Civil Engineering and Environmental Science Faculty
The true strength of any program is its faculty. CEES currently has seven National Science Foundation CAREER Awardees; there are twelve in the entire College of Engineering. With seven NSF CAREER recipients out of 21 faculty members, we believe CEES has one of the highest percentages in the nation. Further, Dr. Amy Cerato, one of our NSF CAREER recipients, was selected for a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. CEES faculty have won many other national awards (Fulbright Scholar, ASEE Fred Merryfield Design Award, AEESP Outstanding Educator,) and most of the prestigious on-campus awards (UOSA Outstanding Teacher, Outstanding Researcher). We also have five faculty members that have additional adjunct appointments in various departments across campus. The synergy of multiple disciplines is a strength of our environmental, geotechnical and structural programs. The CEES faculty list includes information about each faculty member.
Civil Engineering and Environmental Science Faculty
Jeff Basara
Associate Professor
NWC 5238/(405) 325-1760
Technical Areas
Hydrology, Meteorology, Atmospheric Science
Research Interests
Specific research interests are focused on the integration of our understanding across weather, climate, water, and ecosystems. His research activities includes land-atmosphere interactions, the physical processes which impact the development of the planetary boundary layer, droughts, flash floods, the development, validation, and improvement of land surface models used in numerical weather prediction, urban meteorology, severe weather, instrumentation, severe winter weather, and the validation of remotely sensed soil moisture and skin temperature from satellite mounted instruments.
Elizabeth Butler
Professor
CEC 305|(405) 325-3606
Email Dr. Butler
Technical Areas
Environmental science, environmental engineering
Research Interests
In-situ ground water remediation, natural attenuation, and advanced oxidation processes for water recyling and reuse.
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
More ...
Amy Cerato
Professor
Rapp Foundation Presidential Professor
CEC 450C|(405) 325-5625
Email Dr. Cerato
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, geotechnical engineering
Research Interests
Shrinkage characteristics of fine grained soils, specific surface area influence on geotechnical engineering behavior, shallow foundation behavior, scale effects of shallow foundation bearing capacity, scale effects in determining friction angle using the direct shear box, grouted and helical anchor capacity.
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Kendra Dresback
Research Asst. Professor
CEC 304|(405) 325-8529
Email Dr. Dresback
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, water resources and hydrology
Research Interests
Hydrodynamic modeling of coastal seas and oceans, coupled meteorological/hydrologic/hydraulic model systems for coastal flooding, high-performance computing, computational fluid dynamics and environmental fluid mechanics and finite element methods, algorithm development for finite element methods, and applications in riverine environments for hydrodynamic and hydraulic models.
Royce Floyd
Associate Professor
CEC 327F|(405) 325-1010
Email Dr. Floyd
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, structural engineering
Research Interests
Material property characterization and applications of innovative concrete materials, bond of prestressting strands, prestress losses, camber and shear behavior of prestressed concrete members, and internal curing using lightweight aggregates.
Doctoral student position announcement
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
P. Scott Harvey
Assistant Professor
CEC 414|(405) 325-3836
Email Dr. Harvey
Technical Areas
Civil engineering and structural engineering
Research Interests
Structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, seismic hazard mitigation through isolation, analysis of earthquake ground motions, static and dynamic stability, structural control.
Kianoosh Hatami
Professor
CEC 450B|(405) 325-3674
Email Dr. Hatami
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, geotechnical engineering and earthquake engineering
Research Interests
Sensor-enabled geosynethetics, GRS bridge abutments, reinforced pavements, unsaturated soil-geosynthetic interfaces, soil-structure interaction problems, seismic analysis.
Yang Hong
Professor
Presidential Research Professor
Director, Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing Lab, Associate Director, WaTER Center, Adjunct Faculty, School of Meteorology, Faculty Member, ARRC, CAPS and CSA
CEC 415|National Weather Center 4610|(405) 325-3644
Email Dr. Hong
Technical Areas
Environmental science, civil engineering, hydrology and water resources, weather, climate, Geoinformatics
Research Interests
Radar/satellite remote sensing; hydrological modeling and water resources engineering; hydrometeorology; climate change and Geospatial analysis and artificial intelligence; natural hazard and disaster monitoring, prediction and mitigation; and environmental planning and sustainable development.
Tohren Kibbey
Professor
CEC 331|(405) 325-0580
Email Dr. Kibbey
Technical Areas
Environmental science, environmental engineering and water resources.
