Duke/CEEPRATT SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING CIVIL + ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING . AY2011

Even though freshwater concentrations of mercuryare far greater than those found in seawater, it’s thesaltwater fish like tuna, mackerel and shark that endup posing a more serious health threat to humanswho eat them. The answer, according to DukeUniversity researchers, is in the seawater itself.

Why Mercury is MoreDangerous in Oceans

3New InternationalNano-SafetyInitiative

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Faculty6

Undergraduates10

Graduates18

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Plata is an environmental geochemist whosecareer has focused on man’s chemical interac-tion with the Earth System. She comes toDuke University from the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology, where she was aVisiting Professor in the Department of Civiland Environmental Engineering and theDepartment of Aeronautics and Astronautics.She was recently honored by the NationalAcademy of Sciences with an invitation to the2011 Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposiumfor promising young scientists. Professor Plataholds an undergraduate degree in Chemistrywith minors in Biology and Mathematics from Union College inSchenectady, NY, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography andEnvironmental Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.Professor Marani has a joint appointment in the Nicholas Schoolof the Environment. He was previously the Director of theInternational Center of Hydrology at the University of Padova,Italy. His research interests encompass hydrometeorology,remote sensing applications to hydrology and tidal morphology,fluvial geomorphology and climatology. He holds a Ph.D. inhydrodynamics from the University of Padova.

Our faculty members continue to receive national and interna-tional recognition. The Director of the Office of EconomicPolicy and Summit Coordination, U.S. State Department,Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau, has appointed ProfessorAna Barros as a Senior Fellow under the Energy and ClimatePartnership of the Americas (ECPA). ECPA is a regional part-nership to promote clean energy, advance energy security, fightenergy poverty, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and buildcapacity for climate change adaptation. Professor Mark Wiesnerrecently won the Clarke Prize from the National Water ResearchInstitute, and has also been named the President-Elect of theAssociation of Environmental Engineering and ScienceProfessors. Professor Heileen Hsu-Kim was selected out of apool of 1,150 applicants to receive a five-year, $760,000 EarlyCareer Research Award from the Department of Energy. And Iam delivering a keynote address on “The Global Water Crisis,Energy and Climate Change Uncertainty” on September 12,2011 in Chicago at the joint American Institute of ProfessionalGeologists and American Institute of Hydrology conference“Geosciences: The Road to a Sustainable Future.”

Environmental engineering graduate students Matt Stricklandand Thomas Morse won EPA STAR Fellowships that will pro-vide $42,000 per year for three years. Matt is studying biofiltra-tion of waste gasses containing dilute concentrations of methaneby utilizing a biphasic reactor and is supervised by Professor

Marc Deshusses. Thomas is working toremove invasive species through gene silenc-ing in microalgae cultivation for biodiesel,under the supervision of Professor ClaudiaGunsch. Hydrology and Fluid Dynamicsgraduate student Julien Brun won a NASAEarth and Space Science Fellowship to char-acterize the role of tropical cyclones in theeco-hydrology of the southeastern UnitedStates, under the supervision of ProfessorAna Barros. Environmental engineeringgraduate student Lauren Barton has won aChateaubriand Fellowship from the Office

for Science and Technology in the Embassy of France in theUnited States. Lauren will be working at CEREGE—the CentreEuropéen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciences del’Environnement—at the University of Aix-Marseille with inter-national collaborator Jean-Yves Bottero, the director ofCEREGE. The focus of her doctoral research is comprehensiverisk forecasting of emerging contaminants, specifically nanoma-terials, under the supervision of Professor Mark Wiesner.Prabhakar Shrestha, a graduate student of Professor Ana Barros,received an award for his presentation on how aerosols affectlocal climatology at the Atmospheric Chemistry Conference ofthe American Meteorological Society. Prabhakar completed hisPh.D. in the 2011 and he is now doing postdoctoral work atBonn University in Germany. And, fourth year graduate studentKaoru Ikuma has won the 2011 Dean’s Award for Excellence inMentoring from the Duke Graduate School. She was selected inrecognition of her consistent record of good mentoring practices.Kaoru is studying under the supervision of Professor ClaudiaGunsch.

Lupita Temiquel-McMillian, Student Services Coordinator inthe Dean’s Office, will now be serving as academic dean for allour civil and environmental engineering undergraduates, as wellas the mechanical engineering undergraduates. I have workedwith Lupita before, and I know our students will be very pleasedthat she has taken on this new role. At the same time, we alsosalute Connie Simmons for her great dedication to our studentsover the years: she is finally getting some relief from an advisingresponsibility that had grown too large.

Our warmest congratulations to all our recent graduates: theyare an important component of Duke’s academic and profession-al reputation. A special message goes out to all our alumni: keepin touch. There is nothing that gives us more satisfaction thanto hear about your well-deserved honors and successes.

Miguel A. Medina, Jr.Professor and Interim Chair

AY 2011

Letter from the Chair

As we start a new academic year, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all ourundergraduates, our new and returning graduate students, my faculty colleagues, the staff,and to our most recent additions to the CEE faculty: Assistant Professor Desirée Plata andProfessor Marco Marani.

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The potentially harmful ver-sion of mercury – known asmethylmercury — latchesonto dissolved organic mat-ter in freshwater while it

tends to latch onto chloride — the salt— in seawater, according to new a studyby Heileen Hsu-Kim, assistant professorof civil and environmental engineering atDuke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

“The most common ways nature turnsmethylmercury into a less toxic form isthrough sunlight,” Hsu-Kim said.“When it is attached to dissolved organicmatter, like decayed plants or animalmatter, sunlight morereadily breaks down themethylmercury. However,in seawater, themethylmercury remainstightly bonded to the chlo-ride, where sunlight doesnot degrade it as easily. Inthis form, methylmercurycan then be ingested bymarine animals.”

Methylmercury is apotent neurotoxin that can

lead to kidney dysfunc-tions, neurological

disorders and evendeath. In partic-

ular, fetusesexposed to

methylmer-cury can suffer from

these same disorders as well asimpaired learning abilities.

Because fish and shellfish have anatural tendency to store

methylmercury in their organs, they arethe leading source of mercury ingestionfor humans.

“The exposure rate of mercury in theU.S. is quite high,” Hsu-Kim said. “Arecent epidemiological survey found thatup to 8 percent of women had mercury

levels higher than national guidelines.Since humans are on the top of the foodchain, any mercury in our food accumu-lates in our body.”

The results of Hsu-Kim’s experiments,which have been published in the journalNature Geoscience (3:473, July 2010), sug-gest that scientists and policymakersshould focus their efforts on the effects ofmercury in the oceans, rather than fresh-water. Her research is supported by theNational Institute of EnvironmentalHealth Science.

In the past, most of the scientific stud-ies of effects of mercury in the environ-

ment have focused on fresh-water, because the technolo-gy had not advanced to thepoint where scientists couldaccurately measure thesmaller concentrations ofmercury found in seawater.Though the concentrationsmay be smaller in seawater,mercury accumulates morereadily in the tissues of

organisms that consume it. “Because sunlight does not break it

down in seawater, the lifetime ofmethylmercury is much longer in themarine environment,” Hsu-Kim said.“However, the Food and Drug

Administration and the EnvironmentalProtection Agency do not distinguishbetween freshwater and seawater.”

Mercury enters the environmentthrough many routes, but the primarysources are coal combustion, the refine-ment of gold and other non-ferrous met-als, and volcanic eruptions. The air-bornemercury from these sources eventuallylands on lakes or oceans and can remainin the water or sediments.

The key to the sun’s ability to breakdown methylmercury is a class of chemi-cals known as reactive oxygen species.These forms of oxygen are the biochemi-cal equivalent of the bull in the chinashop because of the way they breakchemical bonds. One way these reactiveoxygens are formed is by sunlight actingon dissolved organic matter. The light-activated organics transfer their energy tooxygen molecules in the water.

