The true strength of any program is its faculty. CEES currently has ten National Science Foundation CAREER Awardees; there are seventeen in the entire College of Engineering. With ten NSF CAREER recipients out of 25 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 (e.g., Fulbright Scholar, ASEE Fred Merryfield Design Award, AEESP Outstanding Educator,) and most of the prestigious on-campus awards (e.g., David Ross Boyd Professor, George Lynn Cross Professor, David L. Boren Professor, UOSA and Regent's Outstanding Teacher, Regent's 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.
CEC 415
Technical Areas
Civil Engineering and Geotechnical Engineering
Research Interests
Specific research interests are focused on computational simulation of soft soils, soil-structure interaction, in-situ soil testing, impacts of multiple natural hazards on infrastructure, unsaturated soils, simulating natural systems to solve engineering challenges.
SEC T-313 | (405) 325-4037
Email Dr. Bui
Research Interests
Water-energy-environment nexus, sustainable separations, advanced functional materials, membrane materials and processes, nanomaterials and nanotechnology, matters across dynamical interfaces, transport phenomena
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)
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)
CEC 313 | (405) 325-8529
Email Dr. Dresback
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, water resources, 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.
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, internal curing using lightweight aggregates
Associate Director, CREW
CEC 320 | (405) 325-4254
Email Dr. Han
Technical Areas
Natural and nature-based engineering best management practices that improve water quality in disturbed and degraded aquatic enviorments.
Research Interests
Natural resource management (water, soil, vegetation, wildlife), conservation and sustainability (habitat restoration, ecological engineering, sustainable land use) as well as mapping and modeling (GIS, Excel).
CEC 414 | (405) 325-3836
Email Dr. Harvey
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, structural engineering
Research Interests
Structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, seismic hazard mitigation through isolation, analysis of earthquake ground motions, static and dynamic stability, structural control
CEC 450B | (405) 325-3674
Email Dr. Hatami
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering
Research Interests
Sensor-enabled geosynethetics, GRS bridge abutments, reinforced pavements, unsaturated soil-geosynthetic interfaces, soil-structure interaction problems, seismic analysis
Gallogly Chair and Presidential Research Professor
Director, Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing Lab, Associate Director, WaTER Center, Adjunct Faculty, School of Meteorology, Faculty Member, ARRC, CAPS and CSA
NWC 4610 | (405) 325-3644
CEC 301B
Technical Areas
Environmental science, civil engineering, water resources and hydrology, 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.
CEC 331 | (405) 325-0580
Email Dr. Kibbey
Technical Areas
Environmental science, environmental engineering, 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.
NWC 4642 | (405) 325-1774
CEC 301B
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, prediction
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, water resources
Research Interests
Subsurface transport and fate processes, ground water remediation technologies, impacts of petroleum hydrocarbons and oilfield brines, impacts of climate change on water resources
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.
CEC 427 | (405) 325-5911
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, structural engineering, earthquake engineering, computational statistics, resilience engineering
Research Interests
Efficient coastal hazard risk estimation and mitigation, infrastructure reliability and sustainability assessments, improvement of community level structural resiliency against natural hazards, multi-hazard risk assessment, development of efficient data-driven tools using computational statistics for solving engineering problems.
Graduate student research position (available from Fall 2023)
Presidential Professor
CEC 332A | (405) 325-4253
Email Dr. Miller
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, 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.
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, 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, soil-structure interaction
Robert W. Hughes Centennial Professor, David L. Boren Professsor, 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, nature-based solutions, natural infrastructure, watershed biogeochemistry, ecological engineering, ecosystem restoration, wetland science
Research Interests
Water quality, watershed and ecosystem-scale examinations, trace metal contaminant transport and fate. Design, construction and evaluation of ecologically engineered passive treatment systems for coal and hard rock mine waters, agricultural pollution, urban stormwater and municipal waste water. Ecosystem restoration and creation for mutual benefit of society and nature, especially freshwater wetlands.
CEC 304A | (405) 325-4234
Email Dr. Nanny
Technical Areas
Environmental science, 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.
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, earthquake engineering
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, 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 Ross Boyd Professor; Sun Oil Company Chair; Director, WaTER Center and Associate Director, Institute for Applied Surfactant Research
CEC 312 | (405) 325-5140
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
CEC 450A | (405) 325-5911
Email Dr. Sadri
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, transportation engineering, resilience engineering
Research Interests
Evacuation modeling, network modeling, social influence modeling, infrastructure resilience and sustainability, complex systems; artificial intelligence, data-driven methods, resource sharing, risk communication
Graduate student research position (available from Spring 2022)
Undergraduate student research position (available from Spring 2022)
Associate Director of Graduate Programs
CEC 327D | (405) 325-4237
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, geomatic engineering
Grand River Dam Authority
Email Dr. Townsend
Technical Areas
Watershed conservation, 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.
CEC 424 | (405) 325-5911
Email Dr. Vemuganti
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, structural engineering
Research Interests
Nano-synthesized cementitious materials, smart and sustainable material innovation using 3D printing technology, ductile fiber-reinforced polymer composites
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
Director, Fears Structural Engineering Laboratory
Associate Director of Undergraduate Programs
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, innovative materials
Dr. 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.
(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)
CEC 301B | (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
David Ross Boyd Professor; Aaron Alexander Professor; Director, Southern Plains Transportation Center
CEC 213 | (405) 325-4682
Email Dr. Zaman
Technical Areas
Civil engineering, geotechnical engineering, 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, geotechnical aspects of hazardous waste disposal