Research Interests:
Surface and interfacial interactions in complex natural and engineered environmental systems. Areas of particular interest include physical-chemical interactions in complex systems, behaviors in unsaturated soils/multiple phase systems, and numerical model development for prediction and design in complex systems.
Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter
Associate Professor
NWC 4642|(405) 325-1774
Email Dr. Kirstetter
Technical Areas
Hydrometeorology
Research Interests
Hydrometeorology; applied mathematics; statistics; geospatial analysis; radar and satellite remote sensing; precipitation processes; microphysics and estimation; hydrological modeling; flood monitoring and prediction
Robert Knox
Professor
Ted A. Kritikos Chair, Presidential Professor and Associate Director, WaTER Center
CEC 301A|(405) 325-4212
Email Dr. Knox
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, environmental engineering and water resources
Research Interests
Subsurface transport and fate processes; ground water remediation technologies; impacts of petroleum hydrocarbons and oilfield brines; and impacts of climate change on water resources.
Randall Kolar
CEES Director/Professor
David Ross Boyd and Austin Presidential Professor
Associate Director, WaTER Center
CEC 334|(405) 325-4267
Email Dr. Kolar
Technical Areas
Civil engineering (water resources)
Research Interests
Computational issues in water resources, particularly hydrology and hydraulics, with focus on the development of efficient, robust algorithms with subsequent applications ranging from riverine flooding to coastal circulation to groundwater flow and transport.
Gerald Miller
CEES Associate Director/Professor
Presidential Professor
CEC 332A|(405) 325-4253
Email Dr. Miller
Technical Areas
Civil engineering and geotechnical engineering
Research Interests
Invasive-type in situ testing in unsaturated soils; use of in situ test results for foundation design; development of innovative in situ testing technology; slope stability; field testing of prototype foundations, and field evaluation of soil stabilization and earthwork construction.
K.K. "Muralee" Muraleetharan
Professor
Kimmell-Bernard Chair in Engineering, David Ross Boyd and Presidential Professor
CEC 332B|(405) 325-4247
Email Dr. Muralee
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, geoenvironmental engineering and earthquake engineering
Research Interests
Simulation of static and dynamic behavior of two- (saturated soils) and three-phase (unsaturated soils) porous media using finite element methods; centrifuge testing; laboratory testing of saturated and unsaturated soils; constitutive modeling; and soil-structure interaction.
Robert Nairn
Professor
Sam K. Viersen Family Foundation Presidential Professor;
Director, CREW; Associate Director, WaTER Center
CEC 301C|(405) 325-3354
Email Dr. Nairn
Technical Areas
Environmental science, watershed biogeochemistry, ecological engineering, ecosystem restoration, wetland science
Research Interests
Watershed and ecosystem-scale examinations of pollutant transport and fate, especially trace metal contaminants in abandoned mining areas of North and South America. Design, construction and evaluation of ecologically engineered passive treatment systems, especially for coal and hard rock mine waters, agricultural pollution, urban stormwater and waste water. Ecosystem restoration and creation for mutual benefit of society and nature, especially freshwater wetlands.
Mark Nanny
Professor
CEC 304A|(405) 325-4234
Email Dr. Nanny
Technical Areas
Environmental science and environmental chemistry
Research Interests
Understanding and characterizing complex environmental processes on a molecular-level; quantitatively measuring the influence of non-covalent interactions between organic compounds and natural organic matter on the processes of bioavailability, biodegradation rates and products, pollutant aging, and electron transfer reactions of natural organic matter (see more in the CV linked below).
Educational Research Interests
Authentic teaching of K-12 science and math; incorporating scientific research activities into K-12 science education and teacher preparation; and improving K-12 science and mathematics education in rural schools.
Jin-Song Pei
Associate Professor
CEC 327E|(405) 325-4272
Email Dr. Pei
Technical Areas
Engineering mechanics, structural engineering
Research Interests
Nonlinear dynamical system, nonlinear hysteresis, nonlinear system identification, memristors, memcapacitors, function approximation, artificial neural network, constructive method, piecewise smooth model, hybrid dynamical system, FPGA-based computation, embedded algorithm, structural health monitoring, damage detection, structural dynamics and earthquake engineering.