“These reactive forms of oxygen aremuch more efficient in breaking thebonds within the methylmercury mole-cule,” Hsu-Kim said. “And if the

methylmercury is bonded to organicmatter instead of chloride, then the breakdown reaction is much faster.”

Tong Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate inHsu-Kim’s laboratory, was first author onthe paper. ■

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

Why Mercury is More Dangerous in Oceans

COVER ... story continued:

Bluefin tuna

Heileen Hsu-Kim

4 AY 2011

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Nanoparticles – so-called because theyare about 1/10,000 the diameter of ahuman hair – are finding their way intoindustrial processes, common consumerproducts and fertilizers. Their use isbecoming increasingly common becausetheir miniscule size gives them specialproperties that their normal sized coun-terparts don’t have.

Since they came into broader use in thepast decade, these nanoparticles have notbeen as rigorously researched as otheragents; scientists are only now starting tofigure out which nanoparticles are themost dangerous to human health, as wellas animal and plant life.

In the latest step toward better under-standing the true nature of the problem,a new international consortium, fundedby a four-year, $4 million grant from theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) and the United Kingdom’sEnvironmental Nanoscience Initiative,has been formed to determine the envi-ronmental behavior, bioavailability andeffects of manufactured nanomaterials inecosystems on land.

Known as the Transatlantic Initiativefor Nanotechnology and the Environment,the consortium will be directed by scien-tists at the Center for the EnvironmentalImplications of NanoTechnology (CEINT)which is based at Duke University. Thenew consortium is made up of scientistsfrom the UK, Carnegie Mellon University,

the University of Kentucky and Duke.Kentucky’s Paul Bertsch is the consor-tium’s project leader.

“One area in CEINT that will grow as aconsequence of this initiative is researchon the potential impacts of nanomaterialson agricultural lands,” said CEINT direc-tor Mark Wiesner, James L. MeriamProfessor of Civil and EnvironmentalEngineering at Duke’s Pratt School ofEngineering. Wiesner specializes innanoparticle movement and transforma-tion in the environment.

“Our risk assessment work to date hasshown that many nanomaterials in con-sumer products are likely to make theirway into wastewater sludges that are inturn applied to land as fertilizer,”Wiesner continued. “This new effort bol-sters CEINT’s research efforts by addingtop soil scientists and prominent newcollaborators in the United Kingdom.”

It is estimated that approximately 60percent of the eight million tons ofbiosolids produced each year in the USand the UK are applied to agriculturallands. Biosolids are what remains afterwastewater and sewage have been treated.After additional treatment to removetoxins and pathogens, these biosolids areoften used on farmlands.

However, it is not known whetherthese treatments are effective in remov-ing nanoparticles, and if they aren’t,what effects these nanoparticles could

have on the environment.Research has shown more than 90 per-

cent of certain nanomaterials, such asnanosilver, end up in biosolids. Thus,land-applied biosolids can become animportant source of nanomaterials in soilwhere they can be taken up by microor-ganisms, earthworms or plants, with thepotential for transfer up the food chain toanimals and humans. Runoff and erosionfrom agricultural lands receiving biosolidapplications can also introduce nanoma-terials directly into streams and rivers.

“Accumulating evidence suggests thatsewage sludge or biosolids generatedfrom wastewater treatment will be amajor source of manufactured nanomate-rials to terrestrial ecosystems,” Bertschsaid. “Our consortium has assembledsome of the world’s top scientists work-ing on the fate, transport, bioavailabilityand toxicity of nanomaterials in terrestri-al systems, as well as those working inthe area of assessing the risks associatedwith the release of nanomaterials to theenvironment.”

The consortium will conduct researchto quantify the amount of nanomaterialsadded to soil via biosolids, examine hownanomaterials introduced into the wastestream are modified in the waste treat-ment process and in soil, and how thisinfluences their transport or uptake byplants, animals and other organisms, aswell as assess the relative risks to ecore-ceptors and humans.

Duke professor of chemistry, Jie Liu,joins Wiesner as the consortium’s otherDuke scientist.

CEINT is a participant in two of thethree recently funded EPA-UK initia-tives. The second involves CEINT’s RichDi Giulio, professor in Duke’s NicholasSchool, who will collaborate in nanoma-terial ecotoxicology work withresearchers at Rutgers University.

CEINT was created two years ago witha $14.4 million grant from the NationalScience Foundation and the EPA. ■

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

New International Nano-Safety InitiativeThe cleanliness of our water faces pressures from many direc-tions. More factories mean more discharges, a growing popu-lation leads to more wastewater, and more runoff from lawnsand farms carries pollutants into waterways. While there aremany elements in water that may be harmful to people andthe environment, one of the newest constituents are particlestoo tiny to see — yet they are drawing the heightened atten-tion of environmental engineers.

FEATURE

The muddy bottom of the river Liffy in Ireland, at low tide.

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John Albertson, the W. H. Gardner, Jr.Department Chair, specializes in environ-mental fluid dynamics surface; hydrologyand boundary layer meteorology; dynamiccoupling of energy, water and carbon cycles,and vegetation dynamics in semi-aridecosystems. Albertson is leading a series ofinternational summer schools in Venice,Italy titled “Biogeodynamics and EarthSystems Sciences.” He will be on sabbaticalfor the 2011-2012 academic year, conduct-ing research and teaching in Italy. Projectswill include modeling the interactionbetween water cycle, vegetation and climatein Alpine environments, and monitoringand modeling the Flumendosa basin water.

Ana Barros, professor, specializes in environ-mental physics, hydrometeorology, removesensing, climate change and engineeringinfrastructure. She was recently awarded athree-year $550,000 grant from NASA tocharacterize and define orographic precipi-tation in mid-latitude mountainousregions. She serves as the chief editor of theAmerican Meteorological Society’s Journal ofHydrometeorology; as scientific editor of thejournal Meteorology and Hydrology publishedby the European Geophysical Society’sNatural Hazards and Earth System Sciencessection; and as associate editor for theJournal of Hydrology, published by Elsevier.

AY 2011

John Albertson Ana Barros Fred Boadu Marc Deshusses

FACULTY

Marc Deshusses, professor, specializes in the design, analysis and optimization of processes forthe bioremediation of contaminated air, water and soils. Specific areas of research includebioreactors for air pollution control and biotreatment of contaminated soils, sediments andwater. One current project is concerned with the evaluation and optimization of an innovativewaste management to energy system at a local pig farm. A two million gallon digester wasinstalled to convert pig manure to biogas, which is burned in a microturbine for energy gener-ation. The resulting wastewater is further treated and recycled to flush the barns. With thissystem, methane and other greenhouse gas emissions are greatly reduced, while generatingrenewable energy. In another project, Deshusses is collaborating with Assistant ProfessorHeileen Hsu-Kim to understand the factors that affect the bioavailability of mercury tomethylating bacteria. In 2010, Deshusses co-organized with Professor Revah of Mexico City,the Duke-UAM Conference on Biofiltration for Air Pollution Control. The event was held inWashington, DC and attracted close to 100 international participants. Deshusses is a co-editorfor the Chemical Engineering Journal, and an associate editor for Biotechnology & Bioengineering;both are top ranked journals in the field. Deshusses is also spearheading development of a newundergraduate major in energy engineering at Duke, working in concert with Josiah Knightof the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.New Faculty

Desirée L. Plata, formerly a visiting assistant professor ofchemistry at Mount HolyokeCollege and visiting assistantprofessor of civil and environ-mental engineering and aero-nautics and astronautics atMIT, is joining the depart-ment effective July 1, 2011.Plata specializes in the envi-ronmental impacts of nanoma-terials and aims to developenvironmentally benign nanomaterial manufacturingprocesses. She earned a doctor-ate in chemical oceanographyand environmental chemistryfrom MIT and the WoodsHole OceanographicInstitution. She holds aBachelor of Science in chem-istry with minors in biologyand mathematics from UnionCollege in Schenectedy, NY.

