Department News
November 2, 2009
Stanford faculty turn to Environmental Venture Projects to save the planet
Preventing acute respiratory diseases in Bangladesh, creating biodegradable composite materials for the building industry, reducing the social and environmental impact of Chile’s salmon farming industry – these are the crucial interdisciplinary research projects funded by Stanford's Environmental Venture Projects program.
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October 20, 2009
Study: Shifting the world to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 – here are the numbers
Wind, water and solar energy resources are sufficiently available to provide all the world's energy. Converting to electricity and hydrogen powered by these sources would reduce world power demand by 30 percent, thereby avoiding 13,000 coal power plants. Materials and costs are not limitations to these conversions, but politics may be, say Stanford and UC researchers who have mapped out a blueprint for powering the world.
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September 1, 2009
Engineers design self-righting buildings that survive earthquake test in style
Stanford engineers and others create a structural design that lets buildings rock during earthquakes, then pull themselves into plumb when the shaking stops, confining damage to replaceable steel "fuses."
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August 25, 2009
Stanford scientists team with Israeli, Jordanian researchers to study Gulf of Aqaba
Scientists from Stanford University have teamed up with Israeli and Jordanian researchers to protect the Gulf of Aqaba, a strategic waterway whose fragile marine ecosystem is vital to both Israel and Jordan. Participants in the NATO-funded project say they are bridging the Arab-Israeli political divide for the sake of science, peace and environmental conservation.
"The people involved are interested in international collaboration in science and protecting the place they live," said project co-director Stephen Monismith, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. "Nothing in the ocean understands political borders."
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Stanford Report, May 27, 2009
Stanford's Woods Institute awards new round of Environmental Venture Projects
The Woods Institute for the Environment has awarded four new Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) grants for interdisciplinary research aimed at finding practical solutions promoting global sustainability. Four Stanford University faculty teams will receive a total of $791,692 over the next two years to tackle environmental challenges, from the desert grasslands of Australia to the mountain meadows of California.
[From Civil and Environmental Engineering, two teams were awarded:
- "Biophysical Interactions in a Near-Shore Kelp Ecosystem: Observations and Implications for Monitoring and Design of Marine Protected Areas" PI: Stephen Monismith
- "High-Rate Microbial Production of Nitrous Oxide for Energy Production" Co-PI: Craig Criddle]
Thirty-three EVP grants have been awarded since the annual program was established in 2004. This year's grantees include 13 faculty from a variety of disciplines, including marine ecology, geochemistry, biology, anthropology, astronautics and Earth sciences. Recipients were selected by an EVP faculty committee led by Woods Institute Senior Fellows Scott Fendorf and David M. Kennedy.
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May 18, 2009
Stanford University Scholar Named Distinguished Member of National Civil Engineering Society
Robert L. Street, Ph.D., Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, co-founder of the internationally-known Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at Stanford University, was recently named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE’s highest accolade, distinguished membership recognizes eminence in a branch of engineering. The active roster of Distinguished Members is comprised of only 198 of the Society’s 146,000 members worldwide. Street will be formally inducted, in honor of his seminal contributions to the field of fluid mechanics and the numerical simulation of fluid flows, Oct. 29, 2009, at ASCE’s 139th Annual Civil Engineering Conference in Kansas City, Mo.
Street, one of the pioneers in the field of environmental fluid dynamics, is a distinguished scholar recognized worldwide. His contributions to environmental fluid mechanics include numerical codes and large-eddy-simulation turbulence models for the non-hydrostatic equations for coastal upwelling, rotating convective flow, flow over topography, non-linear free-surface motions, sediment transport over ripples, and flow over rough terrain at field-scales in the atmosphere. He is now the senior author, with Gary Watters and John Vennard, of Elementary Fluid Mechanics, now in its seventh edition and is one of the top introductory fluid mechanics books in the world, having been translated into Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.
Street is the recipient of ASCE’s Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Engineering Prize and the Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.
April 2009
ASCE and Habitat for Humanity
The Stanford student chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) had a volunteer workday in early April at the San Francisco Whitney Young Circle Habitat for Humanity Development near the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. The project consists of building seven new single-family homes. Each home includes four bedrooms, two baths and a one-car garage.
