that had lateral resisting
systems of wood shear walls, concentrically braced frames, eccentrically braced frames, steel plate shear
walls, steel moment frames, concrete
shear walls, as well as others.
His projects were as large as
35,000 square feet with construction
costs up to $30 million.
After this stint with industry he
returned to the classroom to obtain
his doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010.
His dissertation, a collaborative
research program with researchers
at Stanford University, allowed him
to investigate an innovative rocking
seismic force-resisting system that
self-centers after an earthquake and
concentrates structural damage in
replaceable fuse elements.
Two years after receiving his
doctorate, NSF awarded him some
$300,000 to support his efforts in
inventing and validating the selfcentering beam for use in practice.
In the first two years of his threeyear award, he has conducted 60
tests on critical components of the
self-centering beam. These tests
have allowed him to move into a
large-scale experimental program on
a set of SCB specimens that represent two-thirds scale and full–scale
components in a prototype building.
Eatherton has filed a provisional
patent as the self-centering beam
is a new technology. “I believe the
self-centering beam has the potential to reduce economic losses due
to earthquakes by creating buildings
that allow targeted structural repair
or do not require structural repair
after most large earthquakes,” Eatherton said.
~ By Lynn Nystrom
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RESEARCH
Does your
tap water
have a
BAD
TASTE?
Kevin Bierlein, a CEE doctoral candidate, prepares a
micro profiler used to measure oxygen and temperature,
for deployment in Carvin’s Cove Reservoir, Virginia.
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Deep water deprived of
oxygen in lakes and reservoirs,
a condition known as hypoxia,
can trigger the release of
reduced metals and nutrients
from sediments, contribute
to nuisance algal blooms, adversely impact water taste and
create odor problems, said
John Little, the Charles E.
Via, Jr. Professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at
Virginia Tech.
Controlling hypoxia is a
key goal of water quality management.
Little played a central
role in securing a $3.1 million
National Science Foundation
(NSF) award called “EIGER:
Exploring Interfaces through
Graduate Education and Research.” The project supported
about 30 Ph.D. students,
connecting 10 departments in
four colleges, with a focus on
interdisciplinary research.
Building on this extensive
project, Little is working with
Cayelan Carey, an assistant
professor in the biological
sciences department, as well
as Kevin Bierlein, a doctoral
candidate in civil and environmental engineering, and Alex
Gerling, a biological sciences
master’s student.
Hypolimnetic oxygenation, a method of introducing
oxygen into the layer of cold,
dense water in a thermally
stratified lake below the thermocline, is being practiced in
several deep reservoirs. The
procedure has emerged as a
viable solution for combating
hypoxia and improving water
quality.
However, in shallow lakes
it is difficult to add oxygen
into the bottom water layer efficiently. In addition, a poorly
designed hypolimnetic oxygenation system can potentially result in higher turbidity,
weakened thermal stratification, and warming of sediments. The potential negative
impact on water quality is more severe.
Little and Bierlein worked together
on reservoirs at Lake Hallwil, Switzerland, testing the water quality. Bierlein
also conducted experiments on the four
reservoirs managed by the Western
Virginia Water Authority in the Roanoke,
Virginia area.
Together they found when oxygen
is added to lakes using hypolimnetic
oxygenation, as a side effect, turbulence
in the water column increases. The
increase in turbulence can increase the
rate of oxygen depletion in the reservoir.
“For the past few years, Dr. Little
and I have been trying to understand
how additional turbulence from oxygenation increases the oxygen depletion
rate. After testing, we describe the process using mathematical models, and
incorporate the models into 3-dimensional lake models,” said Bierlein. “In
the future, the comprehensive models
could be used to improve the design and
operation of hypolimnetic oxygenation
systems.”
Field sampling campaigns and
computer simulations are the focus of
Bierlein’s thesis research.
Little, Carey, Gerling, and Bierlein
conducted tests of side stream supersaturation (SSS), a type of hypolimnetic
oxygenation system that takes oxygen
from the air, liquefies it, then pumps it
into the deepest points of the body of
water.
“We investigated the sensitivity of a
particular shallow body of water (Falling Creek Reservoir, Vinton, Virginia),
less than 9.3 meters or approximately
31 feet,” Little said. “The SSS system
increased hypolimnetic dissolved oxygen
concentrations at a rate of ~1 mg/L/
week without weakening stratification or warming the sediments, further
suppressing the release of reduced iron
and manganese, and likely phosphorus,
from the sediments.”
The results indicate SSS systems
hold great promise for controlling hypolimnetic oxygen conditions in shallow
lakes and reservoirs.
“The systems also alter biogeochemical cycling in drinking water reservoirs.
By turning the SSS system in Falling
Creek Reservoir on and off multiple
times throughout the summer, we are
able to capture any nutrient release
during the anoxic periods and then the
suppression of those nutrients when the
water column is re-oxygenated,” said
Gerling. She also works closely with
the Western Virginia Water Authority to
analyze the effects of management on
their drinking water reservoirs in the
Roanoke area.
Deployment of the system for use
in water reservoirs will decrease the
amount of work that has to be done to
treat the water, saving money and energy, before it flows into your glass.
~ By Lindsey Haugh
John Little works with
Alexandra Gerling to gather
water samples at Falling Creek
Reservoir, Vinton, Virginia.
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RESEARCH
Marr investigates the health
and environmental impacts
of engineered nanomaterials
Not so long ago, asbestos was touted as a preferred material for insulating buildings. Today, knowledge about
asbestos-related lung disease has legal
departments still looking for clients
to use the court system for monetary
retribution.
“Asbestos is a prime example of
a “new” material that was adopted
quickly but later found to be hazardous if inhaled because it caused lung
cancer,” said Linsey Marr, professor of
civil and environmental engineering at
Virginia Tech.
Consequently, Marr, the mother
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of two young children, is concerned
about any possible implications that a
coming new industrial revolution based
on the advent of nanotechnology might
have for future generations.
“The health and environmental
impacts of engineered nanomaterials
are unknown,” Marr said, “and there is
precedent for concern about inhalation
of them.”
Studies have already shown that
exposure to nanoscale particles of
natural or incidental origin, such as
from combustion, is “strongly associated with cardiovascular disease and
lung cancer,” Marr asserted.
The Harvard educated undergraduate who obtained her Ph.D. from
University of California at Berkeley and
trained as a postdoctoral researcher
with a Nobel laureate of chemistry at
MIT is now among a handful of researchers in the world who are addressing concerns about engineered
nanomaterials in the atmosphere.
Marr is part of the National Science Foundation’s Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, and her research group has
characterized airborne nanoparticles
Studies have already shown that exposure to nanoscale particles
that result from combustion is associated with some new diseases.
at every point of their life cycle. This
cycle includes production at a commercial manufacturing facility, use by
consumers in the home, and disposal
via incineration.
“Results have shown that engineered nanomaterials released into
the air are often aggregated with other
particulate matter, such as combustion
soot or ingredients in consumer spray
products, and that the size of such
aggregates may range from smaller
than 10 nanometers to larger than 10
microns,” Marr revealed.
Size matters if these aggregates are
inhaled.
Another concern is the reaction
of a nanomaterial such as a fullerene
with ozone at environmentally relevant
concentration levels. The resulting
changes in a fullerene could lead to
enhanced toxicity, Marr said.
Expanding her studies
Marr is a former Ironman triathlete who obviously has strong interests
in what she is breathing into her own
body. So it would be natural for her
to expand her study of engineered
nanoparticles traveling in the atmosphere to focus on airborne pathogens.
She did by starting to consider the influenza virus as an airborne pollutant.
She applied the same concepts and
tools used for studying environmental
contaminants and ambient aerosols to
the examination of the virus.
She looked at viruses as “essentially self-assembled nanoparticles that
are capable of self-replication.”
Her research team became the first
to measure influenza virus concentrations in ambient air in a children’s
day care center and on airplanes.
When they conducted their studies,
the Virginia Tech researchers collected
samples from a waiting room of a health
care center, two toddlers’ rooms and
one babies’ area of a daycare center, as
well as three cross-country flights between Roanoke, Va., and San Francisco,
Ca. They collected 16 samples between
Dec. 10, 2009 and Apr. 22, 2010.
“Half of the samples were confirmed
to contain aerosolized influenza A viruses,” Marr said. The daycare samples
were the most infected at 75 percent.
Next, airplane samples reached 67 percent contamination, and health center
numbers came in at 33 percent.
This study serves as a foundation for new work started about a year
ago in her lab. Marr collaborated with
Aaron J. Prussin II, and they successfully secured for him a postdoctoral
fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation to characterize the bacterial and viral microbiome – the ecologiContinued on next page
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Linsey Marr received a National
Institutes of Health New Innovator
Award to support her work.
cal community of microorganisms that share our body space
– of the air in a daycare center. They are now attempting to
determine seasonal changes of both the viral microbiome
and the bacterial microbiome in a daycare setting, and examine how changes in the microbiome are related to naturally occurring changes in the indoor environment.
“Little is known about the viral component of the microbiome and it is important because viruses are approximately
10 times more abundant than bacteria, and they help shape
the bacterial community. Research suggests that viruses do
have both beneficial and harmful interactions with bacteria,” Prussin said.
With Prussin and Marr working together they hope to
verify their hypothesis that daycare centers harbor unique,
dynamic microbiomes with plentiful bacteria and viruses.
They are also looking at what seasonal changes might bring
to a daycare setting.
They pointed to the effect of seasonal changes because in
previous work, Marr and Elankumaran Subbiah, a virologist
in the biomedical sciences and pathobiology department of
the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine,
measured the influenza A virus survival rate at various levels
of humidity. Their 2012 study presented for the first time the
relationship between the influenza A virus viability in human
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mucus and humidity over a large range of relative
humidities, from 17 percent to 100 percent. The
viability of the virus was highest when the relative
humidity was either close to 100 percent or below
50 percent. The results in human mucus may help
explain influenza’s seasonality in different regions.
Bringing together nanotechnology, aerosol
science, environmental chemistry, and
microbiology
With the urgent need to understand the
dynamics of airborne pathogens, especially as
one considers the threats of bioterrorism, pandemic influenza, and other emerging infectious
diseases, Marr said, “A breakthrough technology
is required to enable rapid, low-cost detection of
pathogens in air.”
Along with Subbiah and Peter Vikesland,
professor of civil and environmental engineering,
they want to develop readily deployable, inexpensive, paper-based sensors for airborne pathogen
detection.
In 2013 they received funding of almost
$250,000 from Virginia Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS), a
supporter of the clustering of research groups, to
support their idea of creating paper-based sensors based on their various successes to date.
Marr explained the sensors “would use a
sandwich approach. The bottom layer is paper
containing specialized DNA that will immobilize
the virus. The middle layer is the virus, which
sticks to the specialized DNA on the bottom
layer. The top layer is additional specialized DNA
that sticks to the virus. This DNA is attached to gold
nanoparticles that are easily detectable using a technique
known as Raman microscopy.”
The key to their approach is that it combines high-tech
with low-tech in the hopes of keeping the assay costs low.
Their sampling method will use a bicycle pump, and low
cost paper substrates. They hope that they will be able to
incorporate smart-phone based signal transduction for the
detection. Using this approach, they believe “even remote
corners of the world” would be able to use the technique.
Vikesland previously received funding from the Gates
Foundation to detect the polio virus via paper-based diagnostics. Polio is still found in countries on the continents of
Asia and Africa.
The National Institute of Health is a major supporter
of Marr’s work, awarding her a New Innovator Award in
2013, valued at $2.28 million over five years. It supports her
research on influenza transmission by bioaerosols, and key
collaborators on this award are Subbiah and Vikesland.
“Results of our research have the potential to promote
major advances in predicting the pandemic potential of
influenza virus strains, forecasting of disease dynamics, and
development of infection control strategies,” Marr said.
~ By Lynn Nystrom
RESEARCH
Virginia Tech
researchers look
into wastewater
pollution issues
in modernizing
Caribbean
communities
For the past three years, Virginia
Tech civil and environmental engineering (CEE) students and faculty advisers
Mark Widdowson and John Novak, CEE
professors, have spent a fair amount of
time in the Caribbean but the journeys
were not of the recreational variety.
They have been measuring the significant pollution of the well water in Veron,
a rapidly-urbanizing community with
considerable health issues related to
sewage-contaminated groundwater.
Although Veron itself is not a tourist
destination, the untreated wastewater
for the population of 60,000 threatens
the aquifer that the tourism industry
of the Dominican Republic depends on,
according to the Puntacana Ecological
Foundation. Most of Veron’s residents
work in the tourist industry.
“Our data has set into motion a
solution in the form of a pilot project for
one of the worst areas of Veron,” Widdowson reported.
Three different CEE graduate
students, Nick Mason, Robert Garrett
Wilcocks, and Nicole Abramson have
studied the contamination, providing
their findings in reports dated in 2012,
2013, and 2014, respectively.
“Apparently, this is a significant
project that is drawing national atten-
tion in the Dominican Republic. The
soils are not suitable for waste treatment and the hydrogeology is not ideal
for natural protection of the groundwater supply. This year, our students have
been collecting data to benchmark the
performance of the wastewater treatment system and the groundwater quality,” Widdowson explained.
In Veron, much of the sewage is
disposed of through pipes drilled directly into the ground. The flow of
groundwater in this region is toward
the coast, threatening new and existing
resort developments. Groundwater is
Continued on next page
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Mark Widdowson, center, tests
Veron’s water supply. Its untreated
wastewater threatens an aquifer in
the Dominican Republic.
Continued from previous page
the sole source of fresh water in Punta Cana. So when Veron’s
residents use open fields for defecation or pipe household
wastewater into unlined pits in the ground, referred to as pit
latrines, concerns have been raised.
“Local residents report that pit latrines very rarely fill up,
indicating that waste discharged into pit latrines can freely
flow” through the soil that is mostly porous limestone and
contaminate groundwater, Mason added.
Other findings include significant contamination in
Veron’s well water, including E. coli and elevated levels of
nitrates. “E. coli is an indicator of recent contamination by
sewage,” Abramson wrote in her thesis.
Mason noted that well water in Veron “is not generally
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ing clothes, flushing toilets, gardening, and other household
needs.”
Despite the fact that well water is not generally used for
drinking purposes in Veron, Mason said the presence of “fecal
matter” remains a threat. “There are several pathogenic organisms that do not need to be consumed to become harmful…
and in Veron, some water–based pathogens have already been
causing rashes, skin infections, and sepsis among residents.”
Fecal bacteria such as cholera are highly infectious even if
not directly consumed. Cholera was introduced in the Dominican Republic from Haiti in November of 2010 and by the time
of Mason’s thesis in 2012 there were 21,432 cases and 363
deaths from cholera.
Punta Cana, the most popular tourist destination in the
Dominican Republic with its 30 miles of coastline, also needs
to be concerned about the lack of sanitary conditions in Veron
because certain pathogens can withstand environmental
stresses such as chlorination. An example is giardia that can
form hard shell-like formations called oocysts if not properly
filtrated.
Following the 2011 study by Mason, Novak recommended
implementing a small-scale wastewater treatment system as
a preventative step to improving groundwater quality. Local
non-profit organizations, the Punta Cana Foundation and a
local Rotary club, began a campaign of fund raising for the
construction of a horizontal wetland treatment system for a
community within Veron. Construction of the system began in
late 2013 on a plot of land donated by local government and
put into operation in June 2014 with the help of CEE students and faculty.
Widdowson added that Virginia Tech “has been contributing expertise along the way to support the design and implementation. In addition to the CEE students, a senior design
team of biological systems engineering students developed
the initial design of the treatment system. Their goal was to
reduce the amount of pathogens that is recharged into the
aquifer resulting “in the reduction of waterborne diseases and
the protection of tourists from the possibility of disease outbreaks,” Wilcocks said.
Wilcocks explained the students suggested the concept
of using a vegetated submerged bed wetland, a horizontal
flow, gravity-fed system. The final design was completed by
engineers with the U.S. Peace Corps. After the wastewater is
treated by the wetland, the treated wastewater is allowed to
infiltrate into the soil. The wastewater in a vegetative submerged wetland is maintained below ground surface and a
bed liner is used between the wetland and the surrounding
soil due to its high permeability.
“This system is sustainable and can be efficient in reducing pathogens, biochemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids. The higher temperature and climate of the
Dominican Republic will improve biological activity and thus
increase their removal,” Wilcocks said.
The Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, adjacent to the
Virginia Tech campus, is also involved in a free clinic in Veron,
and through their work, it was also known that water-borne
disease was an issue.
~ By Lynn Nystrom
FACULTY HONORS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Finley Charney
• Fellow of the Structural
Engineering Institute
Ioannis Koutromanos
• Outstanding Reviewer,
ASCE Journal of Structural
Engineering
CHARNEY
Chema De la Garza
• Inaugural John L. Tishman
Distinguished Lecturer at
the University of Michigan
• Construction Management
Association of America
DE LA GARZA
Chairman’s Award
• Distinguished Member of
ASCE
• College of Engineering Excellence in
Service Award
Tom Dingus
• InnoVAte Virginia
Outstanding Innovator
Hesham Rakha
• Samuel Reynolds Pritchard
Professor of Engineering
RAKHA
KOUTROMANOS
LEON
Roberto Leon
• Academy of Distinguished
Alumni, Department of
Civil, Architectural, and
Environmental Engineering
• University of Texas at Austin
Service Award, Structural
Engineering Institute
John Little
• Association of Environmental
Engineering and Science
Professors Distinguished
Service Award
Carin Roberts-Wollmann
• College of Engineering
Excellence in Service
Award
ROBERTS-WOLLMAN
Paolo Scardina
• College of Engineering
Certificate of Teaching
Excellence
SCARDINA
LITTLE
DINGUS
Sam Easterling
• Fellow of the Structural
Engineering Institute
• Virginia Tech Academy
of Faculty Service
MARR
Linsey Marr
• Virginia Tech College of
Engineering Dean’s Award
for Excellence in Research
• National Institutes of Health
Director’s New Innovator
Award
EASTERLING
Gerardo Flintsch
• K.H. Kummer Lecture
Award, ASTM
• Jack H. Dillard Award,
Virginia Center for
Transportation Innovation
and Research
TAYLOR
J.T. Taylor
• G.V. Loganathan Faculty
Achievement Award
for Excellence in Civil
Engineering Education
• Engineering Project
Organization Society
Distinguished Service
Award
Glenn Moglen
• Director of the Occoquan
Watershed Monitoring
Laboratory
MOGLEN
FLINTSCH
Vickie Mouras
• CEE Alumni Teaching
Excellence Award
Mike Garvin
• Distinguished Service
Award, Engineering
Project Organization
Society
MOURAS
GARVIN
Amy Pruden-Bagchi
• Associate Dean of
Interdisciplinary Graduate
Education
Jennifer Irish
• Scholar of the Week, Office
of the Vice President for
Research
IRISH
PRUDEN-BAGCHI
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 13
NEW FACULTY
Kevin P. Heaslip is returning
to Virginia Tech where he earned his
undergraduate and master’s degrees
in civil engineering in 2002 and in
2003, respectively.
He attended the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, for his
doctoral studies in civil engineering,
graduating in 2007.
In 2008 Heaslip joined the
civil and environmental engineering faculty as an assistant professor
at Utah State University, and since
July of 2011 he has also served as
the associate director of the Utah
Transportation Center of Logan,
Utah. He was recently promoted
to associate professor and granted
tenure as well.
At Utah State, Heaslip has
participated in almost $16 million
in funded research with more than
$5 million as his personal share. His
work included such projects as: the
implementation of a pavement management system for the Forest Service; alternative and unconventional
energy research and development for
the U.S. Department of
Energy; safety
enhancement
programs for
local governments for
the Utah
Department
of Transportation; and
highway work
HEASLIP
zone safety
issues for the
Federal Highway Administration.
He has taught in the areas of traffic
engineering, transportation engineering, public transportation, and urban
and regional transportation planning.
Among his professional activities,
Heaslip has served as co-chair of the
Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS)
America Electronic Payment Systems
Special Interest Group since 2008.
He is a current member of the
Transportation Research Board’s Committees on Signing and Marking Materials and on Vehicle Highway Automa-
tion. He is also a member of the ITS of
America Crosscutting Forum and the
Institute of Transportation Engineers
Transportation Curriculum Advisory
Committee.
His professional experience includes a stint as an adjunct science
advisor for Alion Science and Technology (AST) of Alexandria, Virginia,
since 2008. He also served as a science advisor to AST from 2006 until
2008.
He was a traffic engineer for Gannett Fleming, Inc., Newport News, Virginia from 2003 until 2004, and was
an intern with Howard/Stein-Hudson
Associates of Boston, Massachusetts
from 2001 until 2002.
His honors include the Virginia
Tech Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Outstanding Young Alumnus for 2013-14;
the Utah State University Civil and
Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year
for 2013; and several additional Utah
State awards for research and for
mentoring.
Kyle Strom obtained his Ph.D.
from the University of Iowa in 2006.
From 2007 to 2013, he served as an
assistant professor at the University
of Houston’s Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering. In
September of 2013 he was promoted
to associate professor.
Strom’s research group focuses
on improving understanding of
fluid and sediment interactions in
natural environments such as rivers, estuaries, and deltas. They have
studied these processes at smaller
spatial and temporal scales where
the interaction of individual sediment particles in the bed or water
column can alter the overall transport properties of the sediment.
They also study the impact of
fluid-sediment interactions at larger
scales such as those important in
the development and change of
deltas and submarine fans and the
long-term alterations of rivers due to
shifts in climate and sediment supply.
Improving understanding in these
areas aids responsible management of
river and coastal resources and infrastructure, and helps to give a more accurate understanding of earth’s history
and its future trajectory.
Strom has advised two Ph.D.
students to completion with another
four currently working with him. He
has graduated three master’s students,
and has worked with a host of undergraduate students as research assistants.
To fund his group’s research, he
has attracted sponsorship from a number of external agencies, including:
ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Texas Water Development Board,
American Chemical Society, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, Industrial
Pipe Fittings, the Texas Department of
Transportation, and the Texas Hazard-
ous Waste
Research
Center.
Strom
developed two
new graduate courses
while at the
University of
Houston: environmental
fluid mechanics and river
STROM
mechanics
and sediment
transport. He also regularly taught an
undergraduate fluid mechanics course
and has organized weekly departmental seminars and mentored undergraduate research project courses.
As recognition of his effort in the
classroom, he received the Cullen College of Engineering Outstanding Teach-
14 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
NEW
FACULTY
See Strom, next page
NEW FACULTY
Katerina Ziotopoulou earned
her doctorate in geotechnical engineering with a minor in structural
engineering from the University
of California (UC) at Davis in the
summer of 2014. She obtained her
master’s degree in geotechnical engineering in June of 2010 at the same
university.
Ziotopoulou earned her undergraduate degree summa cum laude
in civil engineering in December of
2007 from the National Technical
University of Athens (NTUA), Greece.
This course of study was a five-year
degree that concluded with a thesis
on her undergraduate research on
the non-linear seismic response
analysis of soil deposits and piles
and the proposal of a unique binormalized design spectrum.
Her doctoral work was focused
on geotechnical earthquake engineering and more specifically on the
numerical modeling of liquefaction
effects. She developed, implemented,
calibrated, and validated a version of a sand plasticity model for
Strom
Continued from previous page
ing Award in 2010 and 2012. He
served as the faculty advisor for the
Chi Epsilon student chapter from
2013 to 2014, and as the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the
American Society of Civil Engineers
(ASCE) from 2009 through 2010.