Fred Boadu, associate professor, specializes in applied geophysics, with a focus on applicationsfor petrophysics, engineering and environmental geophysics. A recent publication in the jour-nal Geophysics (vol. 75(3), 2010), focused on the influence of petrophysical and geotechnicalengineering properties on the electrical response of unconsolidated earth materials. In addi-tion to his research, Boadu is committed to improving education and awareness of the dangersof nitrate contaminations in groundwater in rural Ghana. And he is investigating the role ofgeological, geo-environmental and geophysical properties of the earth materials surroundingaquatic habitats that foster mosquito populations and malaria outbreaks.

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Heileen Hsu-Kim, assistant professor, specializes in environmental engineer-ing, environmental chemistry and geochemistry.

Hsu-Kim also served as a guest editorfor a special topics issue of EnvironmentalScience & Technology on “Nanoscale Metal-Organic Matter Interactions,” 2011, 45(8), pp 3194–3195. Her research on theongoing environmental implications ofcoal ash spill in Tennessee was coveredby Chemical & Engineering News inDecember 2010.

Tomasz Hueckel, professor, specializes inthe mechanics of materials with anemphasis on geomechanics. He focuses onthe mechanical behavior of materials invariable physical, chemical and thermalenvironments. He recently obtained a$200K grant from ENI, Italian oil com-pany, for research on subsidence predic-tion. He delivered an invited lecture onMechanisms of Chemo-mechanicalCoupling at ALERT-Geomaterials 2010Annual Meeting of EuropeanGeomechanics Laboratories. He was aVisiting Professor at the University ofMontpellier-2, France. He co-authored abook chapter on cracking of drying soilsin “Mechanics of Unsaturated Soils,”published by J. Wiley, London, p 55-86,2010. He recently published researchresults focused on temperature dependentinternal friction of clay in a cylindricalheat source problem in Ge’otechnique 61,no. 9, 1-14, 2011.

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

John Dolbow Lee Ferguson Henri Gavin Claudia Gunsch Tomasz Hueckel

John Dolbow was named the Yoh Family Professor in the past year. He specializes in thedevelopment of numerical methods for problems where evolving interfaces such as mate-rial defects or fluid-structure interaction play a crucial role. Dolbow serves as the co-edi-tor of the journal Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, and serves on the editorial boardof Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering. He is also the department’sDirector of Graduate Studies, and leads graduate student recruitment efforts.

Claudia Gunsch, assistant professor, specializes in environmental molecular biotechnolo-gy. Her research efforts focus broadly on studying the ecological impacts of emergingcontaminants in natural and engineered systems as well as elucidating factors control-ling horizontal gene transfer events for the development of genetic bioaugmentationbased in situ bioremediation technologies. She recently published research titled“Effect of Carbon Source Addition on Toluene Biodegradation by Escherichia coli DH5aTransconjugants Harboring the TOL Plasmid,” in the journal Biotechnology andBioengineering, 2010, 107(2):269-277 and “Effects of Selected Pharmaceutically ActiveCompounds on Treatment Performance in Sequencing Batch Reactors MimickingWastewater Treatment Plant Operations” in the journal Water Research, 2011,45(11):3398-3406. Gunsch is a National Science Foundation Early CAREER awardwinner, and serves as Associate Editor for the journal Biodegradation. She is also a co-founder of a Sommerville, MA-based startup company called 349Q that aims to use

Lee Ferguson, associate professor,specializes in the application ofhigh-performance mass spectrome-try techniques to problems in envi-ronmental toxicology and chem-istry. Active areas of investigationinclude development of methodsfor broadband qualitative andquantitative analysis of polar organ-ic contaminants in the environ-ment, as well as the use of pro-teome analysis techniques for inves-tigating mechanisms and biomark-ers of chemical stress in aquaticorganisms. Ferguson holds a jointappointment with Duke’s NicholasSchool for the Environment. Herecently published research on howadvanced oxidation processes forbiofilm control may result in unin-tended quorum sensing responsesby microbial communities in thejournal Environmental Science &Technology 44:19, Oct. 2010.

Henri Gavin, associate professor and licensedprofessional engineer, specializes in structuraldynamics and earthquake engineering with afocus on seismic hazard analysis and parametricor semi-active control system. His researchfocuses on the protection of equipment andother building contents from earthquake haz-ards and encompasses methodologies such asdevices to control damping, seismic hazard cal-ibrations models, and assessing equipment iso-lation systems. Gavin co-authored a book chap-ter with Assistant Professor Jeff Scruggs titled“Earthquake Response for Civil Structures,”published in The Controls Handbook textbook2nd edition, CRC Press, 2010. He recentlyspent a sabbatical visit at the University ofCanterbury in New Zealand and contributed tothe post-earthquake evaluation and assessmentof engineered structures such as a hospital,churches and concrete reinforced structures. Hehas published several articles on the 2010Darfield earthquake in Christchurch, NewZealand, in the Bulletin of the New ZealandSociety for Earthquake Engineering.

gene silencing to control the growth ofinvasive microorganisms in municipaland industrial settings as well as helppeople in developing countries gainaccess to safe drinking water.

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Joseph Nadeau, associate professorof the practice, licensed profes-sional engineer, and Director ofUndergraduate Studies, receivedthe 2010 Klein FamilyDistinguished Teaching Awardfor his outstanding efforts inteaching, mentoring and perform-ing research at the Pratt School ofEngineering during the annualFounder’s event. His primaryresearch focus is in the areas oftheoretical and applied mechan-ics, micromechanics, compositematerials, and probabilistic meth-ods. He also teaches the bulk ofthe department’s structures cours-es, including concrete and com-posite structures, advanced rein-forced concrete, integrated struc-tural design, metallic structures,building information models,mechanics of solids, and integrat-ed structural design (the capstonecourse for all seniors with a struc-tural concentration). In addition,he is the lead faculty member forthe annual Carolina’s Conference,an annual competition for civilengineering students in theSoutheast.

Jeff Peirce, associate professor,specializes in environmental andsystems optimization engineering,with a focus on large-scale engi-neering analysis networks forenvironmental research, andmicrobial transformation of gasphase contaminants in soil. He isa member of the National ScienceFoundation’s Science Committeeon Collaborative Large-ScaleEngineering Analysis Networksfor Environmental Research(CLEANER-WATers).

Henry Petroski, Aleksandar S. VesicProfessor of Civil Engineering,specializes in analysis of failure anddesign. He is a regular columnistfor American Scientist and theAmerican Society for EngineeringEducation’s Prism Magazine. Hepublished a book titled “TheEssential Engineer: Why ScienceAlone Will Not Solve Our GlobalProblems,” with New York’sAlfred A. Knopf (2010); and“Invention by Design: HowEngineers Get from Thought To

AY 2011

Hsu-Kim 2011 DOE

Early CAREER Award 2011

Heileen Hsu-Kim would like to like know exactly whathappens when naturally-occurring or man-made mer-cury first reaches the sediments on the bottom of riversor lakes and then gets taken in by a microbe. For her,this is the key step in a process that ultimately findsthe microbe being eaten by a larger organism, andthen another, all the way up the food chain – with themercury accumulating each step of way.

“We all know that certain forms of mercury aretoxic and what they can do living things,” said Hsu-Kim, assistant professor of civil and environmentalengineering. “But we don’t totally understand theprocesses within the sediments that create dangerousforms of mercury. Before we can develop effectiveremediation strategies for mercury, we really need tounderstand what is happening at the nano-scale.”

Her approach to gaining insights into this crucialfirst-step is now being supported by a five-year,$760,000 Early Career Research Award from theDepartment of Energy (DOE). Out of the pool ofabout 1,150 university- and national laboratory-basedapplicants, 69 were selected this year for funding.

Hsu-Kim plans to spend the next five years teasingout all the subtle biochemical reactions and microbialinfluences that occur within the sediments to cause theformation of methylmercury, a form that is readilytaken in by living things.

