Courtney Sakry
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Category: academics Virginia Tech dominates 2025 ASCE Student Symposium , articleVirginia Tech succeeded in the 2025 Virginias ASCE Student Symposium at WVU Tech, winning first place in nearly every competition, including surveying, sustainability, technical paper, concrete canoe, and steel bridge. The civil and environmental engineering undergraduate students now prepare to compete on the national stage.
Date: Apr 01, 2025 -
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Category: research Paving the way for strong wind hazard mitigation in Virginia , articleVirginia is taking its first dedicated steps toward mitigating extreme wind events, and Monica Arul leads efforts to introduce a new hazard category for wind.
Date: Mar 07, 2025 -
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Category: research Researcher studies the power of native plants to combat road salt pollution , articleSalt pollution from road deicing salts threatens freshwater ecosystems and urban green infrastructure. Megan Rippy's research on salt-tolerant plants like cattails highlights their potential role in mitigating this pollution, though broader strategies are essential for long-term solutions.
Date: Jan 17, 2025 -
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Virginia Tech Advantage Scuba diving shapes Virginia Tech engineering student’s path , articleAdelai Silberberg merges her passion for scuba diving with her engineering expertise, crafting a unique path defined by adventure, leadership, and a commitment to making a difference.
Date: Dec 23, 2024 -
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Category: academics Class of 2024: Nicole Paz-Jimenez breaks barriers while building connections , articleAs a Latina pursuing civil and environmental engineering, Paz-Jimenez makes it her mission to inspire and empower underrepresented communities in STEM.
Date: Dec 12, 2024 -
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Category: research How the dirt under our feet could affect human health , articleJingqiu Liao is linking human activity to increased gene transfer from soil bacteria to humans.
Date: Dec 11, 2024 -
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Category: impact Engineering alumnus earns Los Angeles architectural award for renovations to historic theater , articleDavid Cocke ’80 led the revitalization of the Netflix Egyptian Theater to equip it with necessary safety upgrades.
Date: Dec 03, 2024 -
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Category: research Robust EPA grant funds collaborative study to halt the spread of diseases through wastewater , articleUniversity Distinguished Professor Amy Pruden is co-leading a $3 million study to investigate how antibiotic-resistant bacteria and resistance genes spread from wastewater treatment plants into the environment. The goal is to reduce public health risks by improving wastewater treatment methods.
Date: Dec 02, 2024 -
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Category: research Sewage surveillance proves powerful in combating antimicrobial resistance , articleSewage surveillance is emerging as a powerful tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance with the potential to protect vulnerable communities more effectively.
Date: Nov 05, 2024 -
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Category: impact From shipyards to sidelines: Alumnus Steven Waagbo is the engineering mind behind the Southern Draw , articleWaagbo ’82 applied his engineering skills to create lacrosse training gear that is used by the VIrginia Tech women's lacrosse team.
Date: Oct 25, 2024 -
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Category: impact Alumni play key roles in better connecting the D.C. area , articleThe Purple Line will boost connectivity across the greater Washington, D..C., metro area with 21 stops and integration into major transit systems. Two civil and environmental engineering alumni are heavily involved in the project.
Date: Oct 09, 2024 -
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Category: academics In memoriam: Thomas M. Murray, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering , articleMurray, professor emeritus who taught in the College of Engineering for 21 years, passed away on Aug. 29 at the age of 84.
Date: Sep 12, 2024 -
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Virginia Tech Global Distinction Research seeks to transform urban water management , articleThe Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory is on a mission to treat stormwater, wastewater, and drinking water as a single resource following the Environmental Protection Agency's new limits on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals, in drinking water.
Date: Jul 22, 2024 -
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Virginia Tech Global Distinction Researcher tackles hidden climate impacts in the soil and air , articleHosein Foroutan, associate professor in civil and environmental engineering, seeks to illuminate overlooked climate impacts through two projects examining mineral dust and soil nitrous oxide.