Among his service activities,
Strom serves as an associate editor
of the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, and he is a current member of
the ASCE Environmental and Water
Resources Institute Technical Com-
earthquake
engineering
applications.
During
her studies
at UC Davis,
Ziotopoulou
partnered
with the
California
Department
of Water
Ziotopoulou Resources’
Division of
Safety of Dams in a joint project on the
case-based evaluation of liquefaction
procedures for dams. Her role was to
provide a constitutive model for sands
capable of reasonably approximating
the wide range of loading conditions
and responses as the ones observed in
dams She undertook similar roles in
collaborations with companies of the
Bay Area on a variety of projects.
In Greece, after her graduation,
she assisted in the investigation of
the effectiveness of stone columns for
drainage and reinforcement as part of
mittee on Sedimentation.
He is a publication reviewer for
journals such as: the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering; Journal of Geophysical
Research; Water Resources Research;
Environmental Fluid Mechanics; Earth
Surface Processes and Landforms;
Geomorphology; Journal of Sedimentary
Research; Marine Geology; Journal of Hydrology; Journal of Hydrologic Processes,
and others.
He is a member of the American
Geophysical Union and the American
Society of Civil Engineers.
the seismic stability of the library
building and the retaining walls of
the Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Cultural Center.
During her undergraduate studies she interned in a structural engineering office focusing on the design
of reinforced concrete buildings.
During her time at UC Davis and
aside from her doctoral work, Ziotopoulou has initially participated and,
later on, led over 13 outreach events,
ranging from full-day workshops for
teachers to earthquake engineering
demonstrations and tours for K-12
students. Among her awards, she is
a recipient of the 2008-2011 International Fulbright Science and Technology Award presented yearly to 40
individuals around the world.
Within her graduate group at UC
Davis, she held a Fugro West Graduate Fellowship in 2013 and the Idriss
Award for Excellence in Geotechnical
Engineering in 2012. In 2007 she
received the Ippokleides Vogiatzopoulos Award, the top student honor
at NTUA. That same year she also
earned NTUA’s Thomaideio Academic
Award and Medal of Honor as well as
the Nikolaou Kritikou Award.
She is a member of the Association for Women in Science, the Greek
Women in Engineering Association,
and the Association of Civil Engineers of Greece. She is a member of
the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Earthquake Engineering
Research Institute, the United States
Society on Dams, and the Seismological Society of America and a
reviewer for two journals on her field.
She is also a registered civil engineer
of the Technical Chamber of Greece
and an engineer-in-training at the
state of California.
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 15
Against great odds,
including two wars,
Kamal Rojiani
spearheaded his
own destiny
A passion for living and learning resides in
Kamal Rojiani’s soul, starting with his early
childhood when he was born in 1948 into the
then war torn country of India, forcing his
family to move when he was six to Karachi,
Pakistan. Pakistan was a safer place for his
family who practiced the Muslim religion.
When Kamal Rojiani retires in January, he and his wife
plan to travel the country in their motor home.
16
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H
is father, an orphan who spent
much of his youth growing
up on the streets, struggled
to get his education. His persistence
allowed his entry into the civil engineering profession, with his professional
career spanning the move from India
to Pakistan. Working for the Pakistan
government, Kamal’s father was able to
provide his family, including two sisters
and a brother, with comfortable housing, and a ticket to the British educational system.
As a boy, Kamal excelled in learning, graduating at the top of his class
from the British school system in
Karachi. His high school diploma was
actually a certificate from Cambridge
University.
His teenage summers provided him
with an insight into the career path
his father chose. “He would take me to
projects he was working on,” Rojiani
recalled. Originally, “he wanted me to
become a mechanical engineer or an
architect.”
Rojiani opted for architecture and
was accepted into a small college in
Lahore, Pakistan, but his father intervened the night before he was supposed
to board the train, telling his son he
would have a better chance to pursue
his graduate degrees abroad if he attended engineering classes at the University of Karachi. His father’s wisdom
eventually proved insightful.
So, Rojiani continued to live at
home, motor biking to school daily,
except when political unrest closed the
university for what would have been his
junior year. He took advantage of the
time off to excel in one of his favorite
sports, table tennis, and actually played
in the country’s national championship
games that year.
When he was able to return full
time to the University of Karachi, academics were again his passion, and he
graduated third in his class, missing
first place by a mere five points out of a
total of 1800 points.
However, there was another war
with India, and engineers were not
allowed to leave the country when
Rojiani graduated in September of
1971. He had successfully applied to
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in
Chicago, Illinois, and when the oppor-
tunity presented itself three months
later, he quietly bought an airline ticket
one morning, and was on the plane
that evening for the U.S. “No one had a
chance to stop me,” he recalled.
As Rojiani departed down the
steps of the plane at O’Hare Airport, he
thought he had “entered the loneliest
time of his life.” He traveled with one
suitcase, no coat, and no idea how to
get to the IIT campus. He found a fellow
countryman at the airport who told him
about the subway system. He boarded
the train, got off at the designated area,
and stood in snow for the first time
in his life. He was miserable. But the
campus police found him, took him to
a dorm, got him some warmer clothing, and allowed him to stay there even
though IIT was closed for the Christmas
break.
Rojiani immediately met several
Pakistani natives that first night. They
advised him against attending IIT, so
in the morning he jumped on a Greyhound bus headed to the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In what most might consider a bold
move, he found the civil engineering
department head’s office, was admitted
for a meeting, and he started telling his
story. The sympathetic administrator
started checking on the application Rojiani had submitted to this school. They
both discovered he had already been
accepted, but since mail was not being
delivered in Karachi, Rojiani had never
known of his admittance.
With luck on his side, he started
that January. However, his father was
only paying for the first semester, so
Rojiani put himself on a fast track,
managing to get his master’s degree in
two quick academic terms. During the
summer between the spring and fall semesters, he returned to Chicago where
he had a Turkish friend who employed
him as a dishwasher at a 24 hour
restaurant for 14 hours a day, seven
days a week, earning $1.50 an hour. To
save money during those three months,
he lived with six other Pakistanis in a
rented apartment.
Life got a little easier when he received his master’s in February of 1973.
The University of Illinois offered him
an assistantship to stay and pursue
his doctorate. He worked with Alfredo
Al-Ang, one of the top civil engineering
professors specializing in structural
reliability in the world at that time. He
also worked with a young assistant professor, Y.K. Wen, who he says was his
“real advisor who was kind and nurturing.” His doctorate was on the reliability
of tall steel buildings to wind loadings.
While in graduate school, Rojiani found time to pursue one of his
hobbies, dancing, and he enrolled in
classes ranging from folk to ballroom
to disco to square dancing. The classes
were a respite from the daily courses
heavily laden in mathematics and technology. But the ballroom instructor, a
Latino with excellent rhythm, assigned
a grade of “B” to Rojiani, the only “B”
the intellect ever received.
When Rojiani earned his doctorate in December of 1977, Virginia Tech
had an office waiting for him. A year
earlier, Rojiani had responded to an
ad that said the Blacksburg university
was looking to hire someone in the
reliability area. An interview with then
department head Richard Walker, along
with Ray Plaut and Sigfried Holzer, also
members of this area of concentration,
secured him his lifelong job at Virginia
Tech. “I was very nervous inside but I
had a calm demeanor,” Rojiani recalled.
Early in the 1980s when computers were becoming a part of the college
curriculum, Rojiani found a niche for
himself. He became the department’s
“computer guy,” directing the creation
of CEE’s first computer lab, a showcase
facility. He taught the first computer
applications in civil engineering course,
and was soon asked to conduct workshops all over the United States.
Rojiani directed the Civil Engineering Computer Aided Engineering laboratory for six years, and wrote two textbooks on programming for engineers:
Programming in BASIC for Engineers,
written in 1988 and Programming in C
with Numerical Methods for Scientists
and Engineers, published in 1995.
Some 65 universities adopted his textbooks. He currently has his third and
fourth books in progress: Programming
in C ++ for Scientists and Engineers
and Numerical Methods for Engineers –
An Object Oriented Approach.
Rojiani is the recipient of two
Continued on next page
2014
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17
2014
| VIA
REPORT
From previous page
Kamal
Rojiani’s wife,
Deni, and their
pets, Cabriola
and Buddy,
will embark
on a coast to
coast tour of
the USA after
retirement.
prestigious College of
Engineering Certificates of Teaching Excellence, awarded to only
four engineering faculty
members each year. One
of his former students,
Harrison Pickett, commented, “Professor Rojiani
was an incredible teacher.
Not only has he mastered
structural engineering; he
has mastered the understanding of how students
obtain knowledge in the
most efficient manner. After taking his class I have
gained an understanding of the material that I
will keep for long into my
career. No other teacher
I feel has been able to do
this for me like he has.”
Pickett took theory of
structures and computer applications
for civil engineers from Rojiani.
Another student, Jane Bui, added,
“A lot of students think he is tough. …
But he is like a parent in a way…and in
the future you realize, like your parent,
he was right all along.”
Rojiani’s breadth of knowledge is
demonstrated by the fact that he has
taught 20 different courses not just in
CEE but also in several other engineering departments such as engineering
education, engineering science and
mechanics, and electrical and computer
engineering. He has taught introductory and advanced courses in structural
analysis, structural design, structural
reliability, computer programming,
computer applications, and software
design.
Rojiani’s research in the area of
structural safety and reliability includes
reliability based design methodologies, reliability based optimum design,
reliability analysis of steel, concrete,
and timber structures, reliability of tall
buildings subjected to dynamic loads,
code calibration, reliability analysis
of bridge foundations, and stability of
structures under random loads.
One of his research projects required him to develop load factor design
criteria for highway bridge foundations,
18
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CEE| VIA
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| 2014
and the results of this study formed the
basis for the new American Association of State Highway Transportation
Officials (AASHTO) Load and Resistance
Factor Design (LRFD) specifications for
bridge foundations. He was also a member of the code calibration task group
that developed the load and resistance
factors for the AASHTO LRFD code for
highway superstructures.
Rojiani’s research in the area of
computing includes expert systems for
structural design, user interfaces, CAD
based pre- and postprocessors, programming methodologies, verification
and evaluation of structural analysis
and design software, finite element
modeling of buildings and bridges and
development of object-oriented software
for structural analysis and design. He
has also developed a set of web-based
applications for teaching structural
engineering.
Service to the profession and the
university have always been a high
priority for Rojiani. He has served on
several American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) technical committees
and has two ASCE Outstanding Service
Awards. He has also served on numerous university, college and departmental committees including as chair of
the University Computer Committee,
the University Committee on Workstations and
Personal Computers, and
the Engineering Faculty
Organization. He has been
a member of the Faculty
Senate (for four terms),
University Council, and the
Commissions on Faculty
Affairs and University Support to name a few. He has
served the CEE department
in many capacities including as the coordinator of the
Structural Engineering and
Materials Program, and as a
faculty academic advisor for
eight years responsible for
advising approximately 80
students each year.
During this busy time
of his career, he also raised
two children from his first
marriage, a daughter who
is now an architect working
in New York City, and a son who has a
degree in psychology and is currently
obtaining a second diploma in computer science at Virginia Tech. Rojiani
also brought his mother from Pakistan
to live with him after his father died in
1997. After a few years, she, a college
educated woman who tutored students,
obtained her U.S. citizenship, but
eventually had to relocate to a nursing
home.
When Rojiani retires in January of
2015, his immediate plan is to remodel
the 8800 square foot house he and his
wife Deni bought on 11 acres of land
in the Ellett Valley section of Blacksburg. He plans to pursue his many
other interests including woodworking,
photography, working on cars, stained
glass, pottery, tennis, and more recently
golf, and writing books and software.
They also hope to travel the country in
their motor home with their two dogs,
Cabriola and Buddy, the latter being a
rescue dog.
And he claims his wife, already retired after owning her own businesses,
is an excellent cook, and they never
have the same meal twice in a year. She
can cook Thai, French, Indian, Chinese,
French and more, and “every day is a
new experience,” Rojiani smiled.
~ By Lynn Nystrom
STUDENT NEWS:
Undergraduate Scholarships
CE Alumni Board Scholarships
Dewberry Scholarship
CEE Study Abroad Scholarships Fall 2014
Alexandra Boyle
Mia Jimenez
Jonathan Paquette
Joseph Spaziani
Nicholas Zinck
Patrick O’Brien
Kaitlin Blackwell
Marvin Merida
Estela Cruz-Velasquez
Meghan Hekl
Asis Subedi
Constantine Panagakos
Nida Syed
Kenneth R. Ayers ’80 Memorial Scholarships
Chelsey A. Godfrey Scholarship
John E. Pruitt, Jr. Scholarships
Zachary Barlow
Christian Orfanopoulos
Rachel Wilson
Asis Subedi
Ian Cunningham
Lois Cox and Edna Goodwin Scholarship
Richard Quarterman ’04 Memorial
Scholarship
Kelso Baker Scholarships
Samuel Megahed
Jacob Montague
Derek Petroski
Michael Baker Corporation Engineering
Scholarship
Darren DesRoches
Balzer & Associates Scholarships
Joseph Whartenby
James L. Bland Civil Engineering
Scholarship
Connor Maldonato
Charles and Patricia Brown Scholarships
Christina Beauboeuf
John Young
Everett Carter Memorial Scholarship
Walter and Mary Ruth Duncan Scholarships
Eileen Phan
Ralph P. Hines ’59 Scholarship
Troy Clayton
Howell and Ann Simmons Land
Development Design Scholarship
Charles S. Hughes Scholarships
Mahesh Khandelwal
Nadeem Khan
Timothy Shaw
Williams A. Joyner Scholarship
Kelsey Abais
Amanda Weikmann
Dennis and Sherry Kamber Scholarships
Undergraduate George A. Stewart Scholars
Tyler Mueller
Adrian Santiago Tate
Clinton Martin
Casie Venable
Charles Conran
Lingerfelt Family Foundation Scholarships
Bryan Murphy
Jacquelyn Zook
Hersie B. and Ethel G. McCauley Scholarships
Constantine Panagakos
Tyler Weiglein
William A. Caruthers CE Scholarships
Andrew “Tripp” McDavid Memorial Scholarship
Aritz Aldecoa
Caroline Richards
Eric Daly
Joseph and Jane Christenbury Memorial
Scholarship
Samuel Consolvo
Civil Engineering Class of ’58 Scholarships
Luis Arango
Catherine Grey
Connor Maldonato
Hillary Siegall
Haseeb Tahir
Jared Tamulynas
Warren F. Cline Scholarships
Benjamin Fowler
Rachel Nissen
Stanley and Francis Cohen Scholarships
Zach Barlow
Josh Dolinger
Grisha Santuryan
Stantec Award for Excellence in
Engineering
Mitch Magee
Adam Chiodini
Brian Huttner
Paige Emanivong
Kenton and Liliana Meland Scholarship
Newport News Shipbuilding Scholarship
Raul Avellaneda
Pratt Study Abroad Scholarships Summer 2014
Kaitlin Blackwell
Osama Burkamseen
Lee Matheson
Abigale McNomee
Angela Neiman
Rachel Nissen
Jameson Spicer
L.J. Turner and W.S. Dewhirst Scholarships
Alexander Cartaya
Lee Matheson
Vecellio Scholarships
Paige Emanivong (CEE)
Samuel Ferrara (CEE)
Aaron Hill (CEM)
Matthew Madigan (CEE)
Matthew Sander (CEE)
Casie Venable (CEE)
Virginia-Carolinas Structural Steel
Fabricators Association
Rachel Truban
Joseph Whartenby
Virginia Concrete Scholarships
Alvaro Calle Laguna
Fawad Mohammad
Andrea Ruano Duke
Donald and Mary Wiebke Scholarship
Jane Bui
Pratt Study Abroad Scholarships Fall 2014
Harry S. and Patsy B. Williams Scholarship
Christina Beauboeuf
Kristin Gunther
Che-Kang Hsu
Estela Cruz-Velasquez
Michael Sullivan
Williams Industries Scholarships
Kylie Snyder
Jacob Williams
John DeBell Civil Engineering Scholarship
Verne and Jewel Williamson Scholarship
Connor Davis
Philip Smith
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 19
STUDENT NEWS:
Graduate Scholarships and Fellowships
Abel Wolman Doctoral Fellowship
Fulbright Fellowships
Pratt Engineering Fellowships
Brandi Clark
Kyungwon Kang
Xiaojin Li
Siddhartha Roy
Khalil Benali
Amal Bouraga
Denis DelCid Corrales
Jose Guervara
Evangelos Kontozoglou
Brian R. Bluhm Memorial Fellowship
Global Perspectives Scholar
Brandon Cooper
Matt Chan
Megan Ahart
Marian Alicea
Marshall Grossell
Cambi Fellowship
G.V. Loganathan Fellowships
Raymond and Madeline Curry Fellowship
Trung Le
Abdul Mancell-Egala
Celso Castro-Bolinaga
Amanda Dritschel
Shuai Luo
Construction Management Association of
America (CMAA) National Capital Chapter
Scholarship Award
Hampton Roads Sanitation District
Black and Veatch’s Global Leadership
Program Scholarship
Arghavan Amini
Davenport Leadership Scholars
Carlos Fernando Mantilla Pena
Katherine Phetxumphou
District of Columbia Water & Sewer
Authority (DC Water)
Nandita Ahuja
Hung-Wei Lu
Abdul Mancell-Egala
Joshua Mah
Jennifer Miller
Victory Odize
Gargi Singh
Dean’s Diversity Fellowships
Marcus Aguilar
Marian Alicea
Edwin Gonzalez
Kandace Kea
Kara Kea
Fannie Tao
Deep Foundations Institute At-Large
Scholarship
Megan Hamilton
Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation
Fellowship
Nazana Weeks
Edna Bailey Sussman Award
Megan Ahart
Nandita Ahuja
Perrawat Charawat
William Rhoads
Colin Richards
Gargi Singh
Ashly Thomas
Environmental Protection Agency STAR
Fellowship
Ronald Kent
20 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Peerwat Charawat
Alexandra Gagnon
Stephanie Klaus
Jeffrey Nicholson
Mark Miller
Michael Sadowski
ICTAS Doctoral Scholar
Craig Schillaber
Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Program
(IGEP)
Paramjeet Pati
Katherine Phetxumphou
Siddhartha Roy
Majorie Willner
Jeremy Herbstritt Memorial Internship from
Sussman Foundation
Pratt International Study Abroad
Fellowships
Republic of Turkey Ministry of Forestry and
Water Affairs
Faik Cuceoglu
Royal Thai Government Scholarship
Krekkiat Nutalaya
SACM Scholarship
Mohammed Hamad Almannaa
Terracon Fellowships
Phillip Gilmore
Andrew Haskell
Thomas N. Hunnicutt III Fellowship
Jeremy Bowers
United States Society of Dams Scholarship
Beena Ajmera
Vecellio Fellow
Colin Richards
Neda Mohammadi
Matthew Gregory Gwaltney Memorial
Fellowship
Vietnam Education Foundation
Megan Ahart
Truong Thi My Hanh
Hong Song Pham
Myers-Lawson School of Construction
Fellowship
Virginia Sea Grant Graduate Research
Fellowship
Maria Nieves-Meléndez
Stephanie Smallegan
Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program
(MAOP)
Carlos Fernando Mantilla Pena
Multiscale Transport in Environmental and
Physiological Systems IGERT Fellowship
Ray David
NASA Langley Aerospace Research Student
Scholarship
Taylor Alexandria Dayton
National Science Foundation (NSF) Fellows
Beena Ajmera
George Allen Bowers, Jr.
Emily Dawn Garner
Stephanie Smallegan
STUDENT NEWS:
The following doctoral degrees were
awarded to CEE students between
Summer II 2013 and Summer I
2014.
Name: Paul J. Ackerman
Dissertation Title: Sustainable Healthy
Schools: A Framework for Managing
the Environmental Health of Public
School Infrastructure
Advisor: Deborah Young-Corbett
Name: Nikolaos Apsilidis
Dissertation Title: Experimental
Investigation of Turbulent Flows at
Smooth and Rough Wall-Cylinder
Junctions
Advisor: Panos Diplas
Name: Justin Bartlett
Dissertation Title: Heuristic Optimization of Water Reclamation Facility
Nitrate Loads for Enhanced Reservoir Water Quality
Advisor: Adil Godrej
Name: Abeera Batool
Dissertation Title: Advanced Undersepage Analysis for Levees
Advisor: Thomas Brandon
Name: James Bryce
Dissertation Title: Applying Pavement
Life Cycle Assessment Results to
Enhance Sustainable Pavement
Management Decision Making
Advisor: Gerardo Flintsch
Ph.D. Degrees
Name: Rimas Viktoras Gulbinas
Dissertation Title: Motivating and Quantifying Energy Efficient Behavior among
Commercial Building Occupants
Advisor: John Taylor
Name: Andrew Hardyniec
Dissertation Title: An Investigation of the
Behavior of Structural Systems with
Modeling Uncertainties
Advisor: Finley Charney
Name: Yue Hou
Dissertation Title: Computational Analysis of Asphalt Binder based on Phase
Field Method
Advisor: Linbing Wang
Name: Jordan Jarrett
Dissertation Title: Performance Assessment of Seismic Resistant Steel
Structures
Advisor: Finley Charney
Name: Raj Kishore Kamalanathasharma
Dissertation Title: Eco-Driving in the
Vicinity of Roadways IntersectionsAlgorithmic Development, Modeling
and Testing
Co-Advisors: Kathleen Hancock and
Hesham Rakha
Name: Jennifer Miller
Dissertation Title: Fate of Antibiotic
Resistance Genes During Anaerobic
Digestion of Wastewater Solids
Co-Advisors: William Knocke and
Amy Pruden-Bagchi
Name: Lucy Phillips Priddy
Dissertation Title: Evaluation of Precast
Portland Cement Concrete Panels
for Airfield Pavement Repairs
Advisor: Gerardo Flintsch
Name: Andrea Jean Tiwari
Dissertation Title: Aerosolization and
Atmospheric Transformation of Engineered Nanoparticles
Advisor: Linsey Marr
Name: Daniel Vanden Berge
Dissertation Title: Rapid Drawdown
Analysis using the Finite Element
Method
Advisor: J. Michael Duncan. Co Advisor: Thomas Brandon
Name: Weihao Yin
Dissertation Title: An Agent-based
Travel Demand Model System for
Hurricane Evacuation Simulation
Advisor: Pamela Murray-Tuite
Name: Rebecca Halvorson Lahr
Dissertation Title: Advanced Applications
of Raman Spectroscopy for Environmental Analyses
Advisor: Peter Vikesland
Name: Ismail Hisham Zohdy
Dissertation Title: Development and
Testing of the iCACC Intersection
Controller for Automated Vehicles
Advisor: Hesham Rakha
Name: Bernardo Antonio Castellanos
Dissertation Title: Use and Measurement of Fully Softened Shear
Strength
Advisor: Thomas Brandon
Name: Yanjun Ma
Dissertation Title: Fate and Impacts of
Contaminants of Emerging Concern
during Wastewater Treatment
Advisor: Amy Pruden-Bagchi
Name: Hao Chen
Dissertation Title: Real-time Traffic
State Prediction: Modeling and Applications
Advisor: Hesham Rakha
Name: Garrett Menichino
Dissertation Title: Preferential and NonDarcy Flows in the Hyporheic Zone:
Surface Water-Groundwater Hydraulics and Effects on Stream Functions
Advisor: Erich Hester
Name: Tao Zou
Dissertation Title: Non-Destructive
Bridge Deck Condition Assessment
with a Probability-Based Deterioration Threshold
Advisor: Cristopher Moen
Name: Kacie Caple D’Alessandro
Dissertation Title: Biaxial Behavior of
Ultra-High Performance Concrete
and Waffle Slab Bridge Deck Design
and Testing
Advisor: Carin Roberts-Wollmann
Name: Fatmir Menkulasi
Dissertation Title: Increasing the Resiliency of Short to Medium Span Bridges
with Precast Inverted T-beams
Advisor: Carin Roberts-Wollmann
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 21
CEE ALUMNI:
2014 Board Members
Members of the 2014 Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board, as well as past participants,
gather for the fall meeting at the Inn at Virginia Tech.