“This information will ultimately be used to estab-lish a new geochemical framework for predicting mer-cury methylation potential in contaminated sedi-ments,” she said, ushering in a new field she termsnano-geochemistry.

Her award comes from the Office of Biological andEnvironmental Research, one of the six offices sup-porting young investigators who focus on researchareas that are a high priority for the DOE. She willalso be working with researchers in Duke’s Center forthe Environmental Impacts of Nanotechnology(CEINT) on this project.

Hsu-Kim has been on the Duke faculty since2005, after completing a postdoctoral fellowship atthe University of Delaware and graduate degreesfrom the University of California, Berkley.

Miguel Medina Joseph NadeauZbigniew Kabala

Zbigniew Kabala, associate professor, specializes in deterministic and sto-chastic modeling of water flow and contaminant transport in saturatedand unsaturated heterogeneous porous media, and the theory of relatedmeasurements.

Miguel Medina, professor, specializes in hydrologic and water qualitymodeling, contaminant transport, and surface and subsurface interac-tions. He has been appointed interim chair for the 2010/2011 academicyear. From 2009-2010 he served as President of the American Instituteof Hydrology. He was recently appointed to the Boren FellowshipsReview Panel, a program supported by the National Security EducationProgram (NSEP), which focuses on geographic areas, languages, andfields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security.

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Thing,” in a Japanese translation withTokyo’s Heibonsha, 2010. He gave morethan 22 invited talks, 15 radio and podcast,and 9 television interviews in 2010, includ-ing delivering the commencement address atand receiving an honorary doctorate in engi-neering from the Missouri University ofScience and Technology.

Amilcare Porporato, professor, specializes in ecohydrology, soil and water resources,sustainability and stochastic processes ingeophysics. He was recently awarded a$373,000 grant from the National ScienceFoundation’s Chemical, Bioengineering,Environmental and Transport Systems section for a project titled “Ecohydrologyand Sustainability in Seasonally DryEcosystems.” He published 15 peerreviewed research articles in 2010 rangingfrom the journals Water Resources Researchto Geophysical Research Letters to Bioscience.And he organized an international work-shop titled Ecohydrology and Sustainabilityin Seasonally Dry Ecosystems, June 13-14,2011, at Duke University.

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

Jeff Peirce Henry Petroski Amilcare Porporato David Schaad Mark Wiesner

FACULTY

Mark Wiesner, the James L. Meriam Professor of Civil and Environmental, wonthe 2011 Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize from the National WaterResearch Institute. He was cited for his efforts and leadership in improvingwater quality through advancements in membrane and nanotechnology researchand received a gold medallion and $50,000. Wiesner specializes in water treat-ment, environmental nanotechnology, membrane separation, risk assessmentand surface science. He is the director of the National Science Foundation/Environmental Protection Agency’s Center for the Environmental Implicationsof NanoTechnology (CEINT) based at Duke.

Wiesner was named President Elect of the Association of EnvironmentalEngineering and Science Professors in July, 2010.

David Schaad, associate professor of the practice and associate chair, specializes insustainable engineering and development and environmental systems design fora range of applications such as water, wastewater, storm water and hazardouswaste treatment. He also conducts work in wetland and stream restorationdesign; disaster planning, mitigation and response; and energy sustainability. Heteaches the department’s practical methods in civil engineering (CE100) courseand is a licensed professional engineer in 21 states. He also teaches Duke-widecourses in sustainable design, rebuilding after natural disasters and the scienceand policy of natural disasters. Schaad spent five weeks onsite in Las Mercedes,Honduras leading a student group through the design and fabrication of a 4,800square foot infant and maternal health clinic. The team worked with the localcommunity and Heifer International to complete the project, and equipped thefacility with running water, solar power and a septic leach field.

Marco Marani joined Duke in September 2011 as a professor in theDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a jointappointment in the Nicholas School for the Environment. He waspreviously the Director of the International Center of Hydrology atthe University of Padova, Italy. His research encompasses hydrome-teorology, remote sensing applications to hydrology and tidal mor-phology, fluvial geomorphology and climatology. Marani holds aPh.D. in hydrodynamics from the University of Padova.

New Faculty

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Over time, many of the headstoneshave crumbled or their inscriptions haveeroded. Some graves have been markedonly with stones at the head and feet.Some don’t have any markers at all. Andlike most small churches, burial records,if they exist, are not always the most reli-able. Especially the older ones.

“This is a problem common to smallrural churches across North Carolina,many of which are even older than ours,”the Rev. Gerritson said. “Between theencroachment of nature around us and thelack of documentation – especially for theolder graves – it can be difficult to get anexact handle on who is buried where andtheir exact locations. It becomes a chal-lenge when we have to dig a new grave.”

When an unmarked grave was almostbreached while a new one was being dug,the pastor decided that something needed

to be done. So he contacted Duke’s PrattSchool of Engineering and the Universityof North Carolina at Chapel Hill to see ifthey could help.

David Schaad, Pratt associate professorof the practice and associate chair of civiland environmental engineering, jumped

at the chance to notonly help the Rev.Gerritson, but to pro-vide a unique hands-onlearning experience forstudents in his CE100 –Practical Methods inCivil Engineering class.

“Typically, studentslearning surveying tech-niques practice at loca-tions across campus,”Schaad said. “I thoughtthis would be a greatopportunity for them tolearn these same skillsin a new and more real-world setting.”

Students participating in this projectwere divided into eight groups, each one

AY 2011

UNDERGRADUATES

CEEStudentsand aCemetery

The Rev. Paul Gerritson, pastor of the Mount Moriah BaptistChurch, faced a troubling dilemma. The church has beenlocated on the same plot of rural Orange County land formore 100 years. Since then, more than 400 church membershad been buried in the cemetery behind the church.

Aaron Schroeder

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responsible for a specific quadrant of thecemetery. Students spent the semester notonly plotting the exact locations and ori-entations of every headstone and marker,but they recorded any informationinscribed on them.

Aaron Schroeder, a junior from SouthCarolina, and Hunter Douglas, from NewZealand, were members of the team sur-veying the southwest quadrant, which wasdensely populated with graves of manymembers of a small number of families,including a few which included babies.

“The campus has been surveyed somany times,” Schroeder said. “You can seegroups of students out there all the time.This gave us the chance to practice thesame skills in a totally different and moreinteresting setting.”

“It feels good to be able to help out thecommunity while we’re actually learningsomething,” Douglas added.

As a result of the survey, the studentsidentified 275 marked graves, and 144unidentified graves. The earliest grave-stones are dated 1877. The final productwas a detailed map showing all the

known headstones and markers, andwhere possible, the name of the personburied there.

Schaad is considering continuing theproject using ground-penetrating radar tofurther identify gravesites. The spacewhere a coffin is located will have a dif-ferent density than the earth surroundingit, a difference that can be picked up bythe equipment.

The church was organized in 1823 andhas occupied the current site since 1903.For the Rev. Gerritson, pastor for the past

several years, cemeteries serve importantspiritual needs of a church’s parishioners– past, present and future.

“Not only does it represent the finalresting place of the departed, but it alsois a special place for the living to visitfriends and loved ones,” he said. “It’s aplace for quiet thought and reflection.

“To plan for future burials, it’s soimportant that we have a better handleon who is buried in our cemetery,” hecontinued. “The results of this projectshould be of great help to us.” ■

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

Team Competes in Sustainable Design CompetitionA Duke civil engineering student team earned an Honorable Mention in the Water,Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development category at the EnvironmentalProtection Agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) competition inWashington, DC.

Their project, entitled “Watershed Management at the Basin Scale at DukeUniversity,” focuses on the restoration of a stream and local storm water managementsystem on Duke’s campus. The overarching goal is to create a basin-wide learning labo-ratory where students from different disciplines can work with practicing professionalsto develop stream restoration, wetland mitigation and storm water management meas-ures that are more effective than current management practices.