Date: Jul 16, 2024 -
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Category: research Research to uncover the impact of water use in the Colorado River Basin , articlePersistent overuse of water and long-term drought has depleted the Colorado River and highlighted the need for a comprehensive understanding of how waters are allocated and used to develop effective management strategies. Landon Marston and his students are part of a group analyzing consumption to help guide these strategies.
Date: May 13, 2024 -
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Virginia Tech Global Distinction Rodrigo Sarlo receives National Science Foundation CAREER award to create structural digital twins on campus , articleSarlo's research will facilitate the conversion of sensor data to structural models, which has applications in structural monitoring for safety and maintenance.
Date: May 01, 2024 -
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Category: academics Class of 2024: Civil and environmental engineering outstanding senior AJ Joseph is dedicated to serving through transportation , articleAJ Joseph is an outstanding senior in civil and environmental engineering. He will be staying at Virginia Tech to continue his graduate education in transportation infrastructure and systems engineering.
Date: Apr 16, 2024 -
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Virginia Tech Global Distinction Alba Yerro-Colom to use National Science Foundation CAREER award to better predict and prevent landslides , articleAlba Yerro-Colom is developing a numerical framework to study how different rainfall patterns affect the interaction between water, roots, and soil during a landslide.
Date: Apr 15, 2024 -
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Category: news directly from around campus Virginia Tech civil and environmental engineering student teams win regional competitions , articleVirginia Tech civil and environmental engineering competition teams were successful in the regional competition hosted at Virginia Tech on March 28-30, 2024.
Date: Apr 08, 2024 -
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Category: impact ASCE Virginias Student Symposium returns to Virginia Tech after more than 10 years , articleEleven universities will participate in the three-day event March 28-30 on the Blacksburg campus. It will feature competitions such as a concrete canoe competition and the steel bridge competition with winners advancing to compete nationally.
Date: Feb 15, 2024 -
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Category: research Transatlantic project works to fortify coastal resilience against rising seas , articleSherif Abdelaziz is part of a PIONEER project that will do laboratory tests in collaboration with researchers in Scotland to keep coastal areas safe from flooding.
Date: Jan 04, 2024 -
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Category: research Enabling systems to work together to create a better tomorrow , articleHuman actions are irreversible transforming the geophysical and ecological systems of the planet causing complex societal challenges. A civil and environmental engineering professor is seeking a way to address those challenges.
Date: Jan 04, 2024 -
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Category: impact In memoriam: James K. Mitchell, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus , articleMitchell, a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, had a meaningful impact on the geotechnical engineering industry.
Date: Jan 04, 2024 -
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Category: research Virginia Tech researchers create air samplers that could help develop pest management practices for agriculture , articleFaculty and students from two departments team up to find innovative ways to track the spongy moth and pave the way to develop pest management practices.
Date: Dec 11, 2023 -
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Category: research Less ice on the road leads to more salt in the soil, air, and water , articleHuman activities, such as deicing roads, are disrupting the natural salt cycle on a global scale. A team of Virginia Tech researchers seeks to mitigate the existential threat by slowing salinization down.
Date: Dec 06, 2023 -
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Category: academics Civil engineering students gain global perspectives during semester at the Steger Center in Switzerland , articleAfter being cancelled in the spring of 2020 because of the pandemic, the long-awaited civil and environmental engineering semester abroad program in Switzerland is bringing memorable experiences to students.
Date: Nov 13, 2023 -
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Category: research Virginia Tech awarded $2 million to advance groundwater availability and quality , articleResearchers from Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering have been awarded $2 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to research the use and risks of enhanced aquifer recharge to improve groundwater availability and quality.
Date: Oct 11, 2023 -
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Category: research Alexander Brand receives NSF CAREER award to discover the mechanisms that make concrete work , articleThe assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering will research ways to establish future directions for concrete materials.
Date: Aug 22, 2023 -
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Category: research Zooming in on microplastics , articleThese tiny particles are creating big challenges worldwide and are at the core of emerging fields of study for researchers, including many at Virginia Tech.