Bruce R. Bates, P.E. RISA Technologies, LLC Foothill Ranch, California
Thomas A. Broderick, P.E.
Loudoun Water Ashburn, Virginia
James N. Carter, Jr., P.E. (Chair)
Norfolk Southern Corporation Atlanta, Georgia
Young Ho Chang, P.E.
ATCS, P.L,C. Herndon, Virginia
Brian K. Diefenderfer, Ph.D., P.E.
Virginia Department of
Transportation Charlottesville, Virginia
John R. Hillman, P.E.
HC Bridge Company Wilmette, Illinois
Meredith Jones, P.E.
MJ Services, Inc. Blacksburg, Virginia
Robert “Skip” Notte, P.E., LEED AP
Dewberry Charlotte, North Carolina
Ann E. Piazza, P.E.
L.A. Fuess Partners, Inc. Dallas, Texas
Katherine G. Plasket, P.E.
Bechtel Power Frederick, Maryland
Govindan Kannan
Volvo Group North America Greensboro, North Carolina
Jonathan R. Porter, Ph.D.
Turner-Fairbank Highway
Research Center McLean, Virginia
Jeffrey N. Lighthiser, P.E.
Draper Aden Associates Richmond, Virginia
Stephen M. Seay, L.S.
Rinker Design Associates, P.C Manassas, Virginia
Stephen R. DeLoach, P.E., L.S.
HQ U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers - Washington, D.C.
Laura J. Morillo, P.E.
Energy-Nuclear at Five Star
Products - Fairfax, Virginia
Bernard J. Deneke, P.E.
NAVFAC EURAFSWA Norfolk, Virginia
Aaron Muck, P.E.
Terracon Consultants, Inc. Cincinnati, Ohio
Beth Turner
Former Director at E.I. Du
Pont De Nemours and Co. Wilmington, Delaware
David D. Clarke, P.E.
Virginia Department of
Transportation Christiansburg, Virginia
22 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
PROGRAM AREAS:
Faculty
Vecellio Construction Engineering and Management
Program
• Jesus M. de la Garza, Vecellio Professor
• Deborah E. Dickerson, Assistant Professor*
• Michael J. Garvin, Associate Professor and Program
Coordinator
• Denise Simmons, Assistant Professor*
• Sunil K. Sinha, Professor
• John E. Taylor, Associate Professor
Environmental and Water Resources Engineering
Program
• Gregory D. Boardman, Professor
• Andrea M. Dietrich, Professor
• Randel L. Dymond, Associate Professor
• Marc A. Edwards, Charles Lunsford Professor
• Daniel L. Gallagher, Associate Professor
• Adil N. Godrej, Research Associate Professor (NCR)
• Zhen (Jason) He, Associate Professor
• Erich T. Hester, Assistant Professor
• Jennifer L. Irish, Associate Professor
• William R. Knocke, W. Curtis English Professor and
Program Coordinator
• John C. Little, Charles E. Via, Jr. Professor
• Linsey C. Marr, Professor
• Glenn E. Moglen, Professor (NCR)
• Amy J. Pruden, Professor
• Robert Paolo Scardina, Assistant Professor of Practice
• Kyle Strom, Associate Professor
• Peter J. Vikesland, Professor
• Mark A. Widdowson, Assistant Department Head and
Professor
• Kevin Young, Assistant Professor of Practice
• Husen Zhang, Research Assistant Professor
Geotechnical Engineering Program
• Thomas L. Brandon, Associate Professor
• Joseph E. Dove, Associate Professor of Practice
• George M. Filz, Assistant Department Head and Charles
E. Via, Jr. Professor
• Russell A. Green, Professor
• Matthew Mauldon, Associate Professor
• C. Guney Olgun, Research Assistant Professor
• Adrian Rodriguez-Marek, Associate Professor and
Program Coordinator
• Nina Stark, Assistant Professor
• Katerina Ziotopoulou, Assistant Professor
Structural Engineering and Materials Program
• Finley A. Charney, Professor
• Thomas E. Cousins, Professor
• W. Samuel Easterling, Department Head and MontagueBetts Professor of Structural Steel Design
• Matthew R. Eatherton, Assistant Professor
• Ioannis Koutromanos, Assistant Professor
• Roberto T. Leon, David H. Burrows Professor
• Cristopher D. Moen, Associate Professor
• Victoria A. Mouras, Assistant Professor of Practice
• Carin L. Roberts-Wollmann, Professor and Program
Coordinator
• Kamal B. Rojiani, Associate Professor
Transportation Infrastructure and Systems Engineering
Program
• Montasir Abbas, Associate Professor and Program
Coordinator
• Thomas A. Dingus, Newport News Shipbuilding/Tenneco
Professor
• Gerardo W. Flintsch, Professor
• Kathleen L. Hancock, Associate Professor (NCR)
• Kevin P. Heaslip, Associate Professor (NCR)
• Antoine G. Hobeika, Professor
• Brian J. Katz, Assistant Professor of Practice
• Pamela M. Murray-Tuite, Associate Professor (NCR)
• Hesham A. Rakha, Samuel Reynolds Pritchard Professor
of Engineering
• Antonio A. Trani, Professor
• Linbing Wang, Professor
Emeritus Faculty
• William E. Cox - EWR
• Donald R. Drew - TISE
• J. Michael Duncan - GEOT
• Thomas J. Grizzard, Jr. - EWR
• Robert C. Hoehn - EWR
• Siegfried M. Holzer - SEM
• J. Martin Hughes - EWR
• David F. Kibler - EWR
• Robert D. Krebs - GEOT
• Thangavelu Kuppusamy - GEOT
• James K. Mitchell - GEOT
• Thomas M. Murray - SEM
• John T. Novak - EWR
• Raymond H. Plaut - SEM
• Clifford W. Randall - EWR
• Dusan Teodorovic - TISE
• Michael C. Vorster - CEM
• Richard D. Walker - TISE
• Richard E. Weyers - SEM
*Affiliated through the Myers-Lawson School of Construction • NCR - National Capital Region
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 23
PROGRAM AREAS:
Construction
The Vecellio
Construction
Engineering and
Management
Program
Denise Simmons received a National Science Foundation
CAREER award to learn more about the various factors
students consider that lead to their entry in the work force.
The Vecellio Construction Engineering and Management Program
(VCEMP) celebrated the retirement of
Sandy Simpkins who had served as
the program administrative assistant
for the last 11 years and made very
significant contributions to the daily
operations. Marilynn King is the new
administrative assistant.
VCEMP highlights during this
year include:
• The 2014 Vecellio Distinguished
Lecture was presented by the Honorable Stephen T. Ayers, FAIA, who
is the architect of the Capitol (see
sidebar story);
• The recognition of Outstanding
Young VCEMP alumnus, presented to
Dr. Roxene T. Kastens.
• Six undergraduate Vecel24 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
lio scholarships and one graduate
Vecellio fellowship were awarded to
highly-qualified students who have
demonstrated leadership potential and
an interest in pursuing a career in the
construction industry. These students,
formally recognized during the proceedings of the Vecellio Distinguished
Lecture, are: Paige Emanivong,
Samuel Ferrara, Aaron Hill, Matthew
Madigan, Matt Sander, Casie Venable, and Neda Mohammadi.
Please visit VCEMP on Facebook @
vcempatvt and/or follow us on Twitter
@vcempatvt
As for news from the VCEMP faculty, the following paragraphs showcase some of their activities.
Jesus M. de la Garza, the Vecellio
Professor in Construction Engineering
and Management, was recognized by
the American Society of Civil Engineers by his election to the grade of
Distinguished Member, the society’s
highest accolade. de la Garza also
presented the inaugural John L.
Tishman Distinguished Lecture at
the University of Michigan and received two other awards: the College
of Engineering Dean’s Award for Service Excellence and the Construction
Management Association of America
Chairman’s Award. As for service to
the profession, de la Garza is now
in his fourth year as editor-in-chief
for ASCE’s Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management. He
continues to serve on the executive
committee of the National Academy
Continued on next page
PROGRAM AREAS:
of Construction, Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Board on
Infrastructure and the Constructed
Environment, and NRC’s Committee
on Defense Materials, Manufacturing
and Infrastructure. de la Garza was
a member of the technical organizing committee for the 2014 ASCE
Construction Engineering conference
held in Seattle, Washington.
Michael J. Garvin had a productive year in teaching, research, scholarship and service. He reintroduced
the graduate course contract administration and claims resolution in the
fall, taught the undergraduate course
construction management in the
Construction
spring to more than 70 students, and
taught his graduate course, Facility
Delivery and Financing Strategies, as
part of the Commonwealth Graduate
Education Program. Garvin received a
$200,000 three-year grant for collaborative research with Stanford University
from the National Science Foundation
(NSF) to study governance in publicprivate partnerships; he also received
a one year grant from Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)’s Office
of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships (OTP3) to assess its designbuild program and contracts. He and
his students published two conference
papers and had three papers accepted
for conference presentations next
year. He was appointed this past fall
to the advisory board of the Association for Improvement of America’s
Infrastructure, and he completed his
service on the Eno Transportation
Foundation’s PPP Working Group.
Vickie Mouras, as a professor
of practice, continued to focus her
attention on teaching in the undergraduate program. She started in the
structural engineering and materials program area, and now teaches
in construction as well. Please visit
the structures report for a complete
recap of her past year’s activities.
Continued on next page
Lecture presented by Ayers, Capitol architect
Stephen T. Ayers is the
11th Architect of the Capitol
(AOC). He was nominated
to this position by President
Barack Obama and was
unanimously confirmed
by the U.S. Senate. He has
served in various leadership
capacities at the Capitol
since 1997.
Prior to joining AOC,
Ayers was a general engineer with the Voice of
America. He also served as
an officer in the U.S. Air
Force. Ayers is a licensed
architect in California, a
Fellow of the American
Institute of Architects, and
an Accredited Professional
in Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design.
Ayers completed his
bachelor of science degree in
architecture at the University of Maryland, received his
master of science degree in
systems management from
the University of Southern
California and was awarded
an honorary doctorate of
public design by the Boston Architectural College
in recognition of his service
as a champion of historic
preservation, great public
design, and sustainability.
In 2011, Ayers received
the Construction Industry
Institute’s Carroll H. Dunn
Award for Excellence.
Ayers is a sought-after
speaker by professional,
academic, and trade groups
across the country for his
experience and knowledge regarding leadership,
maintaining and preserving
historic buildings, as well as
providing world-class visitor
services.
Ayers’s Vecellio Lecture
was entitled: Serve, Preserve
and Inspire. As Architect of
the Capitol, Ayers is responsible for all design, construction, maintenance, and
operation of the historic U.S.
Capitol Building, the care
of 553 acres of grounds,
and 17.4 million square feet
of buildings including the
House and Senate Office
Buildings, Capitol Visitor
Center, Library of Congress
Buildings, the U.S. Supreme
ensure the buildings and
grounds meet modern standards for sustainability and
accessibility; and preserve
the historic legacy of the
landmarks entrusted to the
AOC’s care. Since the U.S.
Capitol is a public building,
maintaining and preserving
heritage assets can be challenging. Ayers provides an
overview of current projects
such as the Dome Restoration Project and
will showcase
the talented and
skilled employees
who are effectively and efficiently
preserving the
historical buildings on Capitol
Hill. The 2,200
employees of the
AOC serve in
diverse roles applying both modern techniques
The 2014 Vecellio Distinguished
and historic
Lecture was presented by the
tradecrafts in the
Honorable Stephen T. Ayers,
care and presFAIA, LEED AP Architect of the
ervation of the
Capitol.
Capitol campus.
Court Building, the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, and other
facilities.
The AOC provides a
wide range of professional
expertise and services to
preserve and enhance the
U.S. Capitol. The AOC
works to: support the needs
of nearly 30,000 occupants
and millions of tourists who
visit the campus annually;
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 25
PROGRAM AREAS:
Denise R. Simmons was selected by the Civil Engineering Division
of the American Society of Engineering Education as one of two “Younger
Leader Fellows.” The award, in part,
encourages new faculty involvement
in the civil engineering division.
Simmons is also the recipient of the
prestigious NSF Faculty Early Development (CAREER) Award to learn
more about the influence of various
factors in the choices undergraduate engineering and construction
students make regarding their cocurricular involvement, ultimately
leading to their entry into the work
force. Her goal is to become a global
leader in research that broadens the
participation of students completing engineering and construction
degrees and integrates academicindustry research partnerships.
During the spring 2014 semester,
Simmons developed and taught a
graduate-level course to help civil engineering and building construction
students develop skills that enable
them to effectively talk about their
research and why it matters in clear,
lively terms.
Sunil Sinha had a very pro-
Construction
ductive year in teaching, research,
scholarship, and service. He taught
the graduate courses, Information
Technology in Construction and Infrastructure Asset Management in the fall
and in the spring, respectively. He also
taught undergraduate Course Estimating and Cost Engineering in the fall.
Sinha continued work as a director of
the Sustainable Water Infrastructure
Management center. He is also directing two research projects related to
condition assessment and renewal
engineering of drinking water and
wastewater infrastructure systems.
Sinha co-chaired a workshop on smart
pipeline infrastructure network (SPINE)
in Northern Virginia. Sinha’s research
group currently consists of four Ph.D.
students, and three M.S. students.
Five papers were published in research
journals and 11 papers were included
in conference proceedings. Sinha continues to serve as the North American
Society for Trenchless Technology
(NASTT) Student Chapter advisor.
John E. Taylor received the 2014
G.V. Loganathan Teaching Award for
Excellence in Civil Engineering Education for his teaching efforts in the
department. He also received a 2014
Chema de la Garza, right, presented
the inaugural John L. Tishman
Distinguished Lecture at the
University of Michigan. He received
this recognition plaque from Kim
F. Hayes, chair of the University of
Michigan’s Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering.
26 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
For his teaching efforts in
the department, John E.
Taylor received the 2014 G.V.
Loganathan Teaching Award for
Excellence in Civil Engineering
Education.
Favorite Faculty Award from the Virginia Tech Division of Student Affairs
for his positive impact on students
as voted by students. For his professional service Taylor received a 2013
Distinguished Service Award from
the Engineering Project Organization
Society. Over the past year, he has
published 11 journal articles in leading journals and was guest editor for
a special issue of the ASCE Journal
of Computing in Civil Engineering on
Computational Approaches to Understand and Reduce Energy Consumption in the Built Environment.
In 2014 he expanded his global virtual design and construction course
to include students from Bogazici
University in Turkey to add to the already highly international participation of students from universities in
India, the Netherlands, and Finland.
Taylor continues to serve industry and academia as the academic
liaison of the Construction Industry
Institute’s Globalization Community
of Practice and as editorial board
member for three ASCE journals.
PROGRAM AREAS:
Environment
The Environmental
and Water Resources
Program
Jason He joined the program in 2013 and works on the research
of bioelectrochemical systems for water and wastewater treatment.
The Environmental and Water
Resources (EWR) Program continues to be one of the most respected
graduate programs in environmental
engineering in the U.S., according to
the rankings published annually by
U.S. News and World Report.
In 2014 the EWR program was
tied for eighth among U.S. programs.
Remaining among the top ten graduate environmental engineering programs reflects the dedicated work of
the EWR faculty, staff and students.
The EWR staff, located in both
Blacksburg and Northern Virginia,
support a large faculty of approximately 25 individuals and more than
130 graduate students.
They help sustain a thriving
research program across more than
a dozen research labs.
Last fall the EWR Program offered
its best wishes to Betty Wingate who
retired from Virginia Tech after 26
years of work with the program. Her
dedicated efforts and pleasant personality were the hallmarks of her many
years with the program. Beth Lucas
assumed many of Betty’s administrative duties with the EWR program in
addition to her continued involvement
with students pursuing master’s degrees with an environmental and water
resources engineering focus through
the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program.
Merry-Gayle Moeller continues to
provide important, dedicated service
to the EWR program as well as Julie
Petruska and Jody Smiley who each
see in their own special way that the
faculty and students have a superb
environment for the conduct of their
research activities.
Eleven EWR staff (with an average length of service of nearly 18
years) are residents at the Occoquan
Laboratory in the National Capital
Region (NCR), and all continue to
make important contributions to
departmental programs, particularly
in the area of sponsored research.
Under the supervision of Harry
Post, field staffers George Underwood, Mark Lucas, and Doug Holladay operate a complex hydrologic
and water quality observing network
in the Occoquan Watershed and in
other important water bodies of the
Continued on next page
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 27
PROGRAM AREAS:
NCR. Led by Dongmei Wang, the
accredited environmental laboratory
is ably staffed by Joan Wirt, Curt
Eskridge, and Mike Gaal. Another
Occoquan Lab staff member, Ning
Zhou is assigned to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office in
Annapolis, Maryland, where he has
continued his project work in support of the Chesapeake Bay restoration.
All the field and lab staff members are key participants in a variety
of research projects directed towards
better understanding and sustainable management of the urban water
cycle. Their work includes projects
on water reuse, lake and reservoir
management, mitigation of the
water quality effects of urbanization,
and development of hydrologic and
water quality modeling systems. The
technical staff have also continued
to play a vital role within the department by supporting and participating in the training of the latest generation of students pursuing their
graduate degrees at the Occoquan
Laboratory.
Office Manager Barbara Angelotti and Alicia Tingen continue
to be responsible for all aspects of
administrative support, including
managing a 10,000 square foot facility consisting of lab, shop, and office
spaces. Jeanie Taylor has also been
a welcome addition in her work in
facility maintenance.
Gregory Boardman was involved in 17 different projects this
past year as a research advisor or
co-advisor to 19 graduate students,
a visiting scholar from China, and
one undergraduate student. Boardman also served as an academic
advisor to three master’s students in
the coursework only program, and
as a committee member for 18 other
graduate students. He taught two
graduate classes and one undergraduate class, served as the chair and
an instructor of 17 short courses,
and co-coordinated the offering of
seven televised lectures sponsored
28 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Environment
by the Virginia Department of Health
(VDH) and served as a member of the
board for the Virginia Section of the
American Water Works Association,
the program committee for the Virginia
Water Environment Association’s Operations Education Conference, VDH’s
Operator Certification and Capacity
Development Stakeholders Committee,
and VDH’s Waterworks Advisory Committee. In June of 2014, he was appointed to the board of the New River
Valley Regional Water Authority.
Andrea M. Dietrich’s group had
an exciting year, particularly related to
unravelling the technical complexities
and odors from the crude 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) spill
that disrupted drinking water for the
residents of Charleston, West Virginia
in January 2014. With a grant from
the National Science Foundation (NSF)
to Dietrich, Dan Gallagher, and Paolo
Scardina, and with five CEE students
they dedicated their research efforts to
help solve the MCHM disaster. Dietrich presented a keynote address at
the International Water Association’s
10th International Symposium on OffFlavours in the Aquatic Environment;
she is now the chair of this specialty
group. While presenting for IWA in
Taiwan, she also organized a drinking
water workshop for researchers and
practitioners from Taiwan, China, and
Singapore. Dietrich authored the first
comprehensive review and re-visit of
US EPA Secondary Maximum Contaminant Levels, many of which have
been guiding water quality for over half
a century. With her research group
and colleagues, she authored seven
journal articles and made 14 presentations. She enjoyed teaching the
undergraduate and graduate students
in her classes.
Randy Dymond works in the
areas of land development, urban
stormwater modeling, and geospatial
information technology. Two of Dymond’s 11 graduate students finished
this year with projects on Blacksburg’s
urban stormwater modeling to geospatial modeling of the value of pedestrian
surfaces in suburban Washington
D.C. He has active research projects
with Blacksburg, Roanoke, NSF, and
VDOT. He has had three conference
and six journal papers published or
accepted for publication this year
and another 10 papers are under
review. Besides teaching Hydrology,
Land Development Design, and Sustainable Land Development, Dymond
has worked with Vinod Lohani of
engineering education on Learning Enhanced Watershed Analysis
System, a real-time, high-resolution,
web-accessible water quantity and
quality data collection system for a
stream on the Virginia Tech campus.
Dymond remains active on the steering committee of the new bachelor’s
program in real estate. In addition,
the Land Development Design Initiative (LDDI) continues to grow with
more than 35 sponsoring companies;
more information is available at
www.lddi.cee.vt.edu
Marc Edwards was awarded
a visiting professorship for senior
international scientists by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and twice
traveled to Beijing to deliver lectures
and collaborate with students and
researchers from this institution. Edwards was awarded several research
projects from the NSF including two
with Amy Pruden, professor of CEE,
investigating microbial regrowth in
water distribution systems and one
with Zach Grasley, former associate
professor of CEE, on in-situ repair of
leaks in potable water pipelines. Edwards delivered lectures on engineering ethics at seven different schools
in 2013-2014 with several keynote
addresses. These included: North
Carolina State, California Riverside,
University of Missouri Rolla (two
via video conference), South Dakota
School of Mines, University of Arizona, Washington University, Chinese
Academy of Science in Beijing, and
a TEDx talk at Virginia Tech. He is
finalizing development of four online
graduate education ethics modules
Continued on next page
PROGRAM AREAS:
on an NSF project with Yanna Lambrinidou.
Dan Gallagher actively pursued
interdisciplinary risk-related research for water quality, food safety,
and psychological assessment of risk
and response. Together with Marc
Edwards, he co-authored journal
papers assessing the risks from
lead in drinking water. He presented
these results at the Society for Risk
Analysis Conference. Together with
Andrea Dietrich and Paolo Scardina,
he was awarded an NSF Rapid grant
to study the chemical spill of MCHM
in Charleston, West Virginia, which
caused a drinking water crisis for
several weeks. Gallagher continues
to serve on the executive management team directing the USDA/NIFA
research on Shiga toxin-producing
E. coli in beef. He is the leader of
the USDA/NIFA risk assessment
group, and chaired the risk assessment session of the 2014 Nebraska
Governor’s Conference on Ensuring
Food Safety. He presented on USDA
bacterial cross-contamination risk
assessment for deli meats at the
Environment
recent International Association for
Food Protection conference. He has
most recently worked with Sue Duncan of the food science and technology
department to develop statistical tools
that assess emotions during food interactions in order to help consumers
make better food choices.
Adil Godrej’s team is finishing the
Occoquan Model for the 2008-2012
period, and is looking at new uses
for it. A heuristic load optimization
for a water reclamation facility discharge was completed last year, and
the model was used for this purpose.
The group is also looking at long term
loading trends from water quality
data gathered at Chain Bridge on the
Potomac River, and developing a data
display and curation website for the
Metropolitan Washington Council of
Governments. As one of Godrej’s Ph.D.
students moved on to a job, another
one has been recruited to work on the
model. A considerable amount of time
has gone into the search for the replacement of the Occoquan Lab director, and the transition is underway.