Faculty advisers included civil and environmental engineering faculty membersDavid Schaad, Marc Deshusses, Zbigniew Kabala and Miguel Medina; EmilyBernhardt of the biology department; Duke Energy Manager Steve Palumbo; NicholasSchool for the Environment Professor Curtis Richardson, and Jim Halley of theDurham-based firm EcoEngineering.

The student team included civil and environmental engineer graduate studentAshley Thomson, sophomore Grace Cambareri, juniors Ming Jiu Li, Annelise

Mesler, and Lauren Shwisberg; biomedical engineering/civil engineering senior RichardVeerman; biomedical engineers Angie Luong, a junior, and Hyun Koo Chung, afreshman; freshman electrical and computer engineer Harris Osserman; and junior

Nari Sohn, majoring in environmental studies.

Team being awarded an Honorable Mention at the P3 Awards Ceremony

Aerial view of church and cemetery grounds.

1

12

Over fall break I traveled to ElSalvador on a site assessment tripfor a pedestrian bridge. It was

my seventh trip to El Salvador, but myfirst visiting in the role of an engineer.The past six summers I’ve worked in anorphanage right outside of El Salvador’scapital city, San Salvador.

On my most recent trip in May of2010, one of my Salvadoran friends whograduated from the orphanage and worksas a teacher in a rural farming communi-ty told me about a problem her studentshave getting to class. Most of her stu-dents have to cross a river that rises up totwo meters after heavy rainfall, at whichpoint they cannot cross at allor must put themselves indanger attempting to crossand often arrive at schoolsoaking wet. I brought thisproblem back to Duke andwith the support of DukeEngineers for InternationalDevelopment (DEID) andDavid Schaad, faculty advisorof DEID and associate profes-sor of the practice in civil andenvironmental engineering, Icoordinated an assessmenttrip to address the need for apedestrian bridge in this ruralSalvadoran community. Irecruited sophomore electricalengineer and Spanish minorJack Jamieson and freshmanengineering major MauricioVilla to accompany me to ElSalvador to visit some poten-tial sites, meet with the community, andcollect surveying data to map topograph-ical features of the land.

On each day of our assessment trip inOctober 2010, we went out to see differ-ent sites with Mike Jenkins, the founderof a local NGO that works on communi-ty-driven development projects in SanJose Villanueva. Mike was very excited tohave us “engineers” in his communityand constantly alluded to different prob-

lems he expected us to be able to explainor fix, ranging from groundwater con-tamination to poor road conditions to thebroken fan in his laptop. This was a bitnerve-racking as I looked around at thethree of us – one only a month and a halfinto his first year of college, one a sopho-more electrical engineering major, andme, who had only completed two coursesin the civil engineering departmentbefore the beginning of my junior year.

Traveling around with Mike, we wit-nessed the incredible need for pedestrianbridges in this region of El Salvador, asthe seasonal flooding leaves most rivercrossings impassible for days at a time

and repeatedly wipes out the pasarelas(steel footbridges) that are constructedevery year at some sites. We visited fivedifferent sites with each having uniqueissues, from roads that had been com-pletely washed away to crossings withexisting bridges that are completely sub-merged and impassible after a heavy rain.

As the trip progressed, I was continu-ously surprised by our ability to actuallyanswer some of Mike’s questions. At one

AY 2011

Duke Engineers for InternationalDevelopment From A Salvadoran Friend’s Dream to a Duke Engineering Project

By Maria Gibbs, senior, civil engineering, Class of 2012

UNDERGRADUATES

TOP: Jack Jamieson surveys the chosen crossing; BOTTOM RIGHT: Assessment team October 2010. FROM LEFT:

Jack Jamieson ‘13, Maria Gibbs ‘12, Mauricio Villa ‘13.

13

site there was a bridge with deep lateralcracks in the concrete deck and I wasable to speculate based on what I learnedin a Mechanics of Solids class that thecracks existed because the slab wasunder-reinforced. Without any rebar,which adds tensile strength, the concretecracked in the direction perpendicular tothe tensile loading.

At another site that had a pasarela, Iwas able to compare the scoured founda-tion to another bridge project I worked

on in Bolivia with similar river floodingconditions. For the Bolivia bridge, ratherthan the shallow foundations resting onsoil we saw for the pasarela, the founda-tions were over a meter and a half deepand were situated on solid bedrock. Wesurveyed two of the more promisingcrossings, and, based on interviews withthe communities, chose the site where apedestrian bridge would have the largestimpact. On our last day, we even had thechance to take apart Mike’s computer and

fix his fan.A team of 20 Duke undergraduates is

now in the process of designing thepedestrian bridge and preparing for aneight week implementation trip in thesummer of 2011 during which thebridge will be constructed in partnershipwith Bridges to Prosperity.

Gibbs is a civil engineering major whoplans to earn a graduate degree in struc-tural design followed by a career in inter-national development. ■

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

This is the crossing where we will be building the pedestrian bridge. The river will rise up to two meters during the rainy season.

Summer: a time for students to relaxand unwind from the rigors of yetanother school year of challenging

academic and social activities. Yet, for agroup of passionate and dedicated Pratt

engineering students, summer is the per-fect time to apply the skills learned inDuke classrooms to real-life situationsand settings.

Last summer, two groups of Duke

engineering undergraduates did just that.Traveling to remote villages in Ugandawith the Duke chapter of EngineersWithout Borders (EWB) and Bolivia aspart of Duke Engineers for InternationalDevelopment (DEID), the studentsgained hands-on experience in engineer-ing solutions to issues facing developingnations, and came to have a greaterunderstanding of the political and eco-nomic implications of development proj-ects.

Duke students have been active inNkokonjeru, Uganda, since 2006, work-ing with the Rural Agency for

2ENGINEERSWITHOUTBORDERS andDuke Engineers for InternationalDevelopment: Student Projects in Foreign Lands

UNDERGRADUATES

15

Sustainable Development (RASD), a localnongovernmental organization thatassists the residents of Nkokonjeru inassessing their health and water usageneeds. Among the major concerns identi-fied was the need for access to clean,potable water, as well as efficient waterfill stations, to combat malaria andimprove quality of life. Starting in 2009,Andrew Mang, a junior mechanical engi-neering and economics double major atDuke, became the lead coordinator forthis project.

Mang notes the personal and scientificaspects of the project as follows: “I was

involved in interviewing farmers, villagechiefs, town business leaders, and leadersof local schools to assess their wants andneeds. I also collected various technicaldata at each water source, including GPScoordinates, flow rate, observations aboutusage patterns, and any special geogra-phy that set the water source apart fromothers.”

After analyzing data and statistics col-lected, the Duke Uganda team, led byMang, designed a water collection tankand fill station for the rural town’s springboxes. “We plan to visit in summer 2011to install four fill stations in the most

heavily used tanks,” Mang said. Fundraising efforts to finance this fol-

low-up trip is going to be the team’s pri-mary focus once the design work is com-plete.

Ben Gagne, a senior mechanical engi-neering major, served as project leader ofa bridge construction project in Boliviaduring the summer of 2009. Over thecourse of this visit, he and PhillipDanser, a senior civil engineering andpublic policy major, learned of the localneed for improved irrigation during theyearly dry season. This would improvethe financial stability of the local villageof Obrajes and help keep the adolescentpopulation from leaving their familyfarms in search of work in the nearbycities.

In an assessment trip the followingautumn, the team began exploring fourpossible irrigation methods: alternativeenergy (including wind and solar),

ground water, irrigation channels, and aretention pond. Working closely with anongovernmental agency called WaterTransport in Obrajes, Danser contributedhis expertise from a structural engineer-ing perspective and performed a cost-benefit analysis.

“We determined wind would not bestrong enough to power a pump, andsolar had low potential to work,” Dansersaid. “We left knowing there were threeareas, 40 hectares each, that could work.In the end, we chose an area of undevel-oped land to place a 60 to 80 meter-longpipe into an underground well.”

