Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

From the Chair

This latest newsletter edition again offers a highlight synopsis of our faculty, staff, student, and alumni achievements over the past several months for you to enjoy. Rather obviously, we have a lot to be excited about and a lot to look forward to in the coming months and years. As you might expect, I consider myself most fortunate to have joined such an outstanding program!

Nat Fox (MSCE and PhD 1966) and Bill Anderson (BSCE 1967) were honored during Homecoming weekend as PACE (Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering) award alumni recipients, and a third alumnus, Elizabeth Hunter (BSCE & Environ Stds 1997), received the James A. Hopson Alumni Volunteer Award.

To each recipient we extend our sincere congratulations for their well-deserved recognition. Whether measured by awards earned, the quality of our new incoming faculty, our nationally prominent research leadership, or the ongoing success of our alumni, these accomplishments readily demonstrate and reinforce the department's ongoing progress.

Extending beyond these tangible factors, though, you will find that our newsletter also captures a somewhat more subtle between-the-lines sense of enthusiasm at work within the department, with highly interdisciplinary creativity routinely underway where team-oriented volunteers earnestly contribute in an open, infectious fashion.

Indeed, in an era where above-and-beyond investments, let alone committee commitments, are more commonly viewed as an administrative hassle, this department enjoys a remarkable degree of enthusiastic participation by a large number of faculty, staff, students, and alumni on a daily basis.

One final note, however, for those of you wondering whether this inaugural "chair message" would try to match Lowell Greimann's parting "Letterman-esque" Top-10 Gems of Wisdom, I am sorry to say that such wit and wisdom is still in a state of evolution—but do stay tuned to see what turns up! Go Cyclones!

Jim Alleman