After 40 years of service to Virginia
Tech, Tom Grizzard retired from his
position as director of the Occoquan
Laboratory. During his tenure, he
also served for many years as the academic program director for civil and
environmental engineering in the National Capital Region (NCR). Grizzard
plans to keep an office at the lab and
will be available in the coming year
to assist incoming director Glenn
Moglen and long-time associate
director Adil Godrej. In early 2014,
Grizzard and other members of an
expert science panel were recognized
for their long-term advisory service
to the Singapore Public Utility Board,
which has contributed to the sustainability of the island nation’s water resources. Grizzard was recently
appointed to the chairmanship of
the Occoquan Watershed Monitoring
Subcommittee of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. He is
replacing Cliff Randall, the Lunsford
Professor Emeritus of Environmental
Engineering, who had served in the
position for 42 years.
Zhen (Jason) He joined the
Continued on next page
Glenn Moglen became the new director
of the Occoquan Laboratory after Tom
Grizzard retired in 2014.
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 29
PROGRAM AREAS:
EWR program in August 2013, and
has established the environmental
biotechnology and bioenergy laboratory. His group is very active in
the research of bioelectrochemical
systems for water and wastewater
treatment, and has had 15 journal
papers published or in press during the past year. He was invited
for presentations on the 224 ECS
Meeting (San Francisco), the International Workshop on Microbial Energy
Technology (Xi’an, China) and the
Environmental Salon at Tsinghua
University (Beijing, China). He also
taught CEE 3104 Introduction to
Environmental Engineering, and developed a new graduate course CEE
5894 Environmental Bioenergy and
Resource Recovery. He joined the
editorial team of Water Environment
Research as an associate editor. He
was a member of the Scientific Committee for the 4th NA-ISMET meeting
at Penn State University (May 2014),
and became a member of the Water
Environment Federation’s Research
and Innovation Committee.
Erich Hester’s research focuses
on how human actions in watersheds interact with stream, river,
and wetland hydraulics to affect
aquatic ecological health and water
quality. Three graduate students
continued to work on core research
areas such as the impact of stream
restoration and river management
practices on water quality. Hester
and Mark Widdowson received a
new NSF grant in this area to study
natural attenuation of contaminants
migrating to rivers. Hester also received a new Virginia Tech Institute
for Critical Technology and Applied
Science (ICTAS) grant with Durelle
Scott in the biological systems engineering department to evaluate
the impact of stream restoration on
generation of greenhouse gases in
river floodplains. A fourth graduate
student is working on a grant from
Wells Fargo to evaluate the ability of
cutting edge geophysical techniques
to determine where water pollution
30 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Environment
originates within surface coal mine valley fills. Finally, Hester accepted an invitation this year to serve as associate
editor for the journal, Water Resources
Research.
Jennifer L. Irish and her group
continued coastal hazards research,
focusing on the physics of and risk
posed by hurricanes, tsunamis, and
sea-level rise. With her group and
colleagues, Irish authored six journal papers, including a Nature article
on the critical role of sea-level rise in
future shoreline changes and subsequent tropical cyclone flooding. Irish
was invited to present her research at
the National Council for Science and
the Environment’s 14th National Conference and Global Forum on Science,
Policy, and the Environment. Irish
continues to be active with ASCE as a
new member of the prestigious Coastal
Engineering Research Council and as
a member of the Academy of Coastal,
Ocean, Ports, and Navigation Engineering Board of Trustees. In 2013, Irish
joined the editorial board of the Journal
of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean
Engineering-ASCE. She is also co-editor
of the forthcoming Springer Handbook
on Ocean Engineering, Part C: Coastal
Design.
Bill Knocke completed his threeyear appointment as the associate
vice president for research at Virginia
Tech last August and returned to the
CEE department for the majority of his
responsibilities (he still maintained a
series of responsibilities in the research office). He assumed the position
of EWR program coordinator upon his
return to CEE, and also returned to
full-time teaching responsibilities in
the program. He continues to serve as
advisor to all CEE distance-learning
students who are enrolled in the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering
Program. Knocke’s research work on
manganese control in drinking water
treatment culminated in his co-authoring a treatment guidance manual
on this topic for the Water Research
Foundation of Denver, Colorado. That
manual was cited as being the most
requested publication by the foundation during 2013. He also had the
distinct privilege last summer and
fall to serve on the university-wide
search committee that resulted in
the hiring of the new Virginia Tech
President Timothy Sands.
Over the past year, John Little
began a substantial new research
initiative on indoor exposure to
semivolatile organic compounds and
has strengthened his research on
oxygenation in collaboration with
Cayelan Carey, who is an expert on
the biological aspects of lake and
reservoir management. In his new
role as assistant director for research
development, and in collaboration
with Glenn Moglen and Adil Godrej, Little is helping to build the
Occoquan Laboratory into a center
for interdisciplinary research on
integrated water resources management, combining his background in
lake and reservoir management with
areas such as watershed management, urban runoff, water reuse, and
the effects of climate change. Little is
also broadening his expertise into the
area of environmental sustainability,
having given two keynote and three
invited presentations on the topic of
“Sustainable Systems Engineering.”
Finally, Little received the Association of Environmental Engineering
and Science Professors Distinguished
Service Award in 2013.
Linsey Marr’s research group
addresses the environmental impacts
of nanomaterials in the atmosphere
and the airborne transmission of infectious disease. Graduate students
and post-doctoral researchers are developing a nanotechnology-enabled,
paper-based sensor to detect the flu
virus in air rapidly and inexpensively. They are also applying metagenomic methods to characterize virus
communities in air and atmospheric
chemistry techniques to understand
how the flu virus is inactivated in
air. Ongoing collaborative research
projects include the development of
Continued on next page
PROGRAM AREAS:
a small and fast sensor for hazardous air pollutants, experiments and
modeling to understand the release
and spread of a fungus that attacks
wheat, and investigation of the fate
of engineered nanomaterials in waste
treatment systems. Marr was elected
treasurer of the American Association for Aerosol Research, and she
received a prestigious National Institutes of Health New Innovator Award
to continue her research on the flu
virus in air.
Glenn Moglen maintains his
research in the areas of land use
change, climate change, flooding,
and water supply with a geographic
focus on the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In the past year he has published on the likely increased vulnerability of stormwater infrastructure
under a changing climate; on how
genetic algorithms can be used to
optimally manage water supply
reservoirs, again under a changing
climate; and on forecasting water
quality and quantity changes under
future land use change and management scenarios in the DelMarVa
peninsula. Moglen is also in the final
stages of completing a textbook on
open channel flow to be published by
the CRC Press in 2015. Moglen was
recently elected to serve on the EPA
Chesapeake Bay Program Scientific
and Technical Advisory Committee. He also serves as vice-chair on
the ASCE Watershed Management
technical committee and will be the
proceedings editor for this committee’s upcoming 2015 conference.
In August 2014, Moglen became
the new director of the Occoquan
Laboratory, a research lab located
in Manassas, Virginia. The current
director, Thomas Grizzard retired,
having served in this position since
the 1970s. Moglen plans to maintain
the strong focus of the lab on applied
research organized on the central
theme of urban water.
Amy Pruden had the opportunity to build international collaborations over the past year, traveling
Environment
to Tongji University and the Chinese
Academy of Science in China and King
Abdullah University of Science and
Technology in Saudi Arabia. Following
the catastrophic 500-year flood event
in Colorado, she was awarded an NSF
RAPID grant to examine the effects
on transport of antibiotic resistance
genes. She was also awarded an NSF
grant, together with Edwards and Annie Pearce, to identify ideal hot water
operating conditions to save energy
while also preventing the spread of
pathogens that can grow in these
systems. Pruden enjoyed teaching
CEE 5194 Environmental Engineering Microbiology and working together
with Peter Vikesland, Kevin Davy,
and Brenda Davy on teaching GRAD
5139, which explores the science and
practice of interdisciplinary research.
Paolo Scardina has an active
teaching schedule instructing approximately double the typical number of
courses each year. Scardina continues
to improve the educational quality of
his courses, and during the past year,
he introduced new field trips, an additional recitation session, and optimized
the quality of the labs associated with
his courses. He began overseeing the
civil engineering hydraulics teaching
laboratory, which is used extensively
with many CEE courses. In recognition
of his efforts, Scardina was awarded
the Virginia Tech College of Engineering Certificate of Teaching Excellence.
He also continues to advise the local
chapter of ASCE.
Peter Vikesland’s research group
is developing an international reputation in the study of the applications
and implications of nanotechnology in
environmental settings. As recognition
of the group’s work in the former area,
in fall 2013 Vikesland gave a keynote
lecture entitled “Opportunities and
Challenges for the Nanotechnology Research Community” at the annual NSF
Nanograntees meeting in Arlington,
Virginia. In the latter area, Vikesland,
along with colleagues from a number of
U.S. universities, served as a cultural
ambassador during an NSF sponsored
symposium tour of Japanese universities and research laboratories and
Vikesland gave an invited platform
presentation at the prestigious
Gordon Conference “Environmental Sciences: Water.” Over the past
year, Vikesland and his colleagues
published seven research articles
and gave 30 presentations at local,
national, and international venues.
Vikesland continues to teach Fundamentals of Public Health Engineering
and this past year taught Environmental Chemistry as well as a special
topics course with Amy Pruden on
Sustainable Nanotechnology.
Mark Widdowson continued
his administrative role as assistant
department head and graduate chair
and led the study abroad program to
the Punta Cana region of the Dominican Republic in 2014. Widdowson
and his colleagues presented papers
at several meetings including the International Conference on Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds and
the American Geophysical Union. He
organized and chaired a session at
the Ninth International Symposium
on Subsurface Microbiology. Widdowson published papers in several
journals including Water Resources
Research, Journal of the American
Water Resources Association, and
Ground Water. The latter publication,
“Modeling the Effects of Naturally
Occurring Organic Carbon on Chlorinated Ethene Transport to a Public
Supply Well,” was part of a special issue with a focus on research through
the U.S. Geological Survey National
Water Quality Assessment program.
Husen Zhang led an investigation of what the addition of metal
salts does to the odor emission from
wastewaters and sludge. Zhang also
conducted a study on how the host
immune system impacts intestinal
microbiota. The results of these research projects have been submitted
to leading peer-reviewed journals. He
continued to advise graduate students
and to serve on thesis committees.
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 31
PROGRAM AREAS:
Geotechnical
Among her many projects, Nina Stark is working on ocean
renewable energy using a grant from the Virginia Tech
Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science.
The
Geotechnical
Program
The Geotechnical Engineering
Program has enjoyed another successful year as it continues to excel
in its teaching, research, and service
missions. Its faculty members are
at the forefront of a wide range of
research areas including sustainable
geo-construction, earthquake engineering, and marine geotechnics.
The Center for Geotechnical
Practice and Research (CGPR) continues to serve as an important link
between academia and practice. Its
annual meeting serves to connect
regional and national members to
the geotechnical faculty and graduating students, and CGPR-funded
research benefits both the academic
and professional communities.
32 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
This year Katerina Ziotopoulou
joins the program. Ziotopoulou obtained her Ph.D. from the University
of California at Davis. Her background
in numerical modeling will widen the
range of expertise of the group.
The impact of the program on engineering practice and on the research
community is measured by the activity
of its faculty members. A summary of
these activities is presented below.
T.L. Brandon spent 2013 on
sabbatical leave. During this time,
he finished the second edition of Soil
Strength and Slope Stability with Mike
Duncan and Steve Wright. During his sabbatical he worked on an
Interagency Personnel Agreement (IPA)
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg,
Mississippi, where he researched the
topic of transient seepage analysis.
The project involves the instrumentation and analysis of four levees
in different locations of the U.S.
to obtain information during flood
loading. Brandon is also involved in
the analysis of Blue Ridge Dam in
Blue Ridge, Georgia, and the design
of a containment dike in Lane City,
Texas. Joe Dove continues his collaboration with Patricia Dove of the
geosciences department, master’s
Via fellow Austin Cox, and Andrew Stallings in developing novel
Continued on next page
PROGRAM AREAS:
methods to improve the engineering
behavior of soils. He is working with
Jim Mitchell and Ph.D. Via fellow
Craig Shillaber to develop a methodology to evaluate energy use and
CO2 release during ground improvement. Other areas of active research
include the application of advanced
sensing techniques for site investigation, infrastructure assessment
and hazard detection; engineering
for sustainability; and, bio-inspired
materials. He serves the department
as one of the academic advisors for
undergraduate majors and as chair
of the curriculum committee.
Mike Duncan worked with
George Filz as co-director of the
CGPR, and supervised CGPR and
civil engineering department student
research projects. Under his and
Tom Brandon’s supervision, a Ph.D.
dissertation on an improved method
for rapid drawdown analysis was
completed in the spring semester,
2014, and with Filz, he is supervising work on a CGPR report that will
provide guidance on practical use of
the finite element method for seepage
and for movements in earth masses.
He sponsored a trip of 30 graduate
students to attend the 2013 national
geotechnical engineering conference
in Atlanta. He and Brandon completed work on the second edition of the
book Soil Strength and Slope Stability, published in September, 2014.
He was elected to membership in the
Academy of Distinguished Alumni of
the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. During the
past year he served on consulting
boards for Keoshe Dam in South
Carolina, for Linville Dam in North
Carolina, and for the design of a new
dam for an off-channel reservoir on
the Lower Colorado River in Texas.
George Filz’s research projects
and sponsors include an accessible
knowledge base for soil improvement technologies for transportation infrastructure renewal for the
Strategic Highway Research Program
Geotechnical
2; foundation support for bridge abutments using geosynthetic-reinforced
soil for the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research/
Virginia Department of Transportation
(VDOT); deep-mixing and jet-grouting
case histories for CGPR); stability of
slopes reinforced with various types of
columns, with and without geosynthetic reinforcement for CGPR); design procedures for pile-supported floodwalls
for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
and stress-strain and strength properties for soil-cement mixtures for the
Deep Foundations Institute. Filz and
his students made presentations based
on their research at conferences and
seminars in Washington, Atlanta, Providence, Hershey, San Francisco, and
Toronto. He served as assistant CEE
department head, director of CGPR,
faculty advisor of the geotechnical student organization, member of VDOT’s
Geotechnical Research Advisory Committee, member of the ASCE Geo-Institute Soil Improvement Committee, and
consultant on geotechnical design and
construction projects. He is organizing
the Deep Mixing 2015 conference to be
held in San Francisco in June.
Russell Green is actively working on several continuing research
projects and a few new ones. Most
notably, Green is continuing his work
studying the 2010-2011 Canterbury,
New Zealand earthquake sequence.
He spent July and August, 2013 and
2014 at the University of Canterbury
in Christchurch, New Zealand, giving
lectures and performing collaborative
earthquake research. One of his Ph.D.
research students, Brett Maurer, a Via
fellow, also travelled to Christchurch to
perform research on the earthquakes.
Green continues his work on a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored project on the development of an
energy-based liquefaction evaluation
procedure, and a Tennessee Valley Authority project on the dynamic properties of coal combustion products. Both
of these projects are in collaboration
with Adrian Rodriguez-Marek. Green
has additionally received a grant from
the U.S. Geological Survey to develop
“magnitude bound curves” for use
in paleoliquefaction investigations in
the central and eastern U.S. Finally,
he served on the organizing committee of the 10th National Conference
on Earthquake Engineering, held
in Anchorage, Alaska, in July 2014
in remembrance of 50th year anniversary of the magnitude 9.2, 1964
Good Friday earthquake that devastated the region.
Matthew Mauldon has research
underway related to fluvial erosion
of fractured rock, with application
to stability of high head arch dam
spillways and abutments. Mauldon
has also collaborated with colleagues
in the geotechnical group to develop
a major research instrumentation
proposal. Mauldon has also begun to
investigate the use of underground
mines as a resource for thermal
energy storage, and as a potential
ground source for geothermal recovery loops coupled to heat pumps. Mauldon serves on the editorial
boards of Rock Mechanics and Rock
Engineering and the Korean Journal
of Civil Engineering.
Emeritus Professor Jim Mitchell continues co-advising Ph.D.
research on methods for incorporating sustainability considerations in
ground improvement projects. He
was the keynote speaker at GeoVirginia 2013 in Williamsburg, Geotech
2013 in Taipei, Taiwan, and the 45th
Annual Geotechnical Conference at
the University of Kansas. He presented lectures at GeoInstitute chapters
in Cincinnati, San Antonio, and the
University of Nottingham, United
Kingdom, and participated in a workshop at Beijing University, China.
Mitchell is serving as a member of
the National Academies Committee
on State of the Art and Practice for
Assessment of Earthquake Induced
Soil Liquefaction. His consulting
activities included the design review
board for a large copper tailings storage facility in Utah, a review board
Continued on next page
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 33
PROGRAM AREAS:
for ground movement evaluation and
stabilization of the I-20 Mississippi
River Bridge at Vicksburg, Mississippi, the board of consultants for
Linville Dam in North Carolina, and
the peer review panel for research on
soft zones at depth beneath the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Guney Olgun continues his
research and outreach efforts on
energy geotechnology spanning a
wide range of areas from energy piles
to energy geostorage. He is currently
leading an NSF funded project to
study the performance of energy
piles through full-scale field tests.
As an extension of this project he is
also investigating the use of groundsource heating for deicing of bridge
decks in collaboration with Cris
Moen from the structural engineering and materials program. Olgun
is also leading another NSF funded
project to study the use of soil-mix
panels for ground reinforcement
during earthquakes. Virginia Tech
leads this study, involving three
other universities where shake table
tests, dynamic centrifuge testing and
full-scale field testing are conducted.
Olgun is also active on research
related to site response analysis for
the eastern United States.
Adrian Rodriguez-Marek
has continued to work on projects
related to seismic hazard assessment. These projects include an NSF
funded project to capture the effects
of surface topography on strong
ground motions and a USGS funded
project to study the effects of site
Geotechnical
amplification on earthquake ground
motions. He has continued to work
on research related to seismic hazard
in nuclear power plants with funding from the French national power
company, and has participated in
important seismic hazard assessment
projects for nuclear power plants on
the U.S. west coast. He has also continued to collaborate with Green on the
characterization of the dynamic behavior of coal combustion residuals and
the development of an energy-based
methodology for liquefaction assessment. Rodriguez-Marek was elected the
next chair of the Geo Institute of the
American Society of Civil Engineers’
Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics committee.
Nina Stark continues her work
on beach dynamics and tidal energy
converters, and started a number of
new projects. She has participated
in a large international field experiment on a mixed sand-gravel beach in
Advocate, Canada. In March 2014, she
joined the NSF GEER team with regard
to the response to major flooding in the
earthquake-impacted areas in Christchurch, New Zealand. She contributed
majorly to some chapters of the following and published report. Most recently, Stark was awarded funding for
a two-year project on the development
of cost-efficient geotechnical surveying strategies for early site assessment
in ocean renewable energy by Virginia
Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology
and Applied Science. The project is in
collaboration with Christopher Zobel
from the Virginia Tech Pamplin School
of Business. Furthermore, she
received an NSF grant for participation in the COPER international
expedition to Herschel Island in the
Arctic to conduct in-situ geotechnical
measurements and sediment sampling in areas affected by the retreat
of the permafrost. In collaboration
with Brandon, Stark and a group
of master’s students have arranged
the transport of the large-scale CPT
calibration chamber from the USACE
facility in Vicksburg to Virginia Tech.
Katerina Ziotopoulou is working on the numerical modeling of
liquefaction effects. In the last year,
she focused on updating the formulation of the sand plasticity model
PM4Sand to improve simulations of
liquefaction-induced deformations of
sloping ground subjected to uniform
and irregular cyclic loading. To this
end, she introduced new experimental data from undrained cyclic direct
simple shear lab tests of liquefiable
sand under sloping ground conditions subjected to irregular cyclic
loading, that she performed at the
Soil Interactions Laboratory of UC
Davis. She and Ross W. Boulanger
(UC Davis) recently released the third
version of PM4Sand that they had
been developing and implementing
over the last three years. She is currently collaborating with University
of California-Davis and the Department of Safety of Dams of California
on the validation of liquefaction
modeling procedures against case
histories and centrifuge test data.
Geotechnical engineering faculty members are at the
forefront of a wide range of research areas including
sustainable geo-construction, earthquake engineering,
and marine geotechnics.
34 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
PROGRAM AREAS:
Structural
Virginia Tech became a
founding member of the
Cold Formed Steel Research
Consortium this year.
The Structural
Engineering
and Materials
Program
The faculty members in the
Structural Engineering and Materials (SEM) Program continue to excel
in teaching, research, service, and
outreach, and they were recognized
with several awards. Vickie Mouras received the Alumni Teaching
Excellence Award, Carin RobertsWollmann received a 2014 Dean’s
Award for Service, and Roberto
Leon received an award from the
American Society of Civil Engineers
(ASCE) recognizing his service on the
SEI board from 2006-2013.
Several changes have occurred
within the SEM group. A new assistant professor, Madeleine Flint,
will be joining the faculty in the fall
of 2015. Zach Grasley returned to
Texas A&M. The group will miss the
many contributions of Kamal Rojiani
as he approaches his retirement in
early 2015. (See related story, page 16.)
The many years of dedicated service
of Ann Crate were celebrated as she
retired in May, and the group looks
forward to working with Lisa Bishop,
who will now serve as the SEM administrative assistant.
The group has several new initiatives underway including the Virginia
Tech Structural Engineering Education Development (VT-SEEDs) program. VT-SEEDs was formed this past
year with the mission of creating and
nourishing educational activities in the
SEM area. The SEM group is soliciting
industry partners to support student
groups, class field trips, student
trips to conferences, invited seminar
speakers, interaction with industry,
and K-12 outreach events. Also this
year, Virginia Tech became a founding member of the Cold Formed
Steel Research Consortium (CFSRC).
The CFSRC provides the world’s
most comprehensive, innovative,
and impactful research dedicated to
improving the understanding of the
behavior, and advancing the design,
of cold-formed steel structures. An
Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute (EERI) student chapter
was created this year. The chapter’s
purpose is to facilitate communication between students and EERI
Continued on next page
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 35
PROGRAM AREAS:
professional members, as well as
to inform the student body on the
current state of art and knowledge in
earthquake engineering.
The SEM graduate program has
more than 60 new and continuing
graduate students, and some 35 of
these students are participating in
research. The Thomas M. Murray
Structural Engineering Laboratory is
busy with a large number of projects
and runs smoothly thanks to the efforts of Brett Farmer, Dennis Huffman, and David Mokarem.
The following paragraphs provide more detail about the faculty
members’ activities over the past
year:
Finley Charney has been active
in a variety of activities including
research, building code development, and collaborative international
research and teaching. In research,
he completed a three-year National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) project on performance
based seismic engineering and has
started new projects in assessing
the seismic collapse behavior of
wood frame structures, transferal of
technology from performance based
seismic engineering to wind engineering, and testing and analysis of
two different proprietary seismic resistant systems. In the area of building code development Charney was a
contributor to a significant update to
existing nonlinear response history
analysis provisions, led the development of a new linear response history analysis procedure, and participated in the revision of provisions for
response spectrum analysis. Each
of these new or revised analysis
procedures will be included in the
2014 NEHRP provisions, and are
under consideration for adoption by
ASCE 7-16. In international activities, Charney assisted in the development of a dual Ph.D. program with
Pontificia Universidad de Catolica
(PUC) in Santiago, Chile and served
for six months as visiting professor
at PUC. During his time in Chile he
36 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Structural
developed and taught a new graduate
class on nonlinear dynamic analysis,
participated in collaborative research
on torsional response of buildings
during earthquakes, and served on
the Ph.D. committees of two students.
Charney also began discussions with
universities in Ecuador for the development of new collaborative teaching and
research activities in that country.