Much like the Uganda proj-ect, the primary focus of theBolivia irrigation project thisacademic year has beenfundraising for building mate-rials and travel expenses.Duke’s sister chapter of EWB,called Duke Engineers forInternational Development(DEID), has received someassistance, in the form of agrant from the Kenan-BiddlePartnership, for collaborationwith engineers from theUniversity of North Carolina,Chapel Hill. The Bolivia teamhopes to utilize these funds toreturn to Bolivia again thissummer to drill their well,install the pump, and assistlocals in establishing and man-aging electrical power to thepump.

The lessons learned and experiencesgained from these two projects have gonefar beyond technical expertise. As thesetrips coincided with the 2010 FIFAWorld Cup, the villagers shared theirenthusiasm for the sport of soccer and,consequently, converted many of theDuke students into enthusiastic soccerfans. Through daily collaboration onmatters such as sustainability and sports,students formed long-lasting relation-ships with the residents of their host vil-lages.

As Gagne said, “The relationship wehave with the community of Obrajes isnot one I would soon give up.” Thus,through hard work and skill, team workand dedication, the Pratt studentsexceeded their goals, and provided arecord of success that will be certain toinspire future Duke engineers to pursueeven greater achievements in years tocome. ■

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

Spring Box Supplying Needed Water in Uganda

16 AY 2011

In the summer of 2010, a DukeEngage team led by associate professor ofthe practice David Schaad, completed the construction of an Infant andMaternal Health clinic in Las Mercedes, Honduras. The project was origi-nally conceptualized and facilitated by Duke Global Health Institute(DGHI) Senior Advisor and Duke Pediatrician Dennis Clements who leadsthe “Exploring Medicine” program connected to the medical, nursing, and

physical therapy schools. Clements, who has been taking teams for an annual itiner-ant clinic in the area since 2000, identified a need for a permanent health care facil-ity in the community. Working in collaboration with Honduran partners HeiferInternational, COMPRINIL and the Honduran Ministry of Health, student engi-neers designed the entire 4,800 square foot maternal-infant health clinic, completewith running water and electricity as part of CE185: Engineering SustainableDesign and Construction (taught by Schaad). Over the past two summers as part ofDukeEngage experiences, students have worked in collaboration with the local com-munity to construct the clinic.

DukeEngagein Honduras 

UNDERGRADUATES

The DukeEngage team pictured with workers from the community. Duke team members include (back row) Brent Halsey,Stefan Streckfus, Nick Vallis, James Alin, John Reynolds, Amber Su (middle row, right) Catherine Ramsey,

Charles Saadeh, (front row, kneeling) Ale Ferrara, Nari Sohn, Sam Beardsley, and Grace Zou.

17DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

Amy AllenMAJOR: Civil Engineering; Certificate in ArchitecturalEngineeringADVISER: Jeffrey ScruggsPROJECT: Dynamics and Control of Offshore Wind Turbines

This project aims to analyze and model the structural dynam-ics of floating turbines stabilized by various anchoring meth-ods. Allen is studying the interactions between waves, wind,and the power generated by the turbine. Currently, mostwind turbines are restricted to shallow ocean depths becauseconcrete piles must be able to reach down to the ocean floor.If anchoring methods are developed that allow the turbines tobe moved farther offshore, then more wind energy could beharvested in a more efficient manner and the turbines wouldhave a smaller impact on the shoreline aesthetics.

The plan consists of a cylindrical buoy floating in the waterat a variable depth and tilted at an angle. She has derivedequations for the center of mass of the buoy and the waterdisplaced by the buoy. These equations are then used tomodel the moment arm of the buoyant force and to determinewhether it causes the buoy to capsize or return to static equi-librium. Stiffness and mass matrices were derived to deter-mine the structural stability of the system. Moving forward,she will enhance the system to represent more complicatedstructures that include anchors and a turbine on top of thecylinder. Computer codes will also be created to model themore complicated systems and to easily study the effects ofchanges in design.

William Greer MackebeeMAJOR: Civil and Environmental Engineering and

Grand Challenge ScholarADVISER: Helen Hsu-KimPROJECT: Selenium Geochemistry of Coal CombustionByproducts

Research into the fate of metal, metalloid, and radionuclide pol-lutants associated with coal combustion products during theirdisposal or accidental release into the environment becomesmore important every year as the burning of coal for electricityand subsequent production of coal ash wastes increase. Theimportance of coal ash research is demonstrated by theDecember 2008 accident near Kingston, Tennessee, in whichapproximately 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry were spilledover 300 acres of adjacent land and into the nearby Emory andClinch Rivers. As with most coal combustion products, thespilled coal ash was enriched with certain contaminants, includ-ing selenium. This fact is troubling considering that the dangersof selenium, a toxic element that can bio-accumulate in the foodchain and impart health risks to animals and humans, are welldocumented.

The objective of the project is to determine the speciation andbiochemical cycling of selenium from sediments and water sam-ples taken from aqueous environments proximal to the Kingstoncoal ash spill. Using high performance liquid chromatographycoupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, theproject will incorporate initial research into the optimal condi-tions for selenium leaching. Previous results indicate that highalkalinity increases the capacity for selenium to leach from somecoal ash samples, but these results must be upheld for theKingston plant’s unique coal ash varieties. From these results,subsequent tests will be conducted to assess the overall speciationand relative danger of selenium still present in the environment.

STUDENT RESEARCH SPOTLIGHTS

Pratt Engineering Undergraduate Fellows

18 AY 2011

Tyler RohrMAJOR: Civil Environmental EngineeringMINOR: MathADVISER: Amilcare Porporato PROJECT: Sustainable use of Water and Soils inSeasonally-dry regions: Exploring the ContinuumBetween Natural and Intensively Managed Ecosystems

The primary mission of this project is to explore water andsoil interactions in seasonally dry ecosystems, particularlythe northeastern portion of Brazil known as the caatinga.Computer code has been written to analyze carbon concen-trations in the litter, hummus and biomass, as well as soilmoisture, ammonia, and nitrate concentrations based onvarious parameters and data collected. Once the code andequations have been suitably modified to work with actualdata collected from Brazil, the ultimate goal is to use theinformation to compare natural and intensively managedecosystems, and finally derive an optimal, in terms of sus-tainability, practicality and financial necessity, method ofagriculture for seasonally dry ecosystems.

Currently he is rewriting the code to work with actualdata. Research progress to date has replaced Poisson dis-tributed rainfall with actual collected values as well as cre-ated a seasonally periodic function to input actual littervalues. As the work progresses, he will continue to adjustthe code to make it more precise to the area. Then theresearch will move from adjusting inputs to analyzing out-puts. This is where the heart of the project lies, in discov-ering how various methods of agriculture effect the soil-water interactions and eventually deriving an optimumsolution.

Craig J. WasilewskyMAJOR: Civil and Environmental EngineeringADVISER: Jeffrey ScruggsPROJECT: Engineering Design of Tensegrity Structures

Tensegrity structures, which are more formally referred to as “tensionintegrity” structures, are lightweight trusses in which all of the com-pression elements are rigid bars and the tension elements are flexiblecables (strings). In its purest form, a well-designed tensegrity willhave the property that no compression members share a joint, and sothey appear to “float” within a web of pre-tensioned cables that areresponsible for actually providing the mechanical stability to thestructure, hence the name “tension integrity.”

This research will focus on creating a MATLAB program that cannumerically simulate the non-linear behavior of any class 1 tensegritystructure by employing the analytical techniques developed by RobertSkelton in his “Matrix Forms for Dynamics of Tensegrity Systems”(Jan 1, 2006). After successfully completing this initial advance intodynamic modeling, the expectation is that he will be able to furtherrefine the modeling capabilities of the program. The goal is to have aprogram that is as general and “dynamic” as possible. Moving beyondthe theoretical aspect of the project, another goal is to design and con-struct an actual tensegrity prototype. By subjecting the prototype tovarious forcing conditions, he can observe and measure the displace-ments of the dynamic structure and compare it with the displace-ments (dynamics) that are predicted by the theoretical model.

