Warren Distinguished Lecture Series
The Warren Distinguished Lecture Series was made possible through a generous, renewing gift from Alice Warren Gaarden. CEGE is continually thankful for her generosity, which allows us to bring in researchers and practitioners to share their knowledge with students, faculty, and friends of CEGE. A lecture is held most Fridays (September to May) at 10:10 a.m. in the George J. Schroepfer Conference Theatre (room 210) in the Civil Engineering Building.
If you cannot join us in person, please join us online. Registration is required. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meetings.
Find our archive on YouTube @umnCEGE
Overview of Lectures Spring 2026
The lecture series will resume January 23, 2026.
Scroll down to access recordings of past lectures.
Jan 23 Cristian Escauriaza, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Water Resources)
Jan 30 Benjamin Seibold, Temple University (Transportation)
Feb 06 Andrew Jones, Duke University (Water Resources)
Feb 13 CEGE Faculty Mini-talks, University of Minnesota (various)
Feb 20 Julian Fairey, University of Arkansas (Environmental)
Feb 27 Ethics Week Kate Golden, Senior VP, General Counsel for Mortenson Construction (Ethics)
Mar 06 * No lecture *
Mar 13 * No lecture *
Mar 20 Jonathan Sprinkle, Vanderbilt University (Transportation)
Mar 27 Bruno Sudret, ETH Switzerland (Structures)
Apr 03 Brice Lecampion, EPFL Switzerland (Geomechanics)
Apr 10 Na Wei, University of Illinois ( Environmental)
Apr 17 J.N. Reddy, Texas A&M (Structures)
Apr 24 Giuseppe Buscarnera, Northwestern University (Geomechanics)
May 01 Sean Qian, Carnegie Mellon University (Transportation)
Upcoming Events
There are no upcoming events matching your criteria.
Past Events
Entrainment and Transport of Sand and Tailings along the Paraopeba River, after the Collapse of a Tailings Dam, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
In person: 210 Civil Engineering Building
or
Online: Registration required for this series. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Marcelo H. Garcia, PhD, NAE
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Human-Automated Vehicle Interactions: Voluntary Driver Intervention in Car-following
Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Soyoung (Sue) Ahn
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Computational Framework for Extreme System Responses
Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
Recording not available at this time.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Mircea Grigoriu
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Center for Applied Mathematics
Cornell University
ONLINE ONLY
In this talk, Mircea Grigoriu develops a practical method for estimating the distribution of extreme solutions of stochastic problems. The first part of the presentation reviews essential concepts of probability theory and illustrates the need for uncertainty quantification in engineering via simple examples. The second part presents the computational framework for estimating extremes of random processes.
Evaluating and Managing the Financial Risks of Extreme Environmental Events
Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Greg Characklis
Environmental Sciences and Engineering
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This discussion revolves around describing approaches to characterizing financial risk in coupled natural-engineered-economic systems, followed by a description of several recent studies. Examples include evaluating strategies for managing the financial risk of environmental extremes on economic sectors such as urban water utilities, electric power utilities, inland navigation and the housing market.
Seismic Stability and Resilience in Steel Buildings
Friday, Oct. 31, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture
and Dexter Lecture with
Larry Fahnestock
Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Old Dog, New Tricks: Engineering Microorganisms for Environmental Release, Remediation, and Risk Assessment
Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Cresten Mansfeldt
University of Colorado Boulder
Getting More out of Engineered Microbial Bioprocesses for Resource Recovery
Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
Recording not available.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Ryan Ziels
Civil Engineering
University of British Columbia Vancouver
Ziels presents about several methodological developments in molecular biology approaches and their application to biological water treatment systems. Taken together, these new approaches provide a path forward for developing sound engineering strategies to manage microbiomes for circular resource recovery from waste materials.
Toward Economic and Seismic-Safe Geologic Hydrogen
Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Mengsu Hu
Energy Geosciences Division
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
In this talk, Mengsu Hu shares state-of-the-art research that combines laboratory experiments with numerical modeling to predict and control H2 generation and extraction more effectively. This presentation underscores the economic potential of geologic hydrogen, identifies key areas where interdisciplinary research is most needed, and outlines future pathways toward the success of geologic hydrogen.
CEGE Three-Minute Thesis Contest
Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
Recording not available.
Doctoral students in CEGE compete to describe their research in just three minutes. They must use language accessible to non-expert audiences and just one slide. It's a big challenge! Tune in to see how they do!
Large-Scale Coastal Morphodynamics and Anthromorphodynamics
Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Brad Murray
Geomorphology and Coastal Processes
Duke University
Murray reviews the wave- and sediment-transport dynamics that shape coastlines over timescales of years to millennia, and how coastline plan-view shapes respond to variations in wave (storm) climate, and describes the sea-level-rise and storm processes that build and tend to maintain barrier islands on low-slope coastlines.