Warren Distinguished Lecture Series

Katherine and Arthur Sehlin Memorial Lecture with Patrick Ray, Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati 
and 2023 J.S. Braun/Braun Intertec Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota

Adaptation to climate change is expensive and benefits are not guaranteed. We do not know what amount of greenhouse gases will be emitted by the current generation, nor the impacts the resultant warming will have on our water, agricultural, energy, ecological, and urban systems. We have difficult decisions to make and must not allow uncertainty to paralyze progress toward a better world. Patrick Ray applies concepts of deep uncertainty to example challenges. His aim is to improve decision confidence built on cost-effectiveness, sustainability, equity, and resilience through the critical tool of trade-off analysis. The product must be decision-relevant and interpretable by those who must implement the findings. We have never before had such an opportunity to derive insights from global observations, nor a bigger challenge of complex multidimensionality. Ray shares incremental victories in the realm of water resources decision science and offers a vision for the next decade of needed research. 
 

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Michael Levin, University of Minnesota

Traffic signals are major bottlenecks for urban networks, and traffic signal timing has been studied for decades. However, in 2013, a new paradigm of max-pressure signal timing was introduced, which uses a Markov chain store-and-forward queueing model of traffic flow to mathematically prove that max-pressure control achieves maximum throughput of vehicles. This throughput optimality is shown for a network of max-pressure intersections, not just for individual intersections. 

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Srinivas Peeta, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

This talk will discuss ongoing work related to developing a systematic framework and associated innovative methods and models to provide formal pathways for communities to achieve their sustainable travel goals. Solutions to achieve sustainability objectives related to enhancing travel mobility, safety, equity, and access will be discussed using the City of Peachtree Corners (GA) as an immersive living lab.

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Wen-lu Zhu, Geology, University of Maryland

The rate and extent of serpentinization and carbonation of ultramafic rocks are a subject of debate. Zhu and team conducted dynamic microtomography experiments to investigate the effects of confinement and pore fluid pressure on hydration of periclase MgO to brucite Mg(OH)₂ at subsurface conditions. Their experimental results have important implications in understanding microseismicity in the serpentinization of oceanic crust.

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Wei Chen, Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern University

Design of advanced material systems requires integrating knowledge and representation from multiple domains such as materials, manufacturing, structural mechanics, and design optimization. Chen discusses the challenges and opportunities in designing engineered material systems.

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Matthew J. Christensen, P.E., Vice President of the Surface Transportation Division, TKDA

Matthew Christensen will discuss the replacement of the Dale Street bridge over I-94 in St. Paul and working with citizens from the historic Rondo neighborhood on the project.

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Claire White, Princeton University

White provides an overview of the main approaches being pursued to reach a net zero cement industry by 2050 and will touch upon the various opportunities and challenges of these cement decarbonization approaches and technologies. White also presents her group’s recent research on alternative cements.

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Joel Ducoste, Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University

Research has been performed to help quantify the contributing factors that may lead to the formation of elevated temperature landfills (ETLFs). In this presentation, Ducoste discusses a numerical model that was used to predict heat generation, transport, and accumulation from biological and chemical reactions that occur in landfills.

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Birthe V. Kjellerup, Civil and Environmental Engineering & Bioengineering, University of Maryland

Kjellerup’s research group has developed a novel approach to address PCB contamination. They co-localize PCB-degrading microbes onto surfaces of sorp­tive particles as biofilms, which  can be used as a delivery system. This approach can also be modified for treatment of contaminated stormwater and wastewater effluent prior to discharge. The effect of stormwater containing PCBs on sediment quality was evaluated for multiple locations in Baltimore Harbor. Sediment core samples were evaluated and compared to historical PCB concentrations. Kjellerup discusses these experiments along with current strategies for bioremediation of PCBs in stormwater retention cells and in sediment.

a Warren Distinguished Lecture with Mark R. Wiesner, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University 

Wiesner reviews some recent work examining the release of nanomaterials from plastic composites, methods for evaluating plastic abrasion, calculations of non-nano additive release and possible consequences of plastic fragmentation for human health and the environment.