Academic Advisory Board visits campus

Three members of the six-member board pose with faculty and department leadership. From left: CEE Professor and Associate Head for Graduate Affairs Charlie Werth; Andrew Whittle, Head, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Nicholas Jones, Dean of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University; Linda Abriola, Dean of Engineering, Tufts University; CEE Professor and Head Amr S. Elnashai; CEE Professor Barbara Minsker; CEE Professor Imad Al-Qadi; CEE Professor and Associate Head of Undergraduate Studies Liang Liu; CEE Professor Youssef Hashash; and CEE Professor Praveen Kumar.

Members of CEE's newly established Academic Advisory Board met on campus February 11-12 for the first time. 

The inaugural board is comprised of Linda Abriola, Dean of Engineering at Tufts University; Nicholas Jones, Dean of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University; David Daniel, President of the University of Texas at Dallas and former Head of CEE at Illinois; Andrew Whittle, Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Glen Daigger, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at CH2M Hill; and Robert Street, Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Three members of the board attended the meeting in person, and the other three connected remotely and/or contributed to the discussions by correspondence and comments on the material prepared for the visit.

The purpose of the advisory board is to advise on all aspects of department operations, including curricula, education, research, governance, finances, climate, outreach and global engagement. Much of the discussion during this visit focused on the department’s multidisciplinary research thrusts and new cross-cutting  academic programs, Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems, which began in fall 2011; Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability, scheduled to begin in fall 2013; and Societal Risk Management, scheduled to debut in fall 2014. The focus of the first meeting was to first inform the board members on the status of the department and to discuss in detail the future research directions the department should plan to pursue in the next five to10 years.

The group also had lunch with approximately 20 undergraduate and graduate students as a means to learn more about the student experience at Illinois.

The board will meet on campus once a year. Terms of service are for four years, renewable once.