Chris Ramseyer
Professor
CEC 424|(405) 325-1415
Email Dr. Ramseyer
Technical Areas
Civil engineering and structural engineering
Research Interests
Concrete materials with an emphasis on shrinkage compensating concrete, rapid setting concrete and early strength fly ash concrete. Structural concrete with an emphasis on shrinkage, dimensional stability (warp and curl) and fatigue. Structural cold formed steel with an emphasis on built up sections and torsional purlin bracing. Residential wood framing with an emphasis on lateral bracing systems and high wind resistant design. Dr. Ramseyer has performed field research on airfield pavements, bridges, slabs on ground and concrete tanks.
David Sabatini
Professor
David Ross Boyd Professor; Sun Oil Company Chair; Director, WaTER Center and Associate Director, Institute for Applied Surfactant Research
CEC 301B|(405) 325-4273
Email Dr. Sabatini
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, environmental engineering, chemical/environmental engineering
Research Interests
Develop innovative technologies and pedagogical styles to creatively impact the following areas: Water Technologies for Emerging Regions: Water and Sanitation/Remote Areas; Novel materials (surface modification of high surface area materials) for water treatment and environmental energy technologies; advanced microemulsions: Environmental, Consumer and Energy Technologies; Transport, fate, identification and treatment of emerging contaminants
Keith Strevett
Professor
CEC 327D|(405) 325-4237
Email Dr. Strevett
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, environmental engineering, fluvial geomorphology, water and wastewater treatment design
Research Interests
Surface and ground water quality, development of indicators of water quality deterioration, biological treatment system design, ecological engineering, water reuse, fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport, river design and geomatic engineering.
Darrell Townsend
Affiliated Faculty Member
Grand River Dam Authority
Email Dr. Townsend
Technical Areas
Watershed Conservation and Ecosystem Management
Research Interests
Development and coordination of new and innovative approaches to multifaced watershed management, focusing on broad-scale conservation and restoration throughout complex multi-jurisdictional watersheds.
Jason Vogel
Professor
Director, Oklahoma Water Survey
CEC 304|(405) 325-2826
Email Dr. Vogel
Technical Areas
Biosystems engineering, agricultural engineering, biological systems engineering
Research Interests
Stormwater and stream management, low impact development (LID) stormwater management systems, hydrology.
Jeffery Volz
Professor
Director, Fears Structural Engineering Laboratory
CEC 423|(405) 325-1489
Email Dr. Volz
Technical Areas
Architectural engineering, civil engineering, structural engineering
Research Interests
The combination of structural engineering and material science aimed at improving building and bridge structural systems, particularly in regard to sustainability and innovative materials.
Volz has performed research on high-volume fly ash concrete, self-consolidating concrete, prestressed concrete, fiber-reinforced cementitious composites, enamel-coated reinforcing steel, fiber-reinforced polymers, and microcellular polymeric foams.
Kathy Volz
Adjunct Instructor
(814) 880-7070
Email Ms. Volz
Technical Areas
Business administration, economics and finance, industrial and enterprise engineering
Biography
Kathy Volz holds an MBA and BS in Industrial and Enterprise Engineering from the University of Illinois. She has more than 35 years of industry experience, including serving as National Marketing Director for Greely and Hansen (a 350-person, ENR Top 500 environmental engineering firm) and as Marketing and Communications Manager for Harza Engineering Company (a 1,000-person, ENR Top 100 consulting engineering firm specializing in water and power). Read more (PDF)
Tiantian Yang
Assistant Professor
CEC 427/(949) 378-0928
Email Dr. Yang
Technical Areas
Water Resources and Hydrology, Environmental Science, Water-Energy-Food Nexus, Coupled Human Natural System
Research Interests
Hydrology, Water Security, Water Resources Management, Reservoir Operation, Hydropower Scheduling, Artificial Intelligence, Data-Mining, Coupled Human-natural Systems, Optimization Theory, Hydrologic Model Calibration, Climate Change, Impacts of Climate Change on Water-Energy System, Water-Energy-Food Nexus, Remote Sensing Precipitation
Doctoral student position announcement
Musharraf Zaman
Professor
David Ross Boyd Professor; Aaron Alexander Professor; Director, Southern Plains Transportation Center
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, geotechnical engineering and geomechanics.
Research Interests
Soil dynamics, rock mechanics, soil structure interaction, flow through porous media, constitutive laws of engineering materials (testing and modeling), mine system design and ground control, bridge approach settlements, expert systems, application of numerical techniques to complex geotechnical engineering problems, earthquake engineering, and geotechnical aspects of hazardous waste disposal.
