Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Sun, Emily (‘18 - ‘20)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Sun works in the group of Ian Bourg, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Princeton Environmental Institute, studying multiphase flow at the interfaces of minerals, water, carbon dioxide and organics, with the goal of understanding fundamental phenomena and improving predictive capabilities in carbon cycling.

  • Hartzell, Samantha (‘18 - ‘20)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Hartzell focuses her research on understanding the ecohydrology of water-limited ecosystems, including deserts, tundra and rainforest canopies. She is particularly interested in Crassulacean acid metabolism, or CAM photosynthesis, which is an ecological adaptation that affords plants in arid conditions a 500 percent increase in water-use efficiency. Her adviser is Amilcare Porporato, the Thomas J. Wu ’94 Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Princeton Environmental Institute.

  • He, Xiaogang (‘17 - ‘19)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Xiaogang He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Civil and Environmental Engineering. His research interest focuses on the fundamental understanding of how climate change and climate variability affect the global flood and drought risk (FDR) and how we can improve the predictability of these extreme events to reduce their potential impact. Xiaogang has been developing a multi-scale physically motivated, information-theoretic framework to better quantify and diagnose changes in FDR in relation to climate variability and change, and anthropogenic influences such as water management (e.g., reservoir operations, irrigation, water withdraws). This framework can help to decouple the complex interaction mechanisms and identify key processes that drive the long-term changes in FDR across different spatial and temporal scales. In order to transfer science into action, Xiaogang is working on the development of an online operational Global Flood and Drought Monitor system with an objective of improving FDR management over the globe. This high-resolution (~25 km) system can provide information on historical, present and predicted/projected hydrological conditions at different time scales, which are important to many sectors, including water, agriculture and food security, energy production, infrastructure and ecosystem health. It also has ramifications for disaster preparedness and mitigation, policy making and political response to climate change.

  • Smith, Brianne (‘13 - ‘15)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Brianne’s research interests involve hydrology and hydroclimatology of heavy rainfall and flooding in urban areas. Her research focuses on urban modification to the water cycle and creating better physical understanding of urban flooding. This work includes a focus on regional precipitation climatology and urban modification of flood-producing  rainfall as well as urban watershed modeling. An increased physical understanding of urban flooding will help to prepare cities to better prepare for heavy rainfall in a changing climate.

  • Lin, Ning (‘08 - ‘10)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Ning’s research topic was Hurricane Multihazards Risk Analysis. Hurricanes often induce large amount of damage to coastal areas, due to combined effects of strong winds, heavy rainfall, and storm-surge. Moreover, the risk of these hazards may be greatly increased in the future, due to climate change and sea level rise. Her group applied a mesoscale meteorology model, a structural vulnerability model, and a hydrodynamic model to investigate these hazards. Their ultimate goal was to develop a stochastic framework to access the joint risk of these hurricane-associated hazards in the context of climate change.

  • Li, Dan (‘12 - ‘14)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Dan’s current research focuses on the impact of urbanization on local and regional climate, as well as the water cycle. The goal of his research work, including his STEP (Science, Technology and Environmental Policy) project, is to study the potential of urban planning policies to reduce anthropogenic stresses on the urban environment, such as urban heat island effect and modification of water flux, based on a better understanding of the interactions between urban development pattern, the climate system, and the urban water cycle.

  • Konar, megan (‘11 - ‘12)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    The last few years have been a perfect storm of adverse weather conditions and increased global demand for food, leading to sky-rocketing prices of agricultural commodities and food insecurity in many regions of the world. On top of this, climate change is anticipated to dramatically alter rainfall and crop yield patterns, while rising populations and incomes will continue to enhance demand, making it imperative to formulate effective policy for water and food security. For Megan’s Ph.D. dissertation, she is researching how water and food systems are linked through trade, which can be represented by the global virtual water (i.e. the amount of water used throughout the entire production process of agricultural commodities) trade network. In particular, she is interested in the potential for international trade to buffer climate shocks.

  • Kang, Mary (‘11 - ‘13)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Mary’s research focuses on developing a combined numerical-analytical multi-scale multi-phase model to represent leakage of carbon dioxide through faults and other planar features. This model provides the capability to efficiently explore the potential for geologic storage of carbon dioxide in basins containing faults such as the Illinois Basin.

  • Huang, Xinwo (‘13 - ‘15)

    Civil and Environmental Engineering

    Xinwo has a general interest in energy and environmental studies. His research interest lies in multi-phase flow in porous media and large-scale numerical modeling, with applications to geological carbon sequestration and shale gas production. Within the PEI-STEP program, he will explore the possibilities for CCS and shale gas to coexist from both technical and policy perspectives.