Tommy Cousins continues to
offer prestressed concrete and bridge
design courses and to focus his research efforts on challenges associated
with bridge performance and longevity. Cousins will be involved in three
Virginia Department of Transportation
(VDOT) sponsored bridge innovation
implementation projects during the
next two years. For the first, he is partnering with Carin Roberts-Wollmann
and two graduate students to help
VDOT bridge engineers develop and
implement inverted T-beams topped
with a cast-in-place deck on a bridge
near Richmond, Virginia. This style
bridge is an alternative to the traditional adjacent box beam or voided
slab bridges used in short to medium
spans. The second project is looking
at ways to improve the durability of
adjacent box beam and voided slab
bridges. His co-principal investigator
(Co-PI) is Roberts-Wollmann and four
graduate students are employed on the
project. Adjacent box beam and voided
slab bridges are commonly used by
state DOTs on short to medium span
bridges, but are susceptible to reflective cracking. The researchers are
investigating better ways to connect
the adjacent box beams and voided
slabs. The third project, with RobertsWollmann and Ioannis Koutromanos
serving as co-PIs, is concerned with developing improved repair methods for
collision damaged prestressed bridge
girders. In this project, full size prestressed bridge girders will be repaired
with three different methods and then
tested to failure. The test results and
accompanying finite element models
will be used to develop recommendations for VDOT for the design and
implementation of various girder
repair strategies.
Matthew Eatherton’s research
group has continued its focus on developing new structural systems with
enhanced earthquake performance
and improved seismic resilience.
Three ongoing research projects
include developing steel plate shear
walls that resist buckling, a selfcentering moment frame that will not
require repair after most earthquakes,
and an exploratory project developing bio-inspired spine like structural
systems. In addition to his group’s
work developing new structural
systems, they are also improving the
seismic performance of existing types
of structures. His group is exploring
new end plate connections for metal
buildings, investigating the low cycle
fatigue resistance of steel moment
connections with defects, and developing a framework for seismic simulation of cold-formed steel structures.
They have also finished some notable
projects this past year including
developing procedures for tightening
super high tension bolts, qualification
testing for a new type of buckling restrained brace, and developing a new
spectral matching algorithm using
wavelet transforms and a nonlinear
solution scheme.
Eatherton’s research group is
also active in outreach activities and
professional service. His group supported diversity and outreach initiatives by hosting learning activities
at C-Tech^2, Blast, and Imagination
summer camps, at the Engineering Open House, and at Blacksburg
High School. He also hosted an
international visiting scholar from
a prestigious university in China.
Eatherton is a member of five professional committees and contributed to
the structural engineering profession
this past year in other ways such as
authoring design examples to be used
by practicing structural engineers.
Ioannis Koutromanos is involved
in the development of analytical tools
Continued on next page
PROGRAM AREAS:
for the performance assessment
of structural systems subjected to
seismic loads. His work included
the development of refined threedimensional finite element models to
capture the response of reinforced
concrete structures such as bridge
girders and walls. The tools have
been validated with experimental
tests on actual concrete walls. The
refined simulation tools are also
employed for three-dimensional
simulations of structural systems
such as prestressed concrete bridge
girders. These simulations are aimed
at providing better understanding of
the effect of vehicle collision-induced
damage on bridges and of the effectiveness of pertinent repair methods.
Koutromanos has also been developing simplified simulation tools. More
specifically, he has formulated and
validated models based on the nonlinear truss analogy for reinforced
Structural
concrete and masonry. These simplified tools allow engineers to accurately
capture the damage and response for
structural systems without resorting to
simulations which are computationally
demanding and hard to interpret.
Roberto Leon has continued his
research in four main areas during
the last year. The first area centers
on the behavior and performance of
composite steel-concrete structural
elements, with emphasis on design approaches and building code provisions
for composite floors and concrete-filled
tube columns. The second area relates
to the development of innovative
structural systems, with emphasis on
incorporating advanced materials such
as shape memory alloys that provide
re-centering and energy dissipating capabilities that minimize damage to the
structure after large seismic events.
The third area is the role of eccentricities in floor diaphragms and their effect
on the progression of failure. Finally,
Leon is also working on progressive
collapse of bridges, with the aim to
better define structural redundancy
and fracture critical members. Leon
continues to serve in numerous technical committees of ACI, ASCE/SEI
and AISC and serves on the boards of
the Earthquake Engineering Institute
(EERI) and the Applied Technology
Council (ATC).
Cris Moen leads the Structural
System Lifecycle Analytics (S2LA)
team at Virginia Tech. S2LA works at
the intersection of engineering materials and systems to advance structural
safety, efficiency, and durability.
Current S2LA efforts include bringing
whole building system performance
and reliability to national codes and
standards and developing multi-objective design approaches for highrise buildings that cohesively address
Continued on next page
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 37
PROGRAM AREAS:
in-service performance, embodied
energy, constructability, and real
estate economics. New engineering
material development and characterization is a key research area
within S2LA, with a recent focus on
tailored multi-functional materials
realized with additive manufacturing
and topology optimization. The S2LA
group is documenting properties for
new high-stiffness high-damping and
negative Poisson ratio material configurations through multi-university
collaborations.
Transportation infrastructure
continues to be a key focus for S2LA.
The team is developing structural
guidelines and high fidelity simula-
Structural
tion tools for Ultra-High Performance
Concrete (UHPC) that can inspire the
next generation of concrete building
and bridge structural systems. S2LA
is partnered with the Virginia Department of Transportation to deploy corrosion resistant reinforcing materials and
novel monitoring techniques in bridges
and pavements that will save millions
of dollars in repair, maintenance, and
inspection costs.
Vickie Mouras, as a professor-ofpractice, continued to focus her attention on teaching in the undergraduate
program. In addition to teaching all the
seniors in the Professional and Legal
Issues (P&L) course, Mouras also enjoyed teaching the Steel I design proj-
An Earthquake Engineering
Research Institute student
chapter was created at
Virginia Tech.
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ect and Concrete I courses. When not
in the classroom, she kept busy with
advising, directing the on-going undergraduate assessment and quality
improvement program, and exercising
her project management skills for the
planning and coordination of several
departmental projects. Based on her
recent collaboration with the English
department to provide a strong writing component in the professional
and legal issues course, Mouras also
served on a university-level committee to assist in reinventing the general
education curriculum in the area of
discourse. A highlight of the 2014
year for Mouras was receiving the
2014 Alumni Teaching Excellence
Award.
Carin Roberts-Wollmann has
several new and ongoing bridge
related research projects funded by
USDOT, FHWA, and the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and
Research (VCTIR). In addition to the
projects noted by Cousins previously
in this report, she has worked with
him to analyze data collected in the
long term monitoring of the VarinaEnon Bridge to investigate on the behavior of the joints in this segmental
box girder bridge. In a project funded
through a University Transportation Center in which they participate,
Cousins and Roberts-Wollmann have
developed a small, self-contained
data acquisition system that can be
easily deployed on bridges and left
in place for four to eight weeks, with
no external power or communication required. She is the chair of
ACI Committee 423 – Prestressed
Concrete and serves as a member of
Sub-Committee 318G- Building Code
and Commentary. She is also active
in The Precast/Prestressed Concrete
Institute and the Transportation
Research Board, where she chairs
the committee on concrete bridges.
She presented the “Concrete for Kids”
outreach program to over 90 middle
and high school students at C-Tech2
and Imagination camps during the
summer of 2014.
PROGRAM AREAS:
Transportation
Transportation Infrastructure
and Systems Engineering
Program
Undergraduate students traveled to Punta Cana International
Airport and conducted noise measurement testing. Virginia Tech
has a campus in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.
The Transportation Infrastructure and Systems Engineering Program (TISE) had a very productive
2013-2014 academic year.
The group includes the National
Surface Transportation Safety Center
for Excellence and the Federal Aviation Administration National Center
of Excellence for Aviation Research
(NEXTOR).
The TISE program is comprised
of 10 faculty members and 65 graduate students. The group has representation in both Blacksburg and
the National Capital Region campuses. Several of the TISE faculty
are affiliated with the Virginia Tech
Transportation Institute (VTTI).
The following paragraphs illustrate
salient accomplishments by faculty,
research staff, and students in the
TISE group.
Montasir Abbas teaches Computer
Applications in CEE, Introduction
to Transportation Engineering and
the Traffic Characteristics and Flow
courses. Three of his graduate students have graduated this past year.
Abbas and his students published five
peer-reviewed journal papers and 11
peer-reviewed conference proceedings.
He currently supervises seven graduate students and serves as a member
of several Transportation Research
Board (TRB) committees. He is currently working on two research projects
including a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant.
Thomas A. Dingus is the director
of the Virginia Tech Transportation
Institute (VTTI), the Newport News
Shipbuilding Professor of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, and a
human factors and safety transportation researcher. He also serves as
director of the Connected Vehicle/
Infrastructure University Transportation Center (CVI-UTC), focused on
conducting research that will impact
future vehicle and roadway technology and improve the safety of drivers.
Dingus is a current member of the
board of directors for the Intelligent
Continued on next page
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 39
PROGRAM AREAS:
Transportation Society of America
(ITSA). During this reporting period,
he was co-author of several transportation safety articles published
in the New England Journal of
Medicine; The Journal of Pediatrics;
Journal of the American Medical Association, Pediatrics; and Annals of
Advances in Automotive Medicine.
He presented information about the
risks of inattention and distraction
at the Engaged Driving Symposium
and was an invited panelist for a
RealClearPolitics discussion about
distracted driving. Dingus was also
an invited blogger for the Huffington
Post special series Don’t Look Away
From the Roadway.
Gerardo Flintsch, professor and
director of the Center for Sustainable
Transportation Infrastructure (CSTI)
at VTTI, has continued to seek innovative solutions for improving the
sustainability, efficiency, reliability,
and resilience of the transportation
infrastructure systems. Among other
projects, CSTI has been awarded
an NSF grant for developing a new
method to evaluate the friction levels between tires and pavement by
fusing responses from tire and vehicle sensors and advanced vehicle
dynamics algorithms and has been
selected by the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) to provide
support for the demonstration of
network level pavement structural
evaluation with a traffic speed deflectometer. Flintsch is also part of a
consortium of universities that has
been awarded the National University Transportation Center on stateof-good-repair and has expanded the
work to develop a comprehensive
pavement life-cycle analysis methodology by combining cost and environmental aspects (LCCA and LCA).
Flintsch also is chairing the 9th International Conference on Managing
Pavement Assets in Alexandria, Virginia, in cooperation with FHWA, Virginia Department of Transportation
(VDOT), Transportation Research
Board (TRB), and American Associa40 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Transportation
tion of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
Kathleen Hancock, associate professor and co-director for the Center
for Geospatial Information Technology
in the National Capital Region, performs research in both transportation
engineering and geospatially enabling
decision-making and problem solving. In transportation, she performs
research in freight transportation and
planning, highway safety, and traffic
analysis. She is working with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to
geospatially locate every police-reported crash in Virginia with the goal of
improving the Commonwealth’s ability
to more effectively allocate resources
for enforcement, education, and engineering for highway safety. She is also
expanding her work into connected
vehicle technology with a transit project through VTTI’s Connected Vehicle/
Infrastructure University Transportation Center. She continues to explore
improved technologies and methodologies for delivering on-line education
with a small grant to develop a new
graduate course in Critical Issues in
Transportation that was offered in the
spring of 2014.
Antoine Hobeika, professor, continued his research work in testing
and improving various FHWA transportation planning software including TRANSIMS. He taught classes on
transportation planning and land use
and Intelligent Transportation Systems
(ITS) and Introduction to Transportation Engineering.
Bryan Katz is currently serving in
his first year as an assistant professor
of practice after serving as an adjunct
professor for the department since
2007. Besides teaching Introduction to
Transportation Engineering this past
academic year, he also served as the
chair of the College of Engineering’s
Distance Learning Advisory Committee. He is currently working with Momentum Press as a collection editor
to develop a series of short textbooks
related to transportation engineering
topics that are designed to be used
by both students and practitioners
who are seeking to learn more about
transportation topics. He continues
to bring his research experience to
the classroom with his new, recently
accepted position at toXcel, where
he will serve as vice president of
engineering. He remains an active
member of the National Committee
on Uniform Traffic Control Devices,
an organization that provides recommendations to the FHWA on changes
to standards and guidance on traffic
signs, pavement markings, and signals.
Over the last year, Pamela
Murray-Tuite has been working on
projects related to: disruptions to
the transportation network, such as
accidents and earthquakes; winter
weather; and emergency vehicle – to
– vehicle communication. She has
also been an external advisor to the
European Union sponsored project
“Management of Weather Events in
the Transport System.” She published
eight journal papers with several
more accepted and others under
review. Murray-Tuite and members
of her research teams made seven
presentations at various conferences.
She graduated one Ph.D. student and
two M.S. students as their primary
advisor as well as one part time M.S.
student whom she co-advised.
Hesham Rakha, together with
the research faculty and students at
the Center for Sustainable Mobility
(CSM), worked on various nationallevel projects sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, NAVTEQ
Inc., the Virginia Department of
Transportation, SAIC, and the Federal
Transit Association totaling over $2
million in research expenditures. In
collaboration with CSM research faculty and students, Rakha published
14 peer-reviewed journal publications
and 21 peer-reviewed conference publications. In terms of student supervising, Rakha is currently advising/
co-advising 10 graduate students.
Rakha continues to serve as an assoContinued on next page
PROGRAM AREAS:
Transportation
Antonio Trani and Julio Roa teach an
Airport Planning and Design course at
the Punta Cana campus. In this photo,
Virginia Tech students are learning
about the La Romana airport.
ciate editor for the IEEE Transactions
on Intelligent Transportation Systems
and the Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, and as a member
of the editorial board of the Transportation Letters: The International
Journal of Transportation Research,
the IET Intelligent Transport Systems,
and a member of various TRB committees.
Antonio Trani, together with
the research faculty and students
at the Federal Aviation Administration National Center of Excellence for
Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR 2) were involved in five projects
sponsored by the Federal Aviation
Administration and two by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These projects
include: validating three models created by the FAA to study airport and
airspace impacts of the New Generation Air Transportation System
(NEXTGen); developing a global oceanic
model to predict cost-benefits of using
satellite-navigation and surveillance
to air navigation service providers and
airlines manage flights; and developing
a stand-alone model to predict the potential of wake turbulence encounters
in the National Airspace System. Trani
and his group at the Air Transportation Systems Laboratory added runway
capacity modules to the Transportation Systems Analysis Model (TSAM)
developed for NASA Langley Research
Center. Trani and senior research associates Nick Hinze, Howard Swingle,
and aerospace engineer Maria Rye
delivered two models to Leidos and the
Air Force. The models are for estimating airspace scheduling and airspace
training requirements for the Joint
Strike Fighter (JSF) to be stationed at
Eglin Air Force Base. Trani and Julio
Roa taught for the third time a summer course in Airport Planning and
Design at Virginia Tech’s Punta Cana
campus in the Dominican Republic.
The course was attended by eight
undergraduate students.
Since his return from his sabbatical leave, Linbing Wang has
continued his research on nanomechanics of structural materials, energy harvesting from public right of
ways, renewable energy applications,
sensing technology application in
pavement health monitoring, digital
mix design, aggregate polishing and
pavement friction loss relationship,
and pavement drainage layer characterization and design. He also continued working on building international collaborations with the National
Center for Materials Service Safety
(NCMS) via establishing a joint Accelerated Pavement Testing cluster, and
an undergraduate exchange program
with Tongji University.
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 41
VIA SCHOLARS
Meet the Via Scholars
T
he following pages highlight some of the country’s most
exceptional students and alumni, the Via Scholars.
The motivation and aspirations of this group reflect
a profound curiosity and desire to improve the quality of
life around the world — from helping municipalities manage
growth, to the aesthetics of structures, the quality of water, and
international development.
The Via scholarships are made possible through the
generosity of the late Mrs. Marion Bradley Via of Roanoke, Va.,
and her family. In 1987, Mrs. Via contributed $5 million each
to the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and
Civil and Environmental Engineering. Virginia Tech’s Board of
Visitors subsequently named the ECE department in honor of
Mrs. Via’s deceased father, Harry Lynde Bradley, and the CEE
department in honor of her late husband, Charles E. Via, Jr.
Mrs. Via died in 1993.
Both departments use a portion of the endowment to award
scholarships to qualifying students. These scholarships are
among the most competitive in the country. Since the Via
endowment was created in 1987, the department has awarded
more than $16 million in scholarships and fellowships.
42 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Julia Baaklini
Elizabeth Bales
Phillip R. Bellis
Hometown: Wayne, New Jersey
Location of Undergraduate Studies: The
College of New Jersey
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated with highest
GPA in civil engineering class, Dean’s List,
Tau Beta Pi Scholar, ASCE, EIT
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Internship
experience at Langan Engineering and
Environmental Services working as a
geotechnical and site/civil engineer
Career Goals: After graduating with a master’s
degree in geotechnical engineering, I plan to
obtain my professional engineering license
and work at an innovative consulting firm in
the field of geotechnical engineering.
Hometown: Gillette, Wyoming
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Wyoming
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Magna Cum
Laude; Engineer in Training; member of
Tau Beta Pi, Outstanding Member TBP
WY A Chapter, 2014; Outstanding Student
Engineer of the Year 2014, Wyoming
Engineering Society; Wyoming EPSCoR
Undergraduate Research Fellow 2014
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: HVAC design
internship with AE Associates, Greeley,
Colorado; teaching assistant for engineering
summer program at the University of
Wyoming; surveying internship with KLJ,
Gillette, Wyoming
Career Goals: After completing my master’s
degree, I hope to work in the integration
of structural systems and efficient building
materials. I would like to combine my
knowledge and understanding of passive
building systems and structural integrities
to optimize building materials. I plan on
obtaining my Professional Engineering
license and LEED certification.
Hometown: Roseto, Pennsylvania
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Lafayette
College
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa Cum
Laude, Dean’s List all semesters, Carroll
Phillips Bassett Prize in Civil Engineering
(2013), Lafayette Alumni of the Lehigh
Valley Scholarship Award (2013), Lafayette
Alumni of the Lehigh Valley Performing
Arts Award (2013), Russell C. Brinker
Prize in Civil Engineering (2012), Lehigh
Valley Section of the ASM Award (2011),
Marquis Scholar (2009 - 2013), Tau Beta
Pi - Executive Board of PAE Chapter, ASCE
NSSBC 2013 Mid-Atlantic Regional - First
Place Overall - Captain, 3x Lip Sync/Air
Band Champion
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: Structural
engineering intern, Spillman Farmer
Architects (2013); civil engineering intern,
Alfred Benesch & Company (2012-2013);
research assistant, NEESR project
investigating the significance of panel
zone strength in steel moment frame
buildings under seismic conditions (2011);
engineering, scientific, and technical intern,
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
(2010)
Career Goals: My career goals are rooted in a
desire to provide the structural engineering
solutions that will best enhance the ability of
the global infrastructure to serve the evergrowing needs of society. Beyond structural
engineering, I plan on forming a moderately
successful rock band that will one day open
for a band with much greater talent.
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43
VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Paul Ryan Bender
Nathaniel Bradley
Ayrton Alexander Bryan
Hometown: Hazlet, New Jersey
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Worcester
Polytechnic Institute
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated with high
distinction, WPI Class of 2014; 3rd place,
FAA Design Competition, Airport Operation
and Maintenance Category (2014);
Salisbury Prize, WPI (2014); honorable
mention, ASEE Zone 1 Conference
Undergraduate Poster Competition (2014);
member of Tau Beta Pi MAA and Chi
Epsilon (2013); Charles O. Thompson
Scholar (2011); Sandra M. Glazier Memorial
Scholar (2010)
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Stormwater Testing
Intern at Alden Research Laboratories
(2014); seasonal park ranger, Holmdel
Park, Holmdel, N.J. (2010-2013); student
representative, Brookdale Water Pollution
Control Program, Lincroft, N.J.(2009-2010)
Career Goals: I plan to obtain my master’s
degree and then begin work in private or
public practice to gain experience towards
meeting P.E. licensure requirements.
My goal is to use my knowledge of the
transportation and environmental/water
resource fields to foster a more sustainable
outlook on the design and maintenance of
U.S. transportation infrastructure.
Hometown: Norwood, Massachusetts
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of New Hampshire
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa
Cum Laude with University Honors, Hamel
Scholar, Presidential Scholar, member
of Tau Beta Pi, Pedro de Alba Memorial
Scholarship.
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Researcher with
UNH Contaminated Sediments Center;
intern with UNH Stormwater Center; and
intern with CCR Associates, Land Surveyors
and Civil Engineers
Career Goals: Whether I decide to pursue a
career in academia or industry, I will pursue
professional licensure. I hope to make useful contributions to the field through my work
and by inspiring the next generation of civil
engineers.
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Texas
A&M University
Awards/Recognitions: National Merit
Scholar; National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration Hollings Scholar; graduated
magna cum laude; Texas A & M University
Scholar; President’s Endowed Scholar;
Geosciences Outstanding Student Award
2014
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Advanced
Structures and Composites Center (Summer
2012); Klotz Associates-Public Works
(Summer 2013); Walter P. Moore-Hydraulics
and Hydrology (Summer 2014)
Career Goals: I want to work in project
management for energy projects and the
water systems they require. I also want to
work to make engineering education more
appealing to children.
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
W. Lake Carter
Austin A. Cox
Thomas C. Dacanay
Hometown: Newport News, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa
Cum Laude; Dean’s list all eight semesters;
recipient of Lingerfelt Family Foundation
Scholarship (2011-2012), Vecellio
Scholarship (2010-2011), V.C. & J.N.
Williamson Scholarship (2009-2010)
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Summer internship
with Geopier Foundation Company;
internship with U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers
Career Goals: I want to obtain my master’s
degree and subsequently pursue a career
as a licensed professional engineer. I hope
to contribute my knowledge and experience
to the innovation of the geotechnical
industry.
Hometown: Princeton, West Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Marshall
University
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa
Cum Laude; graduated with highest GPA
in civil engineering class; selected as the
Outstanding Engineering Senior; Dean’s
list all eight semesters; Massey Energy
Scholarship; Marshall University Presidential
Scholarship; George M. Cruise Foundation
Scholarship; Charles and Elzada Thompson
Memorial Scholarship
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Engineering
internship with Consol Energy/Matney
Construction Company; undergraduate
research assistant; civil engineering co-op
with the West Virginia Division of Highways;
teaching assistant; engineering internship at
Conn-Weld Industries
Career Goals: Following completion of my
master’s degree, I plan to pursue my
professional engineering license and a
job with a geotechnical engineering firm. I
possibly will consider pursing my Ph.D. in
the future.
Hometown: Sterling, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa Cum
Laude; Dean’s List, all semesters; EngineerIn-Training Certification; member of Chi
Epsilon, Theta Tau and ASCE; Virginia
Concrete Scholarship
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: Structural
engineering internship at Wiss, Janney,
Elstner Associates, Inc. during the summer
of 2014; undergraduate research at
Virginia Tech during fall 2013 and spring
2014; technical internship at The MITRE
Corporation from summer 2010 to winter
2013
Career Goals: Following completion of my
master’s degree, I plan to work for a
structural forensics firm where I can obtain
my professional engineer’s license while
solving challenging and complex problems.
It is my goal to shape the future and push
the envelope of structural engineering by
using knowledge from different fields.
