This has been a year of complete transition in the department administration. I’ve been joined in the front office by outstanding new associate heads David Lange (Undergraduate Program) and Albert Valocchi (Graduate Program). Just eight short months ago, my own efforts were focused on preparing to teach structural analysis in the fall semester, supervising my graduate research assistants and post-docs, and chairing the structures group. Now as Head, my efforts focus outward each day in assisting faculty, staff and students all across the department to achieve their immediate and long-term goals and to help us all obtain the resources needed for success. My faculty colleagues, our terrific staff and the university administration have shown great confidence in me to lead our department over the coming years. I very much appreciate their strong support and trust.

The end of the spring semester marks the season to acknowledge outstanding achievements. Our faculty, students, staff and alumni have been recognized for many accomplishments this year as noted throughout this newsletter. In February, the National Academy of Engineering selected for membership two of our alumni, Dr. James R. Harris and Dr. R. Shankar Nair. On April 1, the Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association recognized 13 distinguished alumni recipients at the department’s annual awards dinner. These alumni exemplify the enormous impact of our department on all parts of civil and environmental engineering, including the military, consulting practice and academia. That same evening, some 70 undergraduate students were awarded more than $125,000 in scholarship support from endowed funds to recognize superior academic performance, leadership in student organizations and community service.

Our faculty continue to collect an impressive array of national and international awards that recognize their research contributions, as well as university awards for quality teaching and student advising. Intensive efforts by several groups of faculty came to fruition this year. In November, the new large-scale testing facility and user studio were dedicated in Newmark Laboratory as part of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation sponsored by the National Science Foundation. In early May, we dedicated space in Newmark Laboratory to house the Center of Excellence for Airport Technology (CEAT) sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration and the O’Hare Modernization Program. On July 1, we expect to open the new Illinois Center for Transportation at the Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory located in Rantoul. This newest effort, funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation, will more than triple the collaborative research between CEE and IDOT. And in early April we saw the elevation of the department back into the No. 1 spot in the graduate program rankings published by U.S. News and World Report to accompany the No. 1 ranking of the undergraduate program.

While celebrating our achievements, we must be aware that the department faces challenges to maintain our standards of excellence. Budget pressures from the ongoing decline of our core state funding require new, creative mechanisms to retain and fund open faculty and staff positions created by retirements (Professors Vern Snoeyink, Jamshid Ghaboussi and Y-Kwei Wen are retiring this year). State and tuition funding together now represent only 25 percent of our department budget, down from more than 50 percent just a few years ago. The department has competed very successfully again this year for “Excellence” funding at the university level to attract mid-career faculty to Urbana. Conversely, because of our top-ranked reputation, our faculty are often the targets of recruiting by other universities. Here the increasing number of endowed funds created by our alumni and friends to support faculty through chairs, professorships and faculty scholars has helped us maintain a good record of faculty retention.

Finally, the most critical challenge for all of us, including our alumni, is to tell the incredible success story of the civil and environmental engineering profession. Civil engineers have an enormous, positive impact on our society and economy. Still, our role is sometimes under-appreciated by decision-makers, politicians and the public at large. The profession’s future depends on first-rate university education and research. That is our mission at the University of Illinois, and I need your help in promoting the success story of our profession and department.

Your thoughts, suggestions and comments are always welcome. Please feel free to contact me any time at rdodds@uiuc.edu or call (217) 333-3276. Go Illini!