Date: Jul 19, 2023 -
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Category: research Graduate research empowers homeowners to gauge copper levels in their drinking water , articleRecent Virginia Tech graduate Rebecca Kriss worked with two West Coast residents to test guidance for addressing high copper levels in residential drinking water. These residents faced many challenges, including green hair and suspected pet health issues, as a result of excessive copper in their homes.
Date: May 16, 2023 -
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Category: academics Engineering and political science students collaborate on real-world water issues , articleCivil and environmental engineering students and political science students came together to brainstorm ways to help communities overcome challenges to provide clean and accessible water to residents.
Date: May 05, 2023 -
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Category: impact In memoriam: Siegfried Holzer, Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of civil and environmental engineering , articleSiegfried M. Holzer, an Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, turned his passion for teaching into an award-winning 30-year career at Virginia Tech.
Date: Apr 17, 2023 -
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Category: research Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz earns Fulbright scholarship to study pollution in the Amazon rainforest , articleIsaacman-VanWertz will be living in Ecuador to study emissions in the Amazon rainforest that can lead to global pollution.
Date: Mar 03, 2023 -
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Category: research Kyle Strom builds innovative camera system to track muddy snowflakes in the Mississippi River , articleStrom developed an innovative camera system to track muddy sediment in the Mississippi River as a way to predict and reverse land loss in coastal areas of Louisiana.
Date: Mar 01, 2023 -
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Category: impact Amy Pruden speaks at Global Leaders Group meeting on antimicrobial resistance , articlePruden was invited to speak with the group to help identify sustainable health outcomes for people and ecosystems.
Date: Mar 01, 2023 -
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Category: campus experience Civil engineering alumnus welcomes chance to improve campus experience , articleKyle White, a civil and environmental engineering alumnus, is the project manager on a two-part renovation project on the university’s Blacksburg campus that is slated to be completed when students return from spring break in March.
Date: Feb 17, 2023 -
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Category: academics Linsey Marr named to National Academy of Engineering , articleMarr, the Charles P. Lunsford Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering for her advancement of fundamental knowledge of transport, removal, and mitigation of airborne pathogenic viruses.
Date: Feb 09, 2023 -
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Category: research Susan Hotle works to increase flight efficiency and decrease delays , articleHotle recently created a tool to improve the efficiency of taxiing time for airplanes. The Taxi Event Extractor parses key metrics and events from flight radar data to improve estimates of unimpeded taxi times at airports.
Date: Jan 27, 2023 -
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Category: impact Bowman gift of $5 million strengthens students’ path to sustainable land development design , articleThe growth of the Bowman Sustainable Land Development Program will go far beyond making engineers simply aware of sustainable land development. It will provide more experiential learning opportunities, such as field trips and practitioner-led workshops, guest lectures, product exhibitions, and networking events.
Date: Sep 30, 2022 -
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Category: impact Virginia Tech chosen as one of the leading institutions of the new Build America Center , articleFunded by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the center will offer educational programs, information, and resources for transportation agencies in all areas of alternative and innovative project financing and delivery.
Date: Aug 01, 2022 -
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Category: research Erich Hester awarded fellowship for work in hydropower energy , articleHester will develop low-impact hydropower, promote environmental sustainability, and support grid reliability.
Date: Jul 15, 2022 -
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Category: research Hosein Foroutan receives NSF CAREER Award to understand how plastic particles are aerosolized , articleAccording to Foroutan, microplastics are one of the most pressing environmental issues of our time. He'll use the award to investigate air-sea interaction as a source of atmospheric microplastics and nanoparticles.
Date: Jul 05, 2022 -
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Category: campus experience Virginia Tech hosts National Student Steel Bridge Competition , articleThe university welcomed hundreds of engineering students from across North America to its Blacksburg campus May 27-28 for the event at the Beamer-Lawson Indoor Practice Facility.