STUDENT RESEARCH SPOTLIGHTS

Senior Pratt Engineering Undergraduate Fellows... continued

19DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

The Duke chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers gave amazing perform-ances at the 2011 Carolina's Conference in Raleigh, NC, hosted by our neighbor,North Carolina State University. Our teams took first place wins in the quiz bowl,service project, and the Mead Paper competitions. Duke took second place in the teeshirt design contest and 3rd place overall for the concrete canoe.

Carolina’s ConferenceDuke’s prize-winning concrete canoe in action.

Team members Anamika Goyal, Brendon Pierson, Ross Taggart, and Neha Limaye.

Senior SpotlightTrisha Kathryn Lowe, ‘10Duke National Academy of EngineeringGrand Challenge Scholar

Winner:• Pratt School of Engineering Student

Service Award• William Brewster Snow

Environmental Engineering Award• ASCE Outstanding Senior Prize

For her Duke NAE Grand ChallengeScholars thesis project, Lowe focused on aproject titled “Registering Carbon OffsetsAvailable from Innovative Aerobic SwineWaste Management System.”

Her work on the project originatedfrom a course (CE185: EngineeringSustainable Design) that she took fromassociate professor of the practice DavidSchaad. One of the topics that caught herattention was capturing methane emittedfrom livestock and converting that intoenergy. North Carolina is the secondlargest pork producing state in the nationand has a high density of hog farms inparticular.

During Summer 2010 she researchedand evaluated mass-balance calculationsfor various forms of swine waste manage-ment technologies to allow for a usefulcomparison. In particular, she looked athow effective different technologies are atmanaging the nitrogen cycle, how effec-tive they are at keeping contaminants andwastewater out of water supplies, and howmuch energy and water they consume.

As a result of her efforts, Lowe wasasked to contribute to the Duke CarbonOffset Initiative. She began the process toregister carbon offsets available from aClinton, NC farm already utilizing aninnovative swine waste managementtechnology. This encompassed complet-ing the calculations necessary for regis-tering the carbon offsets from the B&BTyndall farm under the American CarbonRegistry (ACR) and to complete theapplication required by ACR.

Acara ChallengeThis year, a Duke team was one of four teams to win The Acara Challenge with a proj-ect focused on improving water usage in rural India. The Acara Challenge is a uniqueway for a university to get their students involved in entrepreneurship and sustainabledesign for social change. The competition purpose is to engage students in a multi-disci-

20 AY 2011

The Department is now offeringtwo new graduate degreeopportunities: a Master ofEngineering (M. Eng.) in either

environmental engineering or civil engi-neering. The goal of the program is tooffer an alternative to the traditional,research-focused Master of Science cur-riculum and give students a competitiveedge in their careers. Ideal candidates fora master of engineering are early careerprofessionals or recent B.S. graduateswho know they want to go into practic-ing engineering positions in industry andare interested in product development,engineering support and technologyinnovation.

The non-thesis M. Eng. curriculumtakes between 18 to 24 months to com-plete, and exposes students to a core ofpreparatory business courses and eitheran internship or applied research experi-ence. So students gain business acumento help them navigate corporate environ-ments and better prepare for projectmanagement and also gain real world,practical research skills. The technicalengineering courses reflect the researchstrength of the department and there is ahigh degree of flexibility to customizecourse selection.

“The MEng degree was started becausethere is an increased interest in masters

level engineering education. TheAmerican Society for EngineeringEducation reports a 38% increase in thenumber of masters degrees awarded overthe past 10 years,” said Brad Fox, associ-ate dean for professional master’s pro-grams. “Additionally, industry has placedsignificant emphasis on the need forinnovation in order to be competitive. Byinnovation, companies are not just refer-ring to invention but also implementa-tion of that invention into practice. Wecrafted the MEng degree to address bothaspects of the innovation equation.”

The Environmental Engineering M.Eng. curriculum gives students a choiceto study in one of four areas: environ-mental nanotechnology, ecohydrologyand environmental fluid dynamics, envi-ronmental process engineering, or envi-ronmental engineering and public policy.And it draws on faculty from both thePratt School of Engineering and theNicholas School of the Environment.

The Civil Engineering M. Eng. cur-riculum allows students to gain greatertechnical depth in the areas of computa-tional engineering, systems engineeringand optimization, or geo-systems.

For more information about our newprograms, visit http://www.cee.duke.edu/cee_meng

Acara Challenge... cont.

New Master’s Programs

pline, multi-country collaboration todevelop sustainable solutions and busi-ness models to challenging global socialissues as well as incubate and implementthe winning plans into successful sus-tainable social businesses. More than 21student teams from across the countrycompeted in the Acara Challenge, com-prising of about 175 students from the12 participating universities from USA,India and Mexico.

The winning team from Duke, theAnkur Initiative, included team mem-bers Anamika Goyal, Neha Limaye,Brendon Pierson and Ross Taggart.Their goal was to combat water stress in

parts of rural Indiaby selling affordablepolytunnels—light-weight plasticminiature green-houses—to subsis-tence farmers inorder to reducewater loss andincrease crop yields.

As part of thecompetition, theteam developed abusiness plans for asustainable businessthat addresses thesubject of food andwater security in thedevelopingworld. The first

phase of the challenge was incorporatedas a part of two courses: CE185:Engineering Sustainable Design andConstruction, taught by David Schaad,associate professor of the practice, andENV171: Food and Energy, taught byCharlotte Clark, visiting professor andassociate director for education andtraining in the Nicholas School of theEnvironment. Between these two cours-es, five teams were formed and pairedwith industry mentors and a companionteam from IIT-Roorkee to help in devel-oping the concepts and business plansfor the challenge. At the end of thesemester, each team presented their con-cept to “venture capital-like” panel.From this initial judging, one teamfrom Duke was selected to be one of theeight teams competing in the finalshosted at the University ofMinnesota. The team from Duke wasselected as one of four finalists whichreceived funding to launch their busi-ness venture.

The competitionpurpose is toengage studentsin a multi-disci-pline, multi-coun-try collaborationto develop sus-tainable solutionsand businessmodels to chal-lenging globalsocial issues aswell as incubateand implementthe winning plansinto successfulsustainable socialbusinesses.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

21

Morse wins EPA STARFellowship

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

Strickland wins EPA STARFellowshipGraduate Student Matt Strickland won anEPA STAR Fellowship that will provide$42,000 per year for three years. Matt isstudying biofiltration of waste gassescontaining dilute concentrations ofmethane by utilizing a biphasic reactor.A biphasic reactor contains bacteriagrowing in a mineral salts medium and anon-miscible second phase such as sili-cone oil. Synthetic waste gas containingmethane is bubbled through the biphasicliquid emulsion and the presence of theoil facilitates transfer of methane gas intothe liquid phase, where it is bioavailable.One secondary goal of this project is toengineer a method for biologically con-verting methane into methanol whichcould be collected and sold as a usefulcommodity. Matt is a student ofProfessor Marc Deshusses.

Barton Wins Chateaubriand FellowshipEnvironmental engineering graduate student Lauren Barton has won a ChateaubriandFellowship from the Office for Science and Technology in the Embassy of France inthe United States. Every year, it allows doctorate students enrolled in American uni-versities to conduct research in France for up to 10 months. Lauren will be workingat CEREGE--the Centre Européen de Recherche et d’Enseignement des Géosciencesde l’Environnement--at the University of Aix-Marseille with international collabora-tor Jean-Yves Bottero, the director of CEREGE. The focus of her doctoral research iscomprehensive risk forecasting of emerging contaminants specifically nanomaterials.She is working on developing a comprehensive model to predict the exposure ofnanomaterials that are transported through wastewater treatment plants (WWTP).The model will incorporate the key processes in WWT as well as fate and transportthrough land application of biosolids. The objective will be to design a comprehen-sive exposure assessment of nanomaterials in the environment that can be combinedwith toxicological data to produce and understand the risk associated with the mate-rials. While in France, Lauren intends to work specifically on improving her modeland decreasing the inherent uncertainty through laboratory experimentation to moreaccurately determine various model parameters. Chateaubriand Fellowship recipientsreceive a stipend, a round trip ticket to France and health insurance. Her adviser inProfessor Mark Wiesner.