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45
VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Fred T. Falcone
Michael Gangi
Benjamin Hammond
Hometown: Pembroke, Massachusetts
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Wentworth
Institute of Technology
Awards/Recognitions: President’s Award for
Academic Excellence and Involvement in
Civil Engineering; Wentworth Alumni Award
in Civil Engineering; member of Tau Alpha Pi
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Building technology
co-op at Gale Associates; civil engineering
co-op at Gale Associates; assistant project
manager at Fred Falcone Roofing and
Property Services
Career Goals: After graduating with a master’s
degree in geotechnical engineering I plan to
obtain my professional engineering license
while working for a geotechnical engineering
firm. I would like to work on large
geotechnical projects around the county, or
even around the world. I may also one day
pursue a Ph.D. in geotechnical engineering
to hopefully work as a professor.
Hometown: North Branford, Connecticut
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Connecticut
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa Cum
Laude; honors scholar; Dean’s List all semesters; Babbidge Scholar; Transportation
Undergraduate Research Fellowship; Harold
P. Farrington Engineering Scholarship; New
England Scholar; Dr. John T. and Susan B.
DeWolf Engineering Scholarship
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: Research intern at
the UConn Center for Transportation and
Livable Systems
Career Goals: After obtaining my master’s, I
hope to work for a structural engineering
firm where I can help in the rehabilitation of
the nation’s infrastructure. I plan to obtain
my professional engineering license and
afterwards return to school for my MBA.
Ultimately, I plan to start and run my own
successful engineering consulting firm.
Hometown: Canton, New York
Location of Undergraduate Studies: McGill
University
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated on Dean’s
Honors List (2011); McGill University Faculty
of Engineering Scholarship (2010); second
place, McGill University Civil Engineering
Technical Paper Competition (2010)
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Project engineer,
CDM Smith Inc. (2011-2014); summer
research assistant, McGill University
Department of Civil Engineering (2010)
Career Goals: After completing my master’s
degree, I plan to complete the requirements
for my professional engineering license. I
hope to return to environmental consulting
and contribute to a variety of interesting
projects. I look forward to addressing
the wide range of existing and emerging
environmental challenges facing today’s
society.
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Jessica Hekl
Gary Hinds
Nicholas Izzo
Hometown: Oakton, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Awards/Recognitions: Summa Cum Laude
graduate, President of Sustainable Land
Development Club, Northern Virginia Build
Association Scholarship, Dean’s List with
Distinction, EIT
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Land development
intern at Gordon Associates
Career Goals: After obtaining my master’s, I
hope to work at an engineering firm focused
in sustainable land development and/or
environmental engineering. My goal is to be
able to play an important role in ensuring
that communities and infrastructure are
designed to be environmentally sensitive
and resilient through generations.
Furthermore, I will work toward obtaining my
professional engineering license.
Hometown: Andover, Massachusetts
Location of Undergraduate Studies:
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa Cum
Laude with departmental honors; Dean’s
List recognition all semesters; member of
Commonwealth Honors College; Chi Epsilon
Honors Society; recipient of Engineering
Achon Scholarship
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Land surveying
instrument operator/field crew member;
undergraduate researcher at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst working with
water treatment plant in Springfield,
Massachusetts
Career Goals: After graduating I plan to work
as a consultant, ideally designing and
upgrading potable water treatment systems.
I hope to obtain my professional engineering
license after some time working in the field.
Hometown: Edison, New Jersey
Location of Undergraduate Studies:
The College of New Jersey
Awards/Recognitions: Tau Beta Pi Engineering
Honor Society; Golden Key Honor Society
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Kaiser Building (carpentry); Conti Construction field engineer
Career Goals: I would like to work for a
company that works on challenging and
interesting projects around the world and
eventually own my own consulting company.
I would like to become a part time professor
eventually as well.
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47
VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Alexander Kormanos
Kenneth C. Maben
Dale Paul Miller
Hometown: Nashua, New Hampshire
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Norwich
University
Awards/Recognitions: New Hampshire
licensed Professional Engineer, graduated
Summa Cum Laude with honors, Dean’s
List all semesters, Tau Beta Pi Engineering
Honor Society, Chi Epsilon Honor Society
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: U.S. Naval Officer
in the Civil Engineer Corps with seven years
of contingency engineering and construction
management experience; served as
a construction engineer in Nuristan,
Afghanistan on provincial reconstruction
operations and was selected as detail officer
in charge of 25 sailors for a three month
deployment to Tema, Ghana to construct
an operations center for a multi-national
exercise; lived and worked in Naples, Italy
for my final tour of duty
Career Goals: I hope to obtain both a master’s
degree and a Ph.D. in geotechnical
engineering and then apply those skills
as a consultant on international projects. I
would really welcome the challenge of living
overseas again to work across multiple
languages and cultures. Afterwards, I would
like to return to academia to influence the
next generation of engineers.
Hometown: Winchester, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa
Cum Laude; Engineer In Training (EIT);
Virginia Tech Civil Engineering Alumni
Board Scholarship (2013-2014); Stanley
and Frances Cohen Scholarship (20132014); E.W. Allen Memorial Scholarship
(2013-2014); Charles and Jean Spitzer
Scholarship (2013-2014); ASCE Virginia
Section Scholarship (2012-2013, 20112012); Lingerfelt Family Foundation
Scholarship (2012-2013); Gilbert L. and
Lucille C. Seay Scholarship (2012-2013);
Charles and Patricia Brown Scholarship
(2011-2012); Eagle Scout
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Summer graduate
research in geotechnical engineering
at Virginia Tech (2014); internship with
Froehling & Robertson in Roanoke,
Va. (2013); internship with Engineering
Consulting Services (ECS) in Winchester,
Virginia (2012, 2011)
Career Goals: Following graduate study,
I plan to pursue a career as a licensed
professional engineer in the geotechnical
field. As a practicing engineer I expect
that the recommendations and designs
I provide will be safe and at the highest
quality possible. My goal is to have a
positive impact in the field of geotechnical
engineering by using sound engineering
judgment to create designs that reflect well
on the profession.
Hometown: Ottawa, Illinois
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Illinois
Valley Community College; Missouri
University of Science and Technology
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa Cum
Laude; Engineer in Training (EIT); Order of
the Engineer; Eagle Scout
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: McCleary
Engineering, Peru, Illinois (slope stability,
bearing capacity, settlement, soil
improvement, spread footings, drilled shafts,
driven piles, retaining walls, geotechnical
analysis of bridge foundations for Illinois
Department of Transportation); Engineers
Without Borders; MS&T; Tarija Bolivia
(constructed Gabion walls to divert flood
waters and protect community water tower)
Career Goals: My goals are to become a
professional engineer and start my own
geotechnical consulting company focusing
on challenging projects while employing and
contributing to cutting edge advancements
in the field of geotechnical engineering.
I hope to use my engineering abilities to
improve the lives of those less fortunate
and stay involved with Engineers Without
Borders. As an engineer I will stand by the
oath of keeping the safety of the public
at the forefront of my efforts and conduct
business in an ethical manner.
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| 2014
VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Gage Pepin
Brandon Quinn
Gordon Stone
Hometown: Camano Island, Washington
Location of Undergraduate Studies:
Washington State University
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa
Cum Laude; College of Engineering &
Architecture Ceremonial Gonfalon Bearer,
2013 commencement; WSU College of
Engineering & Architecture Outstanding
Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Awards;
Washington State Opportunity Scholarship;
Robert F. Mast Civil Engineering
Scholarship; Boeing Scholars Award; Keith
Lamb Scholarship; President’s Honor Roll,
all semesters; University Achievement
Award, as freshman and sophomore;
2013 WSU International Business Plan
Competition, third place
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: Structural
Engineering Intern – PCS Structural
Solutions; Structural Engineering Intern
– BergerABAM; Value Engineering Intern –
The Boeing Company
Career Goals: After receiving my master’s
degree from Virginia Tech, I plan to begin
working for a structural engineering design
firm. I will work towards obtaining my
Professional Engineering License, and
ultimately my structural engineering license.
Though I am not particularly picky about
the work I will be doing – nor even the firm
I will be working for – it is very important to
me that I work on innovative projects. I am
eager to be at the forefront of advancing the
structural engineering profession, and am
excited for Virginia Tech to provide me with
the tools and skills to do so.
Hometown: Schoharie, New York
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Missouri
University of Science and Technology
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa
Cum Laude; Dean’s list all semesters at
Missouri S&T; Engineer In Training; recipient
of the highest merit-based scholarship at
Missouri S&T; the Geological Engineering
Scholarship (2011 and 2012).
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Geotechnical
engineer with CHA Companies in Albany,
N.Y.; engineering intern with CHA
Companies; project leader for Engineers
Without Borders, worked on project to
mitigate river bank erosion in Tacachia,
Bolivia
Career Goals: Upon graduating with a
master’s degree, I will pursue a career as
a professional engineer. I plan to utilize my
experience and education to work for an
innovative engineering firm or governmental
agency involved with development or
implementation of progressive foundation
design and ground improvement methods.
As a student member of the Association
of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO),
I am particularly interested in applying
geotechnical principles for the design,
construction, and rehabilitation of dam and
levee systems.
Hometown: Edina, Minnesota
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated with honors;
five time Dean’s list recipient; James
Scholar; Engineer in Training; minor in
German
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Worked for Clark
Construction as project engineer Intern
in Washington, D.C.; undergraduate
researcher under Cassandra Rutherford at
the University of Illinois; research assistant
at the Technical University of Darmstadt,
Germany
Career Goals: After completing my master’s
degree, I plan on working for a geotechnical
design firm and will work towards becoming
a Professional Engineer. After gaining
some work experience, I plan on moving to
Germany and working for a geotechnical
engineering firm there.
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Mark Tilashalski
Julie Trumpoldt
John C. Ward III
Hometown: Yorktown, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Awards/Recognitions: (None listed)
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Internship at
Huntington Ingalls Industries – Newport
News Shipbuilding
Career Goals: I want to complete my master’s
and work for a geotechnical consulting firm.
Hometown: Yorktown, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Magna Cum
Laude; Dean’s List all semesters; ASCE
Virginia Section Scholarship; Women’s
Transportation Seminar Leadership Legacy
Virginia Chapter Scholarship; American
Society of Highway Engineers Scholarship;
Howell & Ann Simmons Land Development
Design Scholarship; Marching Virginians
Outstanding Rank Member Award (2009,
2011); Engineer-In-Training; Sustainable
Land Development Club, vice president
Primary Area of Interest: Transportation and
Infrastructure Systems
Outside Work Experience: Transportation
engineering intern, Whitman, Requardt, &
Associates, LLP (WR&A); undergraduate
teaching assistant, Virginia Tech; research
assistant, Virginia Tech Transportation
Institute (VTTI); Transportation engineering
intern, AECOM
Career Goals: After completing my master’s
degree, I plan to attain a job at a consulting
firm specializing in transportation
engineering. My main passion lies in
geometric design so I hope to be a project
engineer who is in charge of designing safe
roadways. I eventually want to work my way
up the ranks and become a vice president
or regional manager. I also plan to obtain
my Professional Engineering license.
Hometown: Buckhannon, West Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Virginia
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated UVA with
highest distinction (2012), William J.
Thompson Award (2012), Louis T. Rader
Civil Engineering Award (2012), Clark
Construction Scholarship (2010-2012),
Alwyn C. Lapsley Endowed Scholarship
(2011-2012), Dean’s List (2008-2012), Eagle
Scout (2006)
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: Two internships
with WVDOH, construction management
internship with Jacobs, two years in
structural engineering with Jacobs Global
Buildings Design
Career Goals: I want to enhance my
knowledge of structural engineering through
the completion of my master’s degree, and
then enter the workforce to pursue a job
in structural design and consulting. I will
work to obtain my Professional Engineer
license while helping to create long lasting,
maintenance friendly, and intriguing
structures.
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REPORT
| 2014
VIA SCHOLARS:
Masters
Robert K. Williams
Samson Zhilyaev
Hometown: Richmond, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: George
Mason University
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa Cum
Laude, Dean’s list all semesters, graduated
with the highest GPA in civil engineering
class, Civil Engineering Institute Scholar,
member of Chi Epsilon, member of ASCE,
member of GMU Engineers for International
Development
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources (especially water and
wastewater quality)
Outside Work Experience: Worked with GMU
Engineers for International Development on
various water projects in Peru; private tutor
in AutoCAD
Career Goals: After graduating I plan to pursue
my professional engineering licensure.
I also plan to seek employment at an
environmental engineering firm that does
work abroad so that I may help bring clean
water to developing countries.
Hometown: Ludlow, Massachusetts
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Massachusetts, Amherst
Awards/Recognitions: Mensa Scholarship,
MALCSE Scholarship, graduated Summa
Cum Laude, Dean’s list recognition all
semesters, Simon & Satenig Ermonian
Memorial Scholarship, Hendrickson
Scholarship for Civil and Environmental
Engineering
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Land surveyor and
inspector at MassDOT; field crew member
and research assistant at UMassSAFE;
climate change modeling and programming
during a research position at UMass
Career Goals: My short term goal is to
complete my graduate education, ultimately
leaving with a Ph.D. After and during
which I hope to become involved in new
technologies and research relating to my
work. I wish to be on the leading edge of the
field, either in the research of new solutions
to our growing environmental problems, or
in the implementation of these emerging
methods.
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| CEE
VIA SCHOLARS:
Doctoral
Marcus F. Aguilar
Beena Ajmera
G. Allen Bowers, Jr.
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Alabama
Awards/Recognitions: Environmental and
Water Resources Institute/Coasts Oceans
Ports and Rivers Institute at Virginia Tech,
president (2012), treasurer (2011); recipient,
Brian Bluhm Fellowship (2011)
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Three years of
summer internship experience with AECOM
Water; 1.5 years EIT experience at AECOM
Water
Career Goals: I plan to use my experience in
research for innovation in the management
of non-point source pollution and surface
water hydrology. Pursuant with this goal is
the notion of improved quality of life as a
result of well-managed water. Since water is
at the nexus of other natural resources (i.e.
food, energy), I hope to extend my abilities
into other, more diverse disciplines.
Hometown: Ontario, California
Location of Undergraduate Studies: California
State University, Fullerton
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Magma Cum
Laude; NSF Graduate Research Fellow; Dwight
Eisenhower Transportation Fellow (2009-2010,
2010-2011); CSUF Civil Engineering Fellow;
Outstanding Junior (2008-2009), Senior (20092010) and Graduating Senior (2010-2011) for
CSUF civil engineering department; Orange
Country Engineering Council 2010 Outstanding
Engineering Student; recipient of 2010 Orange
Country ASCE Branch Scholarship, Jeffery
Gordon Scholarship, and Los Angeles Section
Geotechnical Engineering Group Scholarship;
California Pre-Doctoral Scholarship Program
honorable mention; first place (2010) and third
place (2013) in GI GeoPoster Competition;
first place (2010) and second place (2012) in
CSU Wide Student Research Competition;
third place in GI GeoPrediction Competition
(2011, 2012); first place in Orange County
Graduate Women in Science Conference
(2011, 2012); second place in ASCE PSWC
Geotechnical Event; first place in Earth Week
Poster Competition (2011); second place in
CSUF Student Research Competition (2012);
third place in 2012 Google Mapping Content;
co-authored 11 technical papers; licensed in
California as Fundamental Engineer
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Teaching assistant,
graduate teaching associate and research
assistant at CSUF
Career Goals: I plan on obtaining my
professional and geotechnical engineering
licenses. After graduation, I would like to
pursue a career in academia.
Hometown: Woodstock, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Awards/Recognitions: National Science
Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship;
president, Virginia Tech Geotechnical
Student Organization (2014); public
relations chair, Student Leadership Council
of the Geo-Institute (2014); Virginia Tech
College of Engineering first in class (2012);
Civil Engineering Outstanding Senior
(2012); civil engineering valedictorian (2012)
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Research assistant
working on integrating geothermal energy
and deep foundations supported by the
NSF, REHAU, Berkel, and the Deep
Foundations Institute
Career Goals: Upon graduation I hope to
enter practice and obtain my Professional
Engineering license. I have a passion
for interdisciplinary work, especially in
developing sustainable and economic
infrastructure systems that can be used in
developing nations. I dream of touching lives
through my engineering work. Ultimately, my
desire is to use my education to glorify God
and serve others as a missionary, practicing
engineer, and/or an academic professor.
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Doctoral
Brandi Clark
Emily D. Garner
Kathryn A. Gunberg
Hometown: Westervelt, Illinois
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Missouri
University of Science and Technology
Location of Master’s Studies: Virginia Tech
Awards/Recognitions: NSF Graduate Research
Fellowship, EPA GRO Fellow; Barry M.
Goldwater Scholar; EWRI Undergraduate Technical Paper Contest, first place;
American Chemical Society (ACS) Student
Affiliates Leadership Award; OURE Fellow;
Missouri S&T Writing Contest, first place,
technical writing, first place, research paper;
Missouri S&T Excellence Scholarship; Missouri S&T Excellence Scholarship II; Alumni
Scholarship; Missouri S&T Grant; Robert C.
Byrd Scholarship; Missouri S&T Chemistry
Department Scholarship; Outstanding Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior Chemistry
Student; Dean’s List; Academic Scholars
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: EPA GRO Fellowship; EPA internship at Andrew W.
Breidenbach Environmental Research
Center in Cincinnati, Ohio (NRMRL/
WSWRD); Missouri S&T OURE fellows
program; Virginia Tech laboratory assistant;
Missouri S&T Opportunities for Undergraduate Research Experience (OURE) Program;
Research Experience for Undergraduates
(REU) in Watershed Sciences at Virginia
Tech; Missouri S&T Undergraduate Teaching
Assistant; Internship at Caterpillar, Inc. –
Mining and Construction Equipment Division
Career Goals: My ultimate career goal is to
work for a major research university, teaching and conducting environmentally relevant
research.
Hometown: Swanton, Maryland
Location of Undergraduate Studies: West
Virginia University
Awards/Recognitions: National Science
Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship;
Summa Cum Laude graduate of WVU; WVU
Foundation Outstanding Senior
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Undergraduate
research intern at West Virginia University;
engineering intern, City of Morgantown,
West Virginia; intern, Highland Engineering
& Surveying, Inc., Oakland, Maryland
Career Goals: Upon completion of my
degree, I would like to use my acquired
knowledge and skills in environmental
engineering applications to pursue research
opportunities either in academia or industry.
Hometown: Ada, Michigan
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Michigan
Location of Master’s Studies: University of
Michigan
Awards/Recognitions: Chi Epsilon, F.E. Richart
Fellowship, UM; Greene Fellowship, UM.
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Soils & Structures,
Inc.; City of Ann Arbor
Career Goals: Whether in academia or
industry, I hope to teach others about
geotechnical engineering and to continue to
broaden my knowledge and experience in
the field.
2014
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Doctoral
Johnn P. Judd
Ronald D. Kent
Ardalan Khosrowpour
Hometown: Watsonville, California
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Brigham
Young University
Location of Master’s Studies: Brigham Young
University
Awards/Recognitions: Research published in
Journal of Structural Engineering, Journal
of Composites for Construction, and Forest
Products Journal; Brigham Young University
Research Presentation Award; Civil and
Environmental Engineering Department
Scholarship; Lee and Connie Wimmer
Scholarship; College of Engineering and
Technology Scholarship; Office of Research
and Creative Activities Undergraduate
Mentoring Grant; and B.S. Cum Laude
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: Licensed structural
engineer, Utah; professional engineer,
Pennsylvania; senior structural engineer,
Acute Engineering, Inc.; consultant
engineer for IntegriCo Composite, Recycle
Technologies International, and Karren &
Associates, Civil/Structural Engineers
Career Goals: My goal is to perform
meaningful research that advances the
way we construct and protect our built
environment. I find it rewarding to apply
academic concepts in real-life situations. I
also enjoy teaching students and helping
them to develop forward-thinking skills.
Hometown: Omaha, Nebraska
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Brigham
Young University
Location of Master’s Studies: Virginia Tech
Awards/Recognitions: Member of Tau Beta
Pi; Edwin S. Hinckley Scholar; recipient of
Brigham Young Scholarship three years in a
row; graduated Magna Cum Laude
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Aquaveo, LLC,
provided technical support for users of
the Watershed Modeling System (WMS),
Groundwater Modeling System (GMS), and
Surface Water Modeling System (SMS);
Brigham Young University, worked as a
research assistant on a water quality study
of Deer Creek Reservoir in Utah
Career Goals: After I graduate, I am going to
obtain my Professional Engineer license
and work for a consulting firm in the water/
wastewater industry.
Hometown: Shiraz, Iran
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Shiraz
University, Shiraz, Iran
Location of Master’s Studies: University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Awards/Recognitions: Myers-Lawson School
of Construction Ph.D. Fellowship award, the
Myers-Lawson School of Construction at
Virginia Tech; honored student of the council
of “Shiraz University Gifted Students,”
Shiraz University
Primary Area of Interest: Construction
Outside Work Experience: I worked part-time
as an interior designer in Trahan Atiyesaz
Pars Pouya during my undergraduate
studies; worked as an assistant project
manager in Shayan Fars Inc. for project
planning and controlling of Shiraz Especial
Economic Zone (SEEZ) phase 1.
Career Goals: My ultimate goal is to create
smart software which could facilitate
building-occupants interaction and be
able to analyze the big data collected
through an enormous network of sensors
deployed in the next generation of buildings.
Furthermore, this software could help
building occupants not only save energy, but
also be comfortable and productive. I plan to
approach this problem through an artificial
intelligence-based method where learning
occupants’ behavior and monitoring their
ambient condition will identify and sustain
the optimum point in an energy-comfortproductivity tradeoff.
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REPORT
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Doctoral
Samuel Lasley
Brett Maurer
Maria E. Nieves-Meléndez
Hometown: Chillicothe, Iowa
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Brigham
Young University, Provo, Utah
Location of Master’s Studies: Virginia Tech
Awards/Recognitions: BYU Heritage Scholar,
Tau Beta Pi, BYU Cum Laude
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Internship with
Terracon Consultants, Inc.
Career Goals: I want to practice sound
engineering, serve the greater good,
contribute to the knowledge in my field, be
an inspiring mentor for younger engineers,
become a trusted and valuable source of
advice for my colleagues, and have an
office I rarely inhabit.
Hometown: Geneva, New York
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Syracuse
University
Location of Master’s Studies: Syracuse
University
Awards/Recognitions: National Science
Foundation EAPSI Fellow; first place
posters, 2013 and 2014 ASCE GeoCongress National Poster Competitions;
Best Graduate Student Paper, Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute (EERI);
International Association of Foundation
Drilling (ADSC) Industry Advancement
Scholar; Outstanding Teaching Assistant
Award; Most Outstanding Graduate Student
in Civil and Environmental Engineering;
SU Chancellors Scholar; first place poster,
Nunan Poster Symposium; Summa Cum
Laude graduate; SU Golden Transit Award;
Chi Epsilon President; Tau Beta Pi
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Staff engineer,
Passero Associates, Rochester, New York;
teaching assistant, research assistant, and
lecturer, Syracuse University
Career Goals: I would like to continue to
be active in academia as a researcher,
educator, and mentor. I am particularly
interested in addressing geotechnical issues
pertaining to energy, emerging materials,
and the environment.
