Letter from the Chair
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Dear CEAE Alumni, Friends and Colleagues,
We are thrilled to celebrate the success of our 69 BS, 24 MS听and 14 PhD students who graduated under a big tent on a chilly spring day in May. As freshmen and sophomores these students demonstrated remarkable resilience through the global pandemic, embodying the strength and fortitude of our community. Professor Matt Morris, who rebuilt his home with the help of two students after it was destroyed in the devastating Marshall fire, inspired everyone with his keynote address about living your priorities and not waiting for a crisis to make meaningful changes. Senior Gabi Dunn, this year鈥檚 Ketchum Award winner and now a graduate student in our program, shared how the support she received from students, faculty and staff contributed to her success. She emphasized the importance of seizing every opportunity and becoming ethical and responsible engineers.
With graduation behind us, this summer the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering has many 鈥渇irsts鈥 to celebrate along with longstanding successes.
- For the first time, both the civil and environmental engineering graduate programs are ranked in the top 10 nationwide. According to U.S. News & World Report, we are now the #9 civil engineering and the #7 environmental engineering graduate programs among public institutions in the U.S. Our undergraduate programs are also an impressive #17 and #9 for civil and environmental engineering public institutions respectively. Congrats to all our students, faculty and alumni for driving our widely recognized excellence.
- And in another first, Governor Jared Polis signed a landmark bill which directs CU Boulder's Mortenson Center and Colorado State University鈥檚 Energy Institute to pilot green infrastructure projects with the Colorado Department of Public Health to restore rivers and cut emissions from water treatment.
- Also for the first time, CU Boulder's American Society of Civil Engineers student chapter participated in the ASCE Civil Engineering Student Championships.
- This year we had the second-highest amount of research dollars in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, with $26.7 million in new funding for 2023, and lots more funding activity already on tap as noted in the following stories linked below that highlight some of the innovative research projects our faculty have recently secured in 2024.
I鈥檝e been reflecting on the impact philanthropy has on our department鈥檚 students and faculty. Our alumni donor community makes it possible for our students and researchers to lead, innovate and make their impact felt in so many ways 鈥 I鈥檓 so grateful for your support.
By making a donation to the , you will be supporting our efforts to modernize our undergraduate labs for teaching demonstrations and research; support undergraduate student travel to conferences, competitions and networking events; and enhance faculty-staff inclusivity and retention through fellowships and community-building events. Thank you for your continued support!
And finally, on a sad note, recently we lost three of our honored emeritus faculty, Kaspar Willam, Ron 鈥楧oc鈥 Helms and Hari Rajaram.听 Please take a few minutes to read the linked articles celebrating their careers and impact, and reflect on their importance to the success of our department and our legacy.听
You can read more about our department鈥檚 student and faculty achievements in the numerous stories linked below.听 Scroll down (and down and down鈥.) and see what we have been up to!
Wishing you a wonderful rest of your summer.
Karl G. Linden, PhD
Chair and Mortenson Professor in Sustainable Development
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