Shrestha wins Award from American Meterological SocietyPrabhakar Shrestha, a graduate student of Professor Ana Barros, received an awardfor his presentation on how aerosols affect local climatology at the AtmosphericChemistry Conference of the American Meteorological Society. Prabhakar completedhis Ph.D. in the 2011 and he is now doing postdoctoral work at Bonn University inGermany.

Environmental engineering graduate stu-dent Thomas Morse won an EPA STARFellowship that will provide $42,000 peryear for three years. Thomas Morse isworking to remove invasive speciesthrough gene silencing in microalgaecultivation for biodiesel. Working withhis adviser, Assistant Professor ClaudiaGunsch, Thomas is looking at emerginggenetic technologies such as antisensegene silencing and bacteriophage biocon-trol to inhibit invasive species growth inthe large scale cultivation of microalgae.If successful this technology has thepotential to greatly reduce the cost ofalgae sourced biofuels and reduce bio-fouling in engineered systems.

Ikuma wins 2011 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring

Fourth year graduate student Kaoru Ikuma has won the 2011 Dean’s Award forExcellence in Mentoring from the Duke Graduate School. She was selected by acommittee of graduate deans, faculty, and graduate students from a highly competi-tive pool of nominees in recognition of her consistent record of good mentoringpractices. Kaoru is studying with Assistant Professor Claudia Gunsch, and herresearch focuses on the genetic evolution of bacteria following their exposure toenvironmental contaminants for the development of novel remediation technologies.

Brun wins NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship

Julien Brun, a 3rd year doctoral student in civil and environmental engineer-ing, won a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship for his research titled“Using Satellite Data to Characterize the Role of Tropical Cyclones in theEco-hydrology of the Southeast United State.” Brun is studying underProfessor Ana Barros.

ALUMNI STORIES

Expanding Hong Kong Rail

23

For most of his life, DanalBlessis was rooted to the EastCoast of the U.S. He lived inNorth Carolina since the sixth

grade, graduating from Duke in 1982with a civil engineering degree in 1982,followed by 13 more years in his firstcareer stop.

Back then, the School of Engineeringhad not yet been named for EdmundPratt, and during an introduction to acomputer course, Blessis created comput-er programs by punching out holes on asheet.

A lot has changed since then, especial-ly Blessis’ unexpected road to working inHong Kong.

He is now the manager of knowledge

management at MTRCorporation, a publictransportation railway.Blessis is involved withplanning all the compa-ny’s future railway proj-ects and expansionwork. He helps managethe construction andexpansion plans so thatthey go smoothly.

There is great impor-tance for railway trans-portation in HongKong, since the moun-tainous terrain limitsthe amount of roads thatcan be constructed,Blessis said. Also, railways provide amuch more sustainable and environmen-tally friendly alternative to the area.Currently, he is working on a 60-kilome-ter expansion of the railway that willconnect Hong Kong to the high-speednetwork in China.

Blessis credits Duke for providing him

with a very broad education, whichhelped him find his future career.

“The most important skill I gainedwas working with people. I learned howto better work in groups and how to planahead. Those are the sorts of things thatbecome most important once you get outinto the work field. “

After college, Blessis worked for 13years and moved up through the ranks atCarolina Power and Light, until he andhis wife decided to move to Hong Kong.The big change in location came down tothree deciding factors — “to have achance to gain an international experi-ence, continue to pursue our careers andsave money, and to be able to travel.”

Even though Blessis is halfway acrossthe world, he is now more involved withthe Duke community than ever before.He remains connected with the universi-ty by working with the AlumniAcademic Admissions Council chair andby serving as president of the Duke Clubof Hong Kong, where he interviewsprospective students. Blessis said he’sbenefited a lot through his involvementwith Duke.

“I’ve gained a lot of friends and a lot ofmeaningful personal rela-tionships. Seeing suchsmart high school seniorsapplying to Duke, andbeing able to stay intouch with them is reallyrewarding.”

Although Blessis’career is rooted in newtechnology, he believesthat face-to-face interac-tion will always be thebest method of commu-nicating. Although tech-nologies like smartphones, e-mail and socialmedia sites help keepeveryone connected froma distance; in-personcommunication will

always be the best way to maintainmeaningful relationships.

“People are getting sick of sitting at acomputer; it doesn’t replace the face-to-face communication. It is important forschools to continue to teach valuable peo-ple skills. And it’s critical for us to shareour knowledge.”

People are getting sick of sitting at a computer;it doesn’t replace the face-to-face communica-

tion. It is important for schools to continue to teach valuable people skills.

DUKE CEE NEWSLETTER

Blessis with Duke alumni in Hong Kong.Danal Blessis

- Blessis

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Duke University121 Hudson HallBox 90287Durham, NC 27708-0287

Non-profit Org.US Postage

PAIDDurham, NCPermit #60

2010-2011 Graduates

Left to right: Anna Katherine Sleeter, Andrew Joseph Harris, Andrew Joseph Wood, Matthew Marsh Wander

UndergraduatesAwards at Graduation

ASCE OutstandingSenior Prize –Trisha Kathryn Loweand Anna KatherineSleeter

William BrewsterSnow EnvironmentalEngineering Award –Trisha KathrynLowe and AndrewJoseph Wood

Aubrey E. PalmerAward – AndrewJoseph Wood

Eric I. Pas Award –Andrew JosephHarris and MatthewMarsh Wander

Pratt School ofEngineeringStudent ServiceAward – TrishaKathryn Lowe

Graduation withDistinction –Andrew JosephHarris, MatthewMarsh Wander

May 2011Steven Michael Lattanzio – MS

Thesis: Optimal Power Generation of a Wave Energy Converterin a Stochastic EnvironmentAdviser: Jeff Scruggs

Shihong Lin – MSThesis: Deposition of Silver Nanoparticles in Geochemically

Heterogeneous Porous Media: Predicting Particle Mobilityfrom Surface Composition Analysis

Adviser: Mark Wiesner

Prabhakar Shrestha – PhDDissertation: Characterization of Pre-Monsoon Aerosol and

Aerosol-Cloud-Rainfall Interactions in Central NepalAdviser: Ana Barros

Frederick Owusu-Nimo – PhDDissertation: Investigating Linkages Between Engineering and Petrophysical Properties of Unconsolidated Geomaterials

and their Geoelectrical ParametersAdviser: Fred Boadu

David Murray Kahler – PhDDissertation: Pulsed Pumping Scheme for Improved

Pump-and-Treat Groundwater RemediationAdviser: Zbigniew Kabala

Amrika Deonarine – PhDDissertation: Sources and Biogeochemical Transformation

of Mercury in Aquatic SystemsAdviser: Heileen Hsu-Kim

December 2010Do Hyuk Kang – PhD

Dissertation: Snow Hydrology: Measurement to Modeling of Snow Physical PropertiesAdviser: Ana Barros

Christine Ogilvie Hendren – PhDDissertation: Framing and Assessing the Environmental Risks

of NanomaterialsAdviser: Mark Wiesner

Rawad Saleh – PhDDissertation: Experimental Investigation of Thermodynamic

and Kinetic Properties of Semi-Volatile Organic AerosolsAdviser: Andrey Khlystov

Jessica Duvall Sanders – PhDDissertation: Stable Embedded Grid Techniques in

Computational MechanicsAdviser: Tod Laursen