Seventeen Stanford students volunteered their time on a beautiful Saturday. After a safety brief and assignments the group was divided into three project groups. One group spent the entire day on the roof placing rafters, bracing, and plywood. Another group built an entire wall for the second story of the adjacent house. The third group placed oriented strand board (OSB) on the exterior first story of another house. All had a good time despite the sore shoulders and muscles. A newfound appreciation was learned about the work and labor that goes into every element of house construction.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Perry McCarty Distinguished Lecture
"Where the Water Flows" will be the title of the inaugural lecture in honor of professor emeritus Perry McCarty, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 4:00 PM in the Oak Room of Tresidder Union, with a reception following in the Gold Room of the Faculty Club, 5:00 - 7:00 PM.
This event is in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of environmental engineering and science. Dr. Alexander J.B. Zehnder will be the speaker. He is Scientific Director of the Alberta Water Research Institute (AWRI) in Edmonton, Canada, founder and director of triple Z Ltd., and professor emeritus of ETH Zurich, and former president of the ETH Board.
His lecture will analyze the state of global water, show where we are on schedule with United Nations Millennium Goals, and where solutions seem out of reach.
Slides of Dr. Zhender's talk (PDF)
[Pictured: Dr. Alexander J.B. Zehnder]
Stanford Report, March 18, 2009
Research team develops faux wood that can biodegrade
Stanford University researchers have developed a synthetic wood substitute that may one day save trees, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and shrink landfills.
The faux lumber is made from a new biodegradable plastic that could be used in a variety of building materials and perhaps replace the petrochemical plastics now used in billions of disposable water bottles.
"This is a great opportunity to make products that serve a societal need and respect and protect the natural environment," said lead researcher Sarah Billington, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.
[Pictured: Graduate students Aaron Michel and Molly Morse hold samples of the biodegradable wood substitute.]
Stanford Report, March 18, 2009
Scientist testifies on federal waiver to regulate auto exhaust
"We will restore science to its rightful place."
For many Americans, those eight words were among the most hopeful spoken by Barack Obama in his inaugural address.
On March 5, the Environmental Protection Agency took a step in that direction by holding a hearing to reconsider California's application for a waiver that would allow the state to regulate greenhouse gases from motor vehicles. Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, testified on the main points that the agency cited in a Feb. 28, 2008, written analysis that explained why the waiver was denied.
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Stanford Report, February 20, 2009
Coasts catch fish farming’s dirty drift
If you are a fish eater, it's likely that the salmon you had for dinner was not caught not in the wild, but was instead grown in a mesh cage submerged in the open water of oceans or bays. Fish farming, a relatively inexpensive way to provide cheap protein to a growing world population, now supplies, by some estimates, 30 percent of the fish consumed by humans.
Intuitively, it seems a good idea—the more fish grown in pens, the fewer need be taken from wild stocks in the sea. But marine aquaculture can have some nasty side effects, especially when the pens are set near sensitive coastal environments. All those fish penned up together consume massive amounts of commercial feed, some of which drifts off uneaten in the currents. And the crowded fish, naturally, defecate and urinate by the tens of thousands, creating yet another unpleasant waste stream.
The wastes can carry disease, causing damage directly. Or the phosphate and nitrates in the mix may feed an algae bloom—a phenomenon long associated with fertilizer runoff—that sucks the oxygen from the water, leaving it uninhabitable.
It has been widely assumed that the effluent from pens would be benignly diluted by the sea if the pens were kept a reasonable distance from shore, said Jeffrey Koseff, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and co-director of Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. But early results from a new Stanford computer simulation based on sophisticated fluid dynamics show that the pollution from the pens will travel farther, and in higher concentrations, than had been generally assumed, Koseff said.
The computer modeling (with new Stanford software that goes by the acronym SUNTANS) was conducted by Oliver Fringer, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. He created a virtual coastal marine area resembling California's Monterey Bay.
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February 2009
San Francisco Bay Model at the Exploratorium
The new interactive exhibit, Bay Model: A working prototype, models the complex dynamics of the San Francisco Estuary and reveals the hidden tidal fluctuations, currents, and river inflow. Visitors can launch virutal "floaties" into the bay and view the paths that the floaties take on a 6' x 6' three dimensional terrain model. A touchscreen provides launch options and a side panel displays additional data about the floaties, tides, and currents.
San Francisco Bay Model: In collaboration with digital media artists Gene Cooper of Four Chambers Studio (fourchambers.org) and Prof. Dan Collins of Arizona State University, Asst. Prof. Oliver Fringer of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Stanford University used his SUNTANS software (suntans.stanford.edu) to develop an interactive exhibit at the Exploratorium Museum of Science in San Francisco that allows users to study the fate of drifters in San Francisco Bay.