Hometown: Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
Location of Master’s Studies: University of
Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Magna
Cum Laude; recipient of the Etienne
Totti Graduation Award in 2012 (most
outstanding student of the civil engineering
department); member of Tau Beta Pi
Primary Area of Interest: Construction
Outside Work Experience: Worked as
summer intern in the Boeing Company,
Everett, Washington, (2009); participant
of the Summer Undergraduate Research
in Engineering/Science (SURE) Program
in Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Georgia, (2011);
worked for private contractor Nieves &
Nieves, Inc., Lares, Puerto Rico (2013);
research assistant in the University of
Puerto Rico, Mayagüez
Career Goals: I wish to become a professional
engineer and work in challenging
engineering projects. After gaining practical
experience, I would like to become a
college professor to teach and inspire
young generations in their development as
engineers.
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Doctoral
Adam Phillips
Alexander Reeb
William Joseph Rhoads
Hometown: Chesapeake, Virginia
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Virginia
Tech
Location of Master’s Studies: Virginia Tech
Awards/Recognitions: O.H. Ammann
Fellowship, Virginias-Carolinas Structural
Steel Fabricators Association Scholarship,
Garst-Walker Academic Scholarship,
graduated Magna Cum Laude
Primary Area of Interest: Structures
Outside Work Experience: Intern with Retanaur
Design Associates, 2007 & 2008; intern with
Waterway Surveys & Engineering, 2009;
intern with Collins Engineers Inc., 2010,
2011, and 2012
Career Goals: I plan to become a tenure-track
faculty member at a research institution. My
primary research interests are large-scale
experimentation of structures and the
development of economical earthquake
engineering solutions. Additionally, I hope
to be a good educator and a successful
mentor to my future students.
Hometown: North Wales, Pennsylvania
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Rhode Island
Location of Master’s Studies: Virginia Tech
Awards/Recognitions: EIGER Fellow;
Graduated Summa Cum Laude with BS in
civil engineering and BA in German from the
International Engineering Program, minor
in mathematics; DAAD Scholar; Nelson C.
White Award; member of Chi Epsilon and
Tau Beta Pi
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Private consulting;
Ed. Züblin AG, Stuttgart, Germany;
Institute für Grund und Bodenmechanik
(Geotechnical Research Institute), Technical
University of Braunschweig, Germany;
Schnabel Engineering, West Chester,
Pennsylvania; U.S. Army Evaluation Center,
APG, Maryland
Career Goals: I plan to obtain my professional
engineer status. I would like to work for
an international firm on cutting edge
geotechnical projects worldwide.
Hometown: Joplin, Missouri
Location of Undergraduate Studies: Purdue
University
Awards/Recognitions: Undergraduate
University Honors; Undergraduate
Civil Engineering Honors; Dean’s list,
all semesters at Purdue; president of
the Virginia section of the American Water
Works Association at Virginia Tech
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Undergraduate
research on green roofs; intern at
Olsson Associates in Joplin, Missouri;
civil engineering ambassador at Purdue
University
Career Goals: After earning my doctorate,
I would like to gain practical experience
before pursuing my desire to teach at the
college level.
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REPORT
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VIA SCHOLARS:
Doctoral
Colin Richards
Craig M. Shillaber
Stephanie Smallegan
Hometown: Tucson, Arizona
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of Arizona
Awards/Recognitions: Arizona Board of
Regents High Honors Endorsement Award,
Dean’s list every semester, award for best
chemical engineering senior design project,
Tau Beta Pi
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Undergraduate
research assistant at the University of
Arizona on contaminants of emerging
concern; Advanced Functional Membranes
REU at Clemson University; Center for
Energy and Sustainability REU at Cal State
- Los Angeles
Career Goals: I plan to pursue a career at
a national research institution or as a
consultant in the field of potable water or
wastewater treatment.
Hometown: Deerfield, New Hampshire
Location of Undergraduate Studies: University
of New Hampshire
Location of Master’s Studies: Virginia Tech
Awards/Recognitions: Graduated Summa
Cum Laude from the University of New
Hampshire; University of New Hampshire
Presidential Scholar; University of New
Hampshire Alumni Association Legacy
Scholar; University of New Hampshire Civil
Engineering Graduate Achievement Award;
Tau Beta Pi
Primary Area of Interest: Geotechnical
Outside Work Experience: Staff geotechnical engineer, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc.
New York, New York; intern at Appledore
Engineering, Inc. Portsmouth, New Hampshire; lab assistant at the University of New
Hampshire
Career Goals: After completion of my doctorate, I plan to obtain professional licensure.
I also hope to hold a position in academia
so I can pass my knowledge of geotechnical engineering on to the next generation
of civil engineers, and continue to conduct
research.
Hometown: Savannah, Georgia
Location of Undergraduate Studies:
Undergraduate: Georgia Tech, Savannah
campus
Location of Master’s Studies: Georgia Tech,
Savannah campus
Awards/Recognitions: Virginia Sea Grant
Graduate Research Fellow, NSF Graduate
Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
Fellow, NSF Research Experience for
Undergraduates (REU) program graduate
mentor, CREATE program graduate mentor,
Summa Cum Laude graduate, member of
Tau Beta Pi, ASCE, and SAME
Primary Area of Interest: Environmental and
Water Resources
Outside Work Experience: Led teams of
students in research projects involving
renewable tidal energy, heavy metals
assessment, and hydrodynamic
measurements using remote sensing and in
situ instrumentation
Career Goals: I want to continue developing as
an independent and successful researcher
and teacher in the field of coastal
engineering.
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CEE
The Pylons evoke Virginia Tech’s core
values. They represent: Brotherhood, Honor,
Leadership, Sacrifice, Service, Loyalty, Duty,
and Ut Prosim. Our Via Scholars reflect
these qualities in their desire to improve the
quality of life around the world.
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58 ||CEE
REPORT
| 2014
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
UNDERGRADUATES
Suzanne Ayres Angelo
Year Graduated: 2003; Master’s 2006,
Virginia Tech
Employer: Unknown
Doran J. Bosso
Year Graduated: 2006; Master’s 2008,
Virginia Tech
Employer: Skanska Infrastructure
Development, Virginia Beach,
Virginia
Chris English
Year Graduated: 1994; Master’s 1996,
University of Illinois, Urbana
Employer: CH2M Hill, St. Louis,
Missouri
Previous Employer: 1996-97, Patrick
Engineering, Springfield, Illinois
Brian P. Felker
Year Graduated: 2001
Current Status: Unknown
Kathryn Firich
Year Graduated: 2007
Employer: Brown and Caldwell,
Alexandria, Virginia
R. Andrew Goodwin
Year Graduated: 1996
Current Status: U.S. Army Engineer
R&D Center, Portland, Oregon
Jennifer Verwest
Year Graduated: 2001
Current Status: Pursuing a graduate
degree at Texas A&M University,
College Station, Texas
Kirsten Davis
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Boise State University,
Boise, Idaho
Elliott Robert Wheeler
Year Graduated: 1996
Employer: Operations Management
International, Inc., Englewood,
Colorado
Martha Gross
Year Graduated: 2010
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Arup Transaction Advice,
Washington, D.C.
Ryan Willey
Year Graduated: 2000
Employer: Pathway CA, Christiansburg,
Virginia
Rimas Gulbinas
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Cornell University, New York
City, New York
The following students also received
their undergraduate degrees while
on a Via Scholarship and elected
to pursue their master’s degrees at
Virginia Tech, also as Via Scholarship
recipients. Their complete listings can
be found in the alumni student section
of this publication. These students
are: Randall Boe, William Scott
Dewhirst, II, Charles M. Dietz, Jr.,
Greg Hensley, Peter D. Kauffmann,
Jeffrey Kuttesch, Matthew Moore,
John D. Riley, John Stephen
Siczka, Jeffrey Snow, Marcia Votour
Prowell, and Claire McKenzie White.
Chris Kaldahl
Year Graduated: 1995
Employer: Appalachian Mountain Club,
Gorham, New Hampshire
GRADUATES
Stephen O. Meininger
Year Graduated: 1991
Employer: CH2M Hill - OMI,
Clarksville, Maryland
Frank Arcuri
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Fluor Corporation, New York,
New York
Joshua Mouras
Year Graduated: 2006
Employer: Magnusson Klemencic
Associates, Seattle, Washington
Joseph Schmitt
Year Graduated: 2001
Current Status: Unknown
Paul Taylor
Year Graduated: 2004
Current Status: ExxonMobil, Houston,
Texas
Henry J. Theiss
Year Graduated: 1994
Employer: Unknown
CONSTRUCTION
Mary Jane Contos Bartlett
Year Graduated: 1992
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: O’Brien & Gere Engineering,
Morrisville, North Carolina
Janet Sparks Chandler
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Full-time mother
Allan D. Chasey
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Del E. Webb School of
Construction, Arizona State University,
Tempe, Arizona
Shannon P. Hapuarachy
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: S.M.H. Construction,
Bradley, West Virginia
Benjamin Hays
Year Graduated: 2002
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: L.A. Dept. of Public Works,
Los Angeles, California
John Hildreth
Year Graduated: 2003
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of North Carolina,
Charlotte, North Carolina
Angel Ho
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Norfolk Naval Shipyard,
Portsmouth, Virginia
Jennifer Firman McConnell
Year Graduated: 2002
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Schoor DePalma,
Kulpsville, Pennsylvania
Joshua P. Middleton
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: American Infrastructure,
Worcester, Pennsylvania
Francis Pesce
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Ulliman Schutte
Construction, Roanoke, Virginia
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 59
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
Juan C. Pińero
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Barrett Hale & Alamo,
Consulting Engineers, San Juan,
Puerto Rico
Elizabeth Claire Booth
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Arcadis, Lakewood, Colorado
Jeffrey Snow
Years Graduated: 2000 and 2002
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: American Infrastructure,
Worcester, Pennsylvania
Charles B. Bott
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Hampton Roads Sanitation
District, Virginia Beach, Virginia;
and Adjunct Professor, Civil &
Environmental Engineering, Virginia
Tech
Robert C. Williams
Years Graduated: 2006 and 2008
Degree Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: Vecellio and Grogan Inc.,
Beckley, West Virginia
Nicolle S. Boulay
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Associate Engineer/Parson’s
Engineering
Terry L. Williams
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Alan A. Meyers, Inc.
J. Steven Brauner
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Parsons Engineering, Denver,
Colorado
Joshua Zilke
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Clark Builders Group
ENVIRONMENTAL
& WATER RESOURCES
Nancy Lade Anderson
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Full-time mother
William G. Ayers
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Palantir Technologies
David Azinheira
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: URS, Germantown,
Maryland
Jason L. Beck
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Camp Dresser and McKee
(CDM), Charlotte, North Carolina
Randall Boe
Years Graduated: 1991 and 1993
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: CH2M Hill, Gainesville,
Florida
60 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Randi Lieberman Brazeau
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Metropolitan State University
of Denver
Lee Davis Bryant
Year Graduated: 2010
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Department of Architecture
and Civil Engineering, University of
Bath, London
Suzanne Ciavola
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: AECOM Technology
Corporation, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Bradley M. Coffey
Year Graduated: 1990
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California, Water Quality
Division
Joel Cohn
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Malcolm Pirnie, Norfolk,
Virginia
Cynthia Crane
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Hydro Geologic, Herndon,
Virginia
Andrea Crowe Hargette
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Black & Veatch, Inc.,
Greenville, South Carolina
Christina Clarkson Davis
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Pursuing a Ph.D.
Jason Davis
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Carollo, Eagle, Idaho
William Scott Dewhirst, II
Years Graduated: 1993 and 1997
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Newport News Water
Works, Newport News, Virginia
Charles (Chuck) Dietz, Jr.
Years Graduated: 1989 and 1993
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
Daniel Dorsel
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s, ENE
Employer: Cardinal Newman School,
Columbia, South Carolina
Mark Dougherty
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Auburn University, Auburn,
Alabama
Laura Duncan
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Arcadis, Knoxville,
Tennessee
Mary Facciolo
Year Graduated: 1994
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Consulting Firm, Raleigh,
North Carolina
Ryan M. Fedak
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: AECOM, Roanoke, Virginia
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
Jamie Fettig
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s, ENE
Employer: Parsons Engineering New
York
Victoria Wheaton Hoyland
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CHA Consulting, Inc.,
Blacksburg, Virginia
Katherine Linares
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: HDR Engineering, Inc.,
Norfolk, Virginia
Scott A. Forsling
Year Graduated: 1994
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Bowen, Collins and
Associates, Draper, Utah
Kari Husovitz Foy
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: B.P. Barber and Associates,
Inc., North Charleston, South Carolina
Erika Lubkowitz Bailey
Year Graduated: 1996
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: HDR, Inc., Raleigh, North
Carolina
John Fripp
Year Graduated: 1991
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture,
National Resources Conservation
Service, Ft. Worth, Texas
Angela Iatrou Simon
Year Graduated: 1991
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Tutor Perini, Framingham,
Massachusetts
Donald C. Marickovich
Year Graduated: 1990
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Draper Aden & Associates,
Blacksburg, Virginia
Wesley Geertsema
Year Graduated: 1992
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Unknown
Joshua A. Joseph, Jr.
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: CH2M Hill, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana
Becki Marshall Rosenfeldt
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Hazen & Sawyer, Fairfax,
Virginia
Kevin R. Gilmore
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Bucknell University,
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Richard T. Kelly, II
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Brown & Caldwell, Seattle,
Washington
Katherine McArthur Leitch
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Merck & Co., Inc., RaleighDurham, North Carolina
Aimee E. Greyshock
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Virginia Department of
Health-Office of Drinking Water,
Culpeper, Virginia
Wendell O. Khunjar
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Hazen and Sawyer, P.C.,
Fairfax, Virginia
Colleen McCloskey Rossmeisl
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Companion Animal Clinic,
Blacksburg, Virginia
Matthew Gwaltney
Year Graduated: 2007 (posthumously)
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Deceased
Lashun K. King Thomas
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Syracuse University,
Syracuse, New York
Brian McCormick
Year Graduated: 2003
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Colorado Springs Utilities,
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Orrick (Rick) Haney
Year Graduated: 1994
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Haney Associates, Inc.,
Anderson, South Carolina
William J. Kingston
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Gannet Flemming, Camp Hill,
Pennsylvania
Laurie S. McNeill
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Utah State University,
Logan, Utah
David Holbrook
Year Graduated: 2003
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: National Institute of
Standards and Technology,
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Rebecca Halvorson Lahr
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Research Fellow at University
of Michigan and Assistant Professor at
Michigan State University
Eduardo Mendez, III
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: U.S. Army
Edward Brian Houston
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Black & Veatch,
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Rebecca Lattyak
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Malcolm Pirnie, West
Lafayette, Indiana
Peter B. Merkle
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Sandia National Labs,
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Jennifer H. Miller
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Post-Doctoral Research
Associate, Virginia Tech
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 61
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
Matthew C. Moore
Years Graduated: 1992 and 1994
Degree Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Sikland Engineering
Associates, Van Nuys, California
Christopher D. Muller
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Brown and Caldwell,
Seattle, Washington
Jocelyn Fraga Muller
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Unknown
Caroline Nguyen
Years Graduated: 2005 and 2010
Degree Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: Washington Suburban
Sanitary Commission, Laurel,
Maryland
Julia Novak
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Deceased
Jeff Parks
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
John E. Petrie
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Washington State
University, Pullman, Washington
Kristina Perri
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: GHD, Inc., Bowie, Maryland
Diana Rashash
Year Graduated: 1994
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: North Carolina State
University, Raleigh, North Carolina
Holly Shorney-Darby
Year Graduated: February 1992
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Black & Veatch, Inc., Kansas
City, Missouri
Heather Veith Rectanus
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Battelle, Columbus, Ohio
John S. Siczka
Years Graduated: 1994 and 1997
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: CH2M Hill, Brown Deer,
Wisconsin
Sandra Robinson
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CH2M Hill, Redding, California
Jason Rushing
Year Graduated: 2002
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Malcolm Pirnie, Fairfax,
Virginia
Mary Rust Sadler
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Arcadis, Raleigh, North
Carolina
Emily A. Sarver
Year Graduated: 2010
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
Paolo Scardina
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
Rachel M. Sellaro
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Greer Limestone,
Morgantown, West Virginia
Carrie Adam Phipps
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Full-time mother
Dipankar Sen
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Santa Clara Valley Water
District, San Jose, California
Noreen Poor
Year Graduated: 1996
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Kiymetrics, LLC, Melbourne,
Florida
Vickie L. Singleton
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Full-time mother, New Bern,
North Carolina
Caitlin Proctor
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Ph.D. Student at Eawag/
ETH Zurich
Brad Shearer
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CH2M Hill, Redding, California
62 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Aaron B. Small
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: AES Consulting Engineers,
Williamsburg, Virginia
Sheryl D. Smith
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Camp, Dresser and McKee,
Raleigh, North Carolina
Jeffrey A. Sparks
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Hampton Roads Sanitation
District, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Justin St. Clair
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Blazer & Associates, Inc.,
Blacksburg, Virginia
James H. Stagge
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Postdoctoral Researcher,
University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Jonathan Stathis
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Cedar City Corp., Cedar City,
Utah
Melissa Stewart
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: ProChem, Inc., Elliston,
Virginia
Amanda E. Strickhouser
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Watson Wyatt, San
Francisco, California
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
Chris Tadanier
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Black & Veatch, Denver,
Colorado
Nicholas Taylor
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CDM Smith, Virginia Beach,
Virginia
Dan Waddill
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Dept. of the Navy, Norfolk,
Virginia
Diane Waters
Year Graduated: 2002
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: City of Miami, Public Works
Dept., Miami, Florida
Edwin W. Watkins
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Ogden Environmental
and Energy Services, Nashville,
Tennessee
Katherine L. Weidner
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Black & Veatch, Charlotte,
North Carolina
David Whichard
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: International Paper, South
Carolina
Claire McKenzie White
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Kimley-Horn and
Associates, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Krista Rule Wigginton
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michigan
Christopher A. Wilson
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Greeley and Hansen
Engineers, Inc., Richmond, Virginia
Christopher Wolfe
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Semcor, Washington, D.C.
Jennifer Wright
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ), Richmond, Virginia
Katie Young
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CDM Smith, Northern Virginia
Kevin D. Young
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
Anna Zaklikowski
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: HDR Engineering, Portland,
Oregon
Lauren Zuravnsky-Wilson
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Greeley and Hansen,
Richmond, Virginia
GEOTECHNICAL
Tiffany E. Adams
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: URS Corp., Denver, Colorado
Amanda Barngrover
Year Graduated: 2010
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: URS Corp., Denver, Colorado
William Bassett
Year Graduated: 1990
Employer: Federal Highway
Administration, Washington, D.C.
Diane Yamane Baxter
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc.,
Providence, Rhode Island
Craig Benedict
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Gannet-Flemming, King of
Prussia, Pennsylvania
David Bentler
Year Graduated: 1993 and 1998
Degrees Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: CH2M Hill, Englewood,
Colorado
Kyle Blakley
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Stantec Consulting,
Cincinnati, Ohio
G. Allen Bowers
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Continuing Via Scholar Ph.D.
Jeremy Britton
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Portland, Oregon
Pete Chenevey
Year Graduated: 1994
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Dames & Moore, Cincinnati,
Ohio
Jaime Colby
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Sanborn, Head & Associates,
Inc., Westford, Massachusetts
Megan Cole
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: GEI Consultants, Winchester,
Massachusetts
Jeramy Bruyn Decker
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Kiewit Construction Co.,
Pacifica, California
Adam DePoy
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Stantec, Greater Grand
Rapids, Michigan
Patricia (Trish) M. Gallagher
Year Graduated: December 2000
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Drexel University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Russell Green
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 63
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
George Filz
Year Graduated: 1992
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
Samuel Lasley
Year Graduated: 2010
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Ph.D. Candidate, Virginia
Tech
James Parkes
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Gannett Fleming,
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Rachel T. Finch
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: S&ME, Huntsville, Alabama
Scott Mackey
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Central Connecticut State
University, New Britain, Connecticut
Maysill G. Pascal
Year Graduated: 2003
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Haley and Aldrich Inc.,
Parsippany, New Jersey
Jessica R. (Marshall) Barbier
Year Graduated: 1990
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Denver Water, Denver,
Colorado
Craig Petranka
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Unknown
Brendan Fitzpatrick
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: GEOPIER Foundation Co.,
Inc., Mooresville, North Carolina
Betsy Godfrey
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Parsons Brinckerhoff,
Washington D.C.
Laura Henry
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Haley & Aldrich, New Jersey
Wayne Herring
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: ARM Group, Hershey,
Pennsylvania
Randall Hickman
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: BP American, Inc., Houston,
Texas
Michelle Hoy Sherwood
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Consulting Environmental
Engineer, Anchorage, Alaska
Kenneth A. Huber
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Senior Pastor at Calvary
Baptist Church, Riverhead, New York
Laura M. Kosoglu
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: George Mason University,
Fairfax, Virginia
Andrew Kost
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Cornforth Consultants,
Portland, Oregon
64 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Michael P. McGuire
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Lafayette College, Easton,
Pennsylvania
Michael Pockoski
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Geopier Foundation
Company, Inc., Mooresville, North
Carolina
Christopher L. Meehan
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Delaware,
Newark, Delaware
Jonathan Porter
Years Graduated: 1991 and 1998
Degrees Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: U.S. Government, McLean,
Virginia
Clark Morrison
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: North Carolina Dept. of
Transportation, Raleigh, North Carolina
Marcia Votour Prowell
Years Graduated: 1992 and 1993
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Virginia Geotechnical
Services, PC, Richmond, Virginia
Bob Mokwa
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Montana State University,
Bozeman, Montana
Susan Rafalko
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Reinforced Earth Co.