Date: Jun 23, 2022 -
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Category: research Maryam Shakiba receives NSF CAREER award to study microplastics pollution in oceans , articleShakiba's resulting project will investigate how macroplastics degrade into microplastics in oceans under the highly coupled effects of weathering and mechanical stresses.
Date: Apr 07, 2022 -
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Category: research U.S. Geological Survey and Virginia Tech to partner on national water-loss program , articleSunil Sinha, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, hopes the program will give water utilities guidance on how to improve efficiencies in supply and revenue recovery.
Date: Apr 07, 2022 -
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Category: research Team of researchers led by Virginia Tech seeks to mitigate flu and other respiratory viruses for children in indoor environments , articleLinsey Marr is leading a team of researchers that hopes to understand how behavioral and environmental factors affect transmission rates of the flu in order to identify the most effective interventions.
Date: Mar 03, 2022 -
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Category: research Landon Marston receives NSF CAREER award to advance water sustainability and economic resilience , articleHis project will use an integrated systems approach to uncover the drivers of industrial water use, water infrastructure dependencies within the U.S. economy, and water scarcity risks and opportunities.
Date: Mar 02, 2022 -
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Category: research Researcher explores how proliferating data centers affect water supply in the United States , articleData centers are using an increasing amount of water and energy as streaming services become more popular. According to Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty member Landon Marston, this usage is putting a strain on communities where these data centers are located.
Date: Feb 02, 2022 -
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Category: research Researcher works with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to strengthen military and civilian earthen structures , articleCivil and environmental engineering faculty member Sherif Abdelaziz has received funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for two projects related to the use of biopolymers to improve soils.
Date: Jan 10, 2022 -
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Category: academics Linsey Marr receives Virginia’s highest faculty honor , articleMarr is one of fewer than 12 worldwide experts on aerosol transmission of viruses and one of only a handful in America. She has been working with airborne viruses for the past 13 years, but her expertise became widely known during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Date: Jan 07, 2022 -
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Category: research Virginia Tech leads team to assess the processes and vulnerabilities of groundwater self governance , articleVirginia Tech researcher Landon Marston leads a multi-institutional team aiming to advance theory on self-governance of groundwater commons and create new tools that can benefit the entire nation. The effort is funded by a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
Date: Jan 05, 2022 -
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Category: academics Michael J. Garvin inducted into National Academy of Construction , articleGarvin was chosen for his proven leadership in alternative project delivery and contracting methods, public-private partnerships, project finance, and significant research for major transportation and infrastructure projects.
Date: Dec 02, 2021 -
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Category: research Graduate student looks to inform coastal communities on how to respond to hurricanes , articleSince 2019, civil and environmental engineering graduate student Nick Brilli has participated in the U.S. Coastal Research Program’s During Nearshore Event Experience project in Duck, North Carolina, to help develop better methods for characterizing the erodibility of coastal sediments.
Date: Oct 05, 2021 -
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Category: impact In memoriam: Antoine Hobeika, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering , articleHobeika served at Virginia Tech for 43 years, teaching courses in transportation infrastructure and systems engineering before retiring in 2016. He died on Sept. 20, 2021.
Date: Oct 04, 2021 -
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Category: research Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz receives NSF CAREER Award, Department of Energy grant to study atmospheric gases , article“The picture we have in our mind of air pollution is black smoke billowing out of a smokestack or tailpipe,” said Isaacman-VanWertz, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “But the truth is that it is much more complicated.”
Date: Jun 14, 2021 -
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Category: culture Virginia Tech Concrete Canoe team breaks a 16-year streak in regional competition , articleEach year, the Virginia Tech Concrete Canoe team takes on the challenge of making something easily sinkable float.
Date: Jun 10, 2021 -
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Category: research Eric Jacques selected by the Office of Naval Research for its Young Investigator Program , articleJacques, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the College of Engineering, serves as the director of the Shock Tube Research Facility, a space equipped with a large-scale gas-detonation blast simulator, where he and his team study structural and non-structural components subject to extreme blast loads.
Date: Jun 04, 2021