Michael Navin
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: US Army Corps of Engineers,
St. Louis, Missouri
Alan Rauch
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Fuller, Stantec, Lexington,
Kentucky
David Nevius
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Terra Costa Consulting, San
Diego, California
Alexander Reeb
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Pursuing a Ph.D., Virginia
Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Michael Nolden
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Geosyntec Consultants,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nathan Reeves
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: S&ME, Inc., Raleigh, North
Carolina
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
John D. Rice
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Utah State University,
Logan, Utah
Andrew T. Rose
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Pittsburgh,
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Jennifer A. Schaeffer
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CH2M Hill, Seattle,
Washington
Kurt J. Schimpke
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Barr Engineering Company,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Craig M. Shillaber
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Pursuing a Ph.D., Virginia
Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Matthew Sleep
Year Graduated: 2006 and 2011
Degrees Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: Oregon Institute of
Technology, Klamath Falls, Oregon
Joel A. Sloan
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: U.S. Air Force, Kunsan Air
Base, Republic of Korea
Daniel R. Vanden Berge
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Post-Doctoral Researcher,
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Edward R. Ware III
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Wurster Engineering,
Greenville, South Carolina
Kord Wissman
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: GEOPIER Foundation Co.,
Inc., Mooresville, North Carolina
STRUCTURES
Mary Sue Mouchka Abel
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: EMCS Design Group,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Shainur Ahsan
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Bechtel Power Corporation
Chad C. Alander
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Gannett Fleming, Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania
Nick Amico
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Figg Engineering,
Tallahassee, Florida
Kevin Aswegan
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: MKA, Seattle, Washington
Sasha Bajzek
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Parsons Corporation
Kirsten A. Baldwin Metzger
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Laurene & Rickher, P.C.,
Charlotte, North Carolina
Anthony Barrett, Lt. Col., USAF
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: United States Air Force
Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado
James Wescott (Wess) Bott
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: HDR Alaska, Inc., Eagle River,
Arkansas
Susan Bowers
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Whitman, Requardt &
Associates, Baltimore, Maryland
Adam G. Bowland
Years Graduated: 2008 and 2011
Degrees Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: DiGioia Gray & Associates,
Monroeville, Pennsylvania
David Burchnall
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Unknown
J. Christopher Carroll
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Louisiana at
Lafayette, Lafayette, Louisiana
Jason Cawrse
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CH2M Hill, Alexandria,
Virginia
Kevin R. Collins
Year Graduated: 1989
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Lawrence Technological
University, Southfield, Michigan
William Norfleet Collins
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D
Employer: Purdue University, West
Lafayette, Indiana
Luke T. Cronin
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Black & Veatch, Kansas
City, Missouri
Benjamin T. Cross
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Federal Highway
Administration, Turner Fairbank
Highway Research Center, McLean,
Virginia
Kacie C. D’Alessandro
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Washington and Lee
University, Lexington, Virginia
Amy Dalrymple Ryan
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Starzer, Brady, Fagan
Associates, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia
D. Brad Davis
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Kentucky,
Lexington, Kentucky
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 65
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
Kyle Richard Dominisse
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Walter P. Moore, Kansas
City, Missouri
Jared B. Jamison
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Hankins and Anderson, Glen
Allen, Virginia
Justin D. Marshall
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Auburn University, Auburn,
Alabama
Richard Drumm
Year Graduated: 1993
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Federal Highway
Administration
Jordan A. Jarrett
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Magnusson Klemencic
Associates, Seattle, Washington
James David Martin
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Walter P. Moore, Tampa,
Florida
Keith Grubb
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: American Institute of Steel
Construction, Chicago, Illinois
Patrick Joyce
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: HDR Engineering, Inc.,
Missoula, Montana
Linda Morley Hanagan
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Penn State University, State
College, Pennsylvania
Bernard L. Kassner
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Center for
Transportation Innovation and
Research, Charlottesville, Virginia
Timothy W. Mays
Years Graduated: 1997 and 2000
Degrees Awarded: Master’s (1997) and
Ph.D. (2000)
Employer: The Citadel, Charleston,
South Carolina
Andrew B. Hardyniec
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Unknown
Matthew D. Harlan
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Clark Nelsen, Norfolk,
Virginia
Devin K. Harris
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, Virginia
Greg Hensley
Years Graduated: 2004 and 2005
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Magnusson Klemencic
Associates, Seattle, Washington
Anne Himebaugh
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Simpson, Gumpertz, and
Heger, Waltham, Massachusetts
Hunter Hodges
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: KBR, Inc., Birmingham,
Alabama
William P. Jacobs, V
Year Graduated: 2002
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Stan Lindsey and
Associates, Atlanta, Georgia
66 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Laurie Mazursky
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Sutton-Kennerly and Assoc.,
Asheville, North Carolina
Ann E. Jeffers
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Michgan
David McGowan
Year Graduated: 1991
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Dominion Generation, Glen
Allen, Virginia
Stephanie A. Koch
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Parsons Brinckerhoff-Ohio
Inc., Columbus, Ohio
Sean Molloy
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Redwine Reizian Structural
Engineers, Avon, Colorado
Maria W. Lang
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Whitman, Requardt, &
Associates, Richmond, Virginia
Michael Motley
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: The LPA Group, Inc.,
Tallahassee, Florida
Adam R. Lease
Year Graduated: 2005
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Cives Steel Company,
Winchester, Virginia
Michael C. Neubert
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: King Guinn Associates,
Charlotte, North Carolina
Bryan J. Loflin
Year Graduated: 2008
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Parsons Brinckerhoff, Raleigh,
North Carolina
Charles (Chuck) Newhouse
Year Graduated: 1994 and 2005
Degree Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Military Institute,
Lexington, Virginia
Marc J. Maguire
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Utah State University, Logan,
Utah
Stephen Van Nosdall
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Parsons Brinckerhoff
Patricia Seay O’Neil
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Bechtel, Frederick, Maryland
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
Jason D. Perry
Year Graduated: December 2003
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Stanley D. Lindsey
& Associates, Ltd., Nashville,
Tennessee
Jason Piotter
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Nuclear Regulatory
Commission
Robert T. Prince
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: AECOM Design, Roanoke,
Virginia
Bruce Queen
Year Graduated: 1991
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: President, QED Inc.,
Raleigh, North Carolina
Michelle Rambo-Roddenberry
Year Graduated: 2002
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: FAMU-FSU College of
Engineering, Tallahassee, Florida
Nicholas Redmond
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Brown + Kubican, PSC,
Lexington, Kentucky
Clint Rex
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Stanley D. Lindsey and
Associates, Atlanta, Georgia
Elias A. Rivera
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CDM Smith, Orlando,
Florida
Cheryl Rottman
Year Graduated: 1996
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Frontenac Engineering, St.
Louis, Missouri
John C. Ryan, Jr.
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: StructurTech Construction
Systems, Charleston, South Carolina
Richard A. Saunders
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: KSI Structural Engineers,
Atlanta, Georgia
Donald P. Scholz
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: CVM Engineers, Wayne,
Pennsylvania
Michael W. Seek
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: East Tennessee State
University, Johnson City, Tennessee
Bruce Shue
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Smislova, Kehnemui &
Assoc., Rockville, Maryland
Michael Sladki
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Cates Engineering,
Centreville, Virginia
Frank Smith
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Ruskin Company, Gradview
Missouri
Paul Spears
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Martin/Martin Consulting
Engineers, Kansas City, Missouri
Sean Robert Sullivan
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: HNTB Corporation, East
Lansing, Michigan
Emmett A. Sumner
Year Graduated: 2003
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Unknown
Matthew K. Swenty
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Military Institute,
Lexington, Virginia
Anthony B. Temeles
Year Graduated: 2001
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Modjeski & Master’s,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Angela Sellars Terry
Year Graduated: 1994
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Self-employed
Bradley Toellner
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Grunley Construction,
Rockville, Maryland
Steven J. Tschetter
Year Graduated: 1994
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Suncoast Post-Tension, Inc.,
Woodbridge, Virginia
Christopher J. Waldron
Years Graduated: 2001 and 2004
Degrees Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: University of Alabama at
Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
Joseph A. Wallenfelsz
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: McLean Contracting
Company, Glen Burnie, Maryland
J. Ashley Warren
Year Graduated: 2009
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: The LPA Group, Inc., Falls
Church, Virginia
Christopher Werner
Year Graduated: 1997
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Stroud Pence, Norfolk,
Virginia
Maurice W. White
Year Graduated: 1991 and 1995
Degree Awarded: Master’s and Ph.D.
Employer: Unknown
John Whitlow
Year Graduated: 1995
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Unknown
Scott Williams
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Unknown
Gregory Williamson
Year Graduated: 2007
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: ExxonMobil, Fairfax, Virginia
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 67
VIA ALUMNI:
Where Are They Now?
Eric J. Wishart
Year Graduated: 1991
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Civil CADD Services, Inc.,
Lincoln, Rhode Island
James M. Bryce
Year Graduated: 2014
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: University of Nottingham,
United Kingdom
Michael Woodworth
Year Graduated: 2013
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Weidlinger and Associates
Edgar David de León Izeppi
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Tech Transportation
Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia
Mustapha Zmerli
Year Graduated: 1992
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Deceased
TRANSPORTATION
INFRASTRUCTURE AND
SYSTEMS ENGINEERING (TISE)
Zaeinulabddin M. Adam
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Atkins-Qatar Central
Planning Office, Doha, Qatar
Sudarshana C.S. Bhat
Year Graduated: 1989
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas
Douglas R. Bish
Year Graduated: 2006
Degree Awarded: Ph.D.
Employer: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg,
Virginia
68 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Joshua (Josh) Diekmann
Year Graduated: 2000
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: A consultant in Seattle,
Washington
Kelly M. Donoughe
Year Graduated: 2010
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Ph.D. Candidate, Virginia Tech
and employed by SAIC, Blacksburg,
Virginia
Erin Walsh Donovan
Year Graduated: 1999
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Delcan Corporation, Vienna,
Virginia
Crysta Highfield
Year Graduated: 2011
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Unknown
Anthony Ingle
Year Graduated: 2004
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: DLZ Michigan, Kalamazoo,
Michigan
Peter D. Kauffmann
Years Graduated: 2009 and 2011
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Gorove/Slade, Washington,
D.C.
Jeffrey Kuttesch
Years Graduated: 2003 and 2004
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Rummel, Klepper, and
Kahl Engineers (RK&K), Baltimore,
Maryland
John D. Riley
Years Graduated: 1997 and 1999
Degrees Awarded: Bachelor’s and
Master’s
Employer: Bowman Consulting Group,
Ltd., Richmond, Virginia
Kevin M. Siegel
Year Graduated: 2003
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: PBS & J, Inc., Newport
News, Virginia
Eric J. Siess
Year Graduated: 1998
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Naval Surface Warfare
Center, Dahlgren, Virginia
Christopher Tomlinson
Year Graduated: 2012
Degree Awarded: Master’s
Employer: Woodrow Wilson New
Jersey Teaching Fellow, Belmar,
New Jersey
VIA DONORS (2013-2014)
The donors recognized on the
following pages made a contribution
to the Via Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering (CEE)
during fiscal year 2014 (7/1/13 –
6/30/14). Although every effort has
been made to ensure the accuracy of
this report, we acknowledge that errors
may have occurred. If your name
has been omitted or listed incorrectly,
please accept our sincere apologies
and send any corrections to the CEE
Main Office at (540) 231-6635.
CEE Alumni
Christopher D. Adcock...................1991
William Aden..................................1967
Chad C. Alander.............................1996
Thomas F. Albee............................1978
Savannah L. Amor.........................2011
Robert J. Amos..............................1966
S. Kendall Anderson......................1970
William M. Anderson......................2009
Joseph D. Arrowsmith....................2009
Lawrence Ayers, Jr.........................1954
Carmela M. Bailey..........................1972
Morris M. Bailey, Jr.........................1972
Kelso Baker....................................1951
Donald J. Balzer, Jr........................1977
Jessica M. Barbier.........................1990
Sandra G. Bartley..........................1973
Bruce R. Bates...............................1979
Courtney A. Beamon......................1995
Ronald L. Beck...............................1970
Brian W. Bersch.............................1981
Michael N. Biscotte........................1981
Jennifer B. Boe...............................1991
Charles P. Boepple........................1979
Harold W. Bohannon, Jr.................1968
Mary Ann S. Bonadeo....................1995
Steven R. Bonham , Jr...................1973
Doran J. Bosso..............................2006
Amine T. Bou Onk..........................1982
James R. Bowles...........................1974
Austin A. Bradley............................1983
Jerry D. Brammer...........................1968
Anita W. Branch.............................1994
William F. Brittle, Jr.........................1969
Roger L. Brockenbrough................1954
Thomas W. Brockenbrough .1942/1946
Craig S. Bryant...............................1971
W. Barry Bryant.................... 1970/1971
Guy W. Buford................................1952
Travis L. Bullock.............................2012
Ruth Anne Burchnall......................1976
David M. Burk.................................1974
Douglas Burks................................1979
Raymond F. Burmester..................1956
James E. Butler..............................1963
Caroline E. Cappo..........................2001
Thomas M. Cardman.....................2011
James N. Carter, Jr........................1975
Derrick B. Cave..............................1987
Young Ho Chang............................1987
Nicole A. Clark................................1994
Gerald D. Clarke............................1968
Alfred R. Cline................................1958
Kevin R. Collins..............................1989
Robert H. Connock, Jr....................1962
Fred O. Cornett..............................1995
William E. Cox................................1966
Malcolm A. Cutchins......................1956
E. Stokes Daniels, Jr......................1957
James G. Davis, Jr.........................1980
John T. DeBell................................1968
David D. Dee..................................1987
Stephen R. DeLoach......................1978
James B. Diamond.........................1969
Robert E. Dick................................1989
Brian K. Diefenderfer . 1996/1998/2002
Charles M. Dietz, Jr........................1989
Richard M. DiSalvo, Jr...................1977
Michael J. Dugas...........................1987
Walter W. Duncan..........................1951
Jeffrey S. Dykstra...........................2009
Billy L. Edge...................................1964
H. Randall Edwards.......................1964
Anne M. Ellis..................................1980
Charles L. Ernest...........................1970
Douglas R. Fahl.............................1965
Charles B. Feagans, III..................1972
Michelle K. Felicetti........................2012
Glendon J. Fetterolf.......................1996
George M. Filz ..............................1992
Jay M. Fitzgerald............................1976
James W. Gilkeson........................1950
James W. Givens...........................1970
Adil N. Godrej.................................1982
C. Douglas Goldsmith....................1976
Laura B. Gonser.............................2009
Larry R. Goode..............................1972
Keith N. Grant, Jr............................1986
Thomas B. Gray.............................1973
Dixie M. Griffin................................1970
Thomas A. Grogan, Jr....................1980
Timrod A. Groover................ 1979/1980
Martha E. Gross.............................2010
D. Randolph Grubbs, Jr.................1971
Charles D. Hall...............................1970
Belinda M. Harper..........................1996
Richard E. Harris............................1958
E. Franklin Hart .............................1967
L. Lane Hash..................................1968
Larry G. Hedgepeth.......................1976
Gregory M. Hensley ......................2004
Pablo A. Hernandez.......................1989
Michael C. Hewitt...........................1973
Hunter T. Hodges...........................2006
Don W. Holloway............................1957
Philipp E. Holtkamp........................2011
Huang, Joseph C...........................1964
Kimberly C. Hughes.......................1985
Jeffrey M. Hugney..........................1988
Robert W. Hungate .......................1986
Thomas N. Hunnicutt, III................1959
Matthew C. Hurst...........................1997
Robert F. Jansen............................1980
Benjamin C. Jarosz........................1999
Jimmie D. Jenkins..........................1970
Katharine P. Jenkins......................1977
Kara A. Johnson.............................2011
Paul B. Johnson.............................1973
John H. Jones................................1973
Meredith T. Jones................. 1994/1996
Williams A. Joyner..........................1965
William E. Junda, III.......................2000
Dennis M. Kamber.........................1963
Govindan Kannan..........................1999
Timothy L. Keesling........................1990
Clifford G. King...............................1984
Herbert G. Kipp..............................1967
T. Alan Kite.....................................1976
Kenneth J. Kohut...........................1972
Kenneth M. Krupa..........................1976
Jeffrey S. Kuttesch.........................2003
Glenda P. La Rue................. 1991/1993
James R. Land, Jr..........................1957
George A. Lane-Roberts................2010
Kevin T. Laptos...............................1988
William F. LaVecchia......................1952
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 69
VIA DONORS
(Continued)
Erin K. Lawrence............................1998
Jon-Michael C. Lemon...................2001
Jerry C. Lester................................1959
Milton J. Lewis, Jr...........................1981
Jeffrey N. Lighthiser.......................1977
James R. Link................................1958
Paul C. Liu......................................1961
Stephen R. Long............................1983
James F. Loudon............................1960
Gary S. Lynn..................................1988
Emir J. Macari................................1979
Mercer MacPherson.......................1963
José A. Marcano............................2002
Burton M. Marshall.........................1958
Donald L. Martin.............................1974
Michael R. Martin...........................1974
Thomas A. Mason..........................1973
Fred L. McConnell..........................1964
David I. McCready.........................1973
Francis D. McCreery, Jr. ...............1967
Garland H. McKenzie, Sr. .............1981
J.J. Messersmith, Jr.......................1964
Robert S. Miller, III..........................1967
Tracy L. Miller Jackson..................1992
Alvin S. Mistr, Jr.............................1968
Jeremy M. Mocny...........................1997
Colleen R. Montgomery.................1990
Anthony J. Moraco.........................1982
Herbert W. Morgan.........................1974
Joe M. Morgan...............................1968
Laura J. Morillo...............................1984
Michael P. Mozingo........................1965
Aaron J. Muck................................1998
J.R. Ubejd Mujagic.........................2004
Kenneth H. Murray.........................1965
David R. Myzie...............................1986
David M. Newkirk...........................1964
Albert L. Nichols, Jr........................1962
James M. Nichols...........................1943
Kerry A. Nothnagel............... 1965/1968
Charles A. Nuckols, II.....................1987
Raymond J. O’Donnell, III..............1980
Morris B. Oliver..............................1987
Robert A. Painter............................1948
Lawrence C. Phipps.......................1960
Daniel H. Phlegar...........................1970
Ann E. Piazza.................................1981
David B. Powers............................2000
Archie D. Pugh...............................1990
Carl W. Pugh, Jr.............................1985
70 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
Michael Quillen...............................1970
Thomas J. Quirk.............................2000
Walter J. Rawls.................... 1966/1968
Robert R. Rees..............................1986
Glenn W. Rehberger .....................1969
A. Joel Reid....................................1981
Allen W. Reynolds..........................1962
James B. Richards, Jr....................1968
Deborah A. Richardson..................1992
Jack E. Rinker................................1960
Randolph P. Rivinus.......................1968
Erin A. Rooney...............................2009
Jason J. Root.................................2003
John Rosenquest...........................1979
Sally W. Roth..................................1983
Richard B. Rountree......................1963
Charles E. Runyon.........................1960
Dallas W. Safriet ...........................1967
Ann M. Samford.............................1981
William J. Samford.........................1981
Russell W. Schwartz......................1962
Stephen M. Seay ..........................1986
Patrick N. Shaffner.........................1961
Edward J. Shea.................... 1997/1999
Adnan Shindala.................... 1964/1965
Michael T. Siburt ...........................2002
Howell B. Simmons........................1960
Carol P. Sinclair..............................1983
Jefferson K. Sinclair.......................1975
Anthony T. Sklanka........................1975
Elizabeth F. Smith..........................1986
Guy R. Sproles, Jr..........................1971
Bryan W. Stevenson......................1996
Jack H. Stewart..............................1953
Franklin D. Stidham.......................1965
Todd W. Swanson .........................1974
Richard D. Swartout.......................1969
Marshall Taylor...............................1974
Charles R. Thompson....................1971
Dominic M. Tiburzi.........................1974
J. Allan Tice ...................................1965
Samuel C. Tignor...........................1958
J. Stephen Torell............................1993
Dennis D. Truax.............................1976
Steven J. Tschetter.........................1992
Kwong Tong Tse.............................1978
Frederick J. Turner.........................1959
Donald C. Vaughn..........................1958
Leo A. Vecellio, Jr...........................1968
A. Scott Weber...............................1977
Charles W. Welch..........................1987
Brian L. Wheeler............................1971
Frederick E. White.........................1967
Thomas J. Willard..........................1979
Verne C. Williamson.......................1958
Kord J. Wissmann..........................1987
Farley E. Wolford...........................1957
William E. Worrall...........................2005
James M. Wright............................1960
Richard H. Zeigler..........................1992
Victor L. Zitta..................................1960
Michael T. Zuravel..........................1984
Friends
Nancy Aden
Jayne K. Ayers
Susan Banta
Richard J. Bedard
Craig Carter
Arvil G. Catlett
Finley A. Charney
Kim Christopoulos
James F. Clark
Joseph J. Collins
Madelyn Curry
W. Samuel Easterling Liane Easton
William R. Knocke
James K. Mitchell
John T. Novak
David Puckett
Corrine C. Ramaley
Clifford W. Randall
Lori Reid
Adrian Rodriguez-Marek
Suzanne C. Snow
Robert S. Starego
F. William Stephenson
The Vecellio Family Foundation
Via-Bradley Foundation
Mr. Charles W. Welch
Sharon Whitcomb
Mary L. Wiebke
Betty P. Wingate
VIA DONORS
(Continued)
Businesses
Advanced Structural Concepts, Inc.
Alternative Natural Technologies
American Society of Civil Engineers
Americast
Anderson & Associates
Baker Propeties Group
BC Consultants, Inc.
Bechtel Foundation
Bechtel Corporation
Cambi, Inc.
Cedar Run Landscaping Company
DGI-Menard, Incorporated
DPR Construction
Exide Drive Investment Group, LLC
Exxon Mobil Refining & Supply
Company
Fluor Enterprises, Inc.
GeoStructures, Inc.
Greenway, LLC
H2 Land Company
HB Development Group, Inc
Johns Hopkins University
Kenneth R. Ayers Memorial
Foundation
Lawrence Management LLC
MJ Services, Inc
Norfolk Southern Corporation
Pacific Gas & Electric
Pembroke Construction Company, Inc.
Quesenberry’s Inc.
Risa Technologies LLC
Stillwater Construction Group, LLC
T.J. Willard & Associates, Inc.
Terracon
Urban, Ltd.
Vecellio Family Foundation
Via-Bradley College of Engineering
Foundation
Virginia Land Management LLC
Whitlock Dalrymple Poston &
Associates Inc
Wiley & Wilson Inc.
Center for Geotechnical
Practice and Research
Ardaman & Associates, Inc.
Condon-Johnson
Engineering Consulting Services, Inc.
(ECS)
Froehling & Robertson, Inc.
GeoConcepts Engineering, Inc.
Geopier Foundation Company
GeoSyntec Consultants
Hayward Baker - A Keller Company
Haley & Aldrich
Kiewit Constructors, Inc.
Langan Engineering and Environmental
Services, Inc.
Menard Engineering
Nicholson Construction Company
S&ME
Sanborn/Head & Associates
Schnabel Engineering Associates
Schnabel Foundation Company
Stantec
The Collin Group/Valentine
TREVIICOS Corporation
US Army Corps of Engineers
US Bureau of Reclamation
Virginia Department of Transportation
URS
Kerr Environmental Services Corp.
McAdams Company, Inc.
Land Design Consultants
Mattern and Craig, Inc.
Pennoni Associates, Inc.
Ramey Kemp & Associates, Inc.
Rinker Design Associates
Tri-Tek Engineering, Inc.
Van Metre Homes
Gordon
Youngblood, Tyler & Associates PC
Land Development
Design Initiative
American Concrete Pressure Pipe
Association
Applied Felts, Inc.
Aurora Water
Black & Veatch Corporation
CH2MHill
Dewberry
EMA, Inc.
GHD, Inc.
Mueller Water Products
Pipeline Inspection and Condition
Analysis Corp.
PVC Pipe Association
Reline America, Inc.
Structural Technologies, LLC
The City of Lynchburg
Town of Blacksburg- Engineering &
GIS Department
Diamond Sponsors
Bohler Engineering
Bowman Consulting
Kimley-Horn and Associates
Platinum Sponsors
Accumark Subsurface Utility Services
AES Consulting Engineering
christopher consultants
Clark Nexsen
Dewberry
Draper Aden Associates
Filterra (Americast)
Jansen Land Consulting, LLC
J2 Engineers, Inc.
Kimley-Horn & Associates Inc
Maser Consulting
Silver Sponsors
AECOM Technology Corportation
Brookfield Management Washington,
LLC
Genuario Construction Company, Inc.
Kerr Environmental Services Corp.
Vanasse Hangen Brustlin
Wawa
Sustainable Water
Infrastructure
Management (SWIM)
affliates program
Gold Sponsors
AST Cowen Design Group
Balzer and Associates, Inc.
Burgess & Niple
CH2M Hill, Inc.
Fairfax County
Gay and Neel, Inc.
2014 | VIA REPORT | CEE | 71
CREDITS
Department Head.................................................................... W. Samuel Easterling
Editor................................................................................................... Lynn Nystrom
Designer........................................................................................... David Simpkins
Photographers............................................................... Jim Stroup, Logan Wallace
CEE Coordinators.......................................................... Shelly Key, Courtney Long
Virginia Tech does not discriminate against employees, students, or applicants for
admission or employment on the basis of race, gender, disability, age, veteran status,
national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. Anyone having questions
concerning discrimination should contact the Office for Equity and Access.
72 | CEE | VIA REPORT | 2014
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