More information >>
Stanford Report, December 10, 2008
Wind, water and sun beat other energy alternatives, study finds
The best ways to improve energy security, mitigate global warming and reduce the number of deaths caused by air pollution are blowing in the wind and rippling in the water, not growing on prairies or glowing inside nuclear power plants, says Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford.
And "clean coal," which involves capturing carbon emissions and sequestering them in the earth, is not clean at all, he asserts.
Jacobson has conducted the first quantitative, scientific evaluation of the proposed, major, energy-related solutions by assessing not only their potential for delivering energy for electricity and vehicles, but also their impacts on global warming, human health, energy security, water supply, space requirements, wildlife, water pollution, reliability and sustainability. His findings indicate that the options that are getting the most attention are between 25 to 1,000 times more polluting than the best available options. The paper with his findings will be published in the next issue of Energy and Environmental Science but is available online now. Jacobson is also director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford.
Stanford Magazine, November/December, 2008
646 Very Personal Questions
Poor sanitation and contaminated drinking water cause the deaths of millions of children throughout Africa. Using Tanzania as a test site, assistant professor Jenna Davis is leading an effort to learn what information best helps families stay healthy.
BY ROBERT L. STRAUSS
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Stanford Report, November 12, 2008
Precourt Institute awards faculty new round of research grants
The Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency has awarded its second round of competitive research grants to members of the Stanford faculty. Seven proposals will receive a total of $824,000 in seed grants over the next year for projects designed to promote energy-efficient behaviors and technologies.
"Our objective is to radically improve energy efficiency within a decade," said John P. Weyant, deputy director of the institute. "We're confident that the seven projects we've funded will have that kind of payoff."
One of the seven projects receiving funding from the institute:
An Integrated Conceptual Design Process for Energy, Thermal Comfort and Daylighting: A proposal to develop a computer model that helps architects and engineers streamline the process of designing sustainable buildings. Principal investigator: John Haymaker (Civil and Environmental Engineering).
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Stanford Report, September 24, 2008
Pioneer in field of managing large construction projects dies
Civil engineering Professor Emeritus John Fondahl, whose research helped construction companies efficiently schedule the complex activities of large projects, died Sept. 13. He was 83.
A half-century ago, Fondahl laid the theoretical foundation for the sophisticated software now used to manage projects, said Bob Tatum, professor emeritus of civil engineering. Fondahl's affiliation with the university began in 1955.
Fondahl, then working for a private construction company, was the project engineer on the construction of the Nimbus Dam and Powerhouse near Sacramento when Clark Oglesby, a professor of civil engineering at Stanford, brought his class to the work site for a field trip.
Oglesby needed help with a new construction program he was planning for civil engineering students at Stanford; Fondahl had hands-on expertise as well as academic experience, having taught at the University of Hawaii. He joined Oglesby, and they launched the first graduate program in Construction Engineering and Management. Until then, construction site management had been viewed by civil engineers as a vocational rather than an academic pursuit.
Fondahl taught at Stanford for 35 years, until his retirement in 1990.
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Stanford Report, August 20, 2008
New planning grants to fund research on freshwater issues
The Woods Institute for the Environment has awarded five faculty planning grants to develop long-term research programs at Stanford that help solve the world's urgent demands for freshwater.
"Freshwater is crucial to human survival and well-being, yet in poor countries more than a billion people have no access to safe water supplies, and more than 2 billion lack basic sanitation facilities," said Woods Institute Senior Fellow Richard Luthy, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Waterborne diseases and contaminated drinking water are major causes of illness and contribute to the death of millions of children each year, and unsustainable diversions of water for agriculture have resulted in the collapse of fisheries worldwide."
The demand for freshwater is also a major issue in the developed world, he added: "Here in California, we are facing one of our worst droughts in two decades. This is an immediate reminder about our vulnerability to 'business as usual' in the West, and it's apparent the era of cheap water and wasteful practices is closing."
To address these and other environmental challenges, the Woods Institute launched a campus-wide freshwater initiative in 2007 that included a series of water seminars for faculty and students. "Stanford already has excellent programs in various aspects of freshwater," said Woods Senior Fellow Rosemary Knight, a professor of geophysics. "What the freshwater initiative allows us to do is to pull people together, in new ways, to work on critical problems associated with freshwater."
Last spring, the Woods Institute invited Stanford researchers to submit proposals for freshwater planning grants to an evaluation committee chaired by Woods Co-Director Jeff Koseff, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. In July, the committee awarded the following five projects a total of $312,520 over the next nine months.
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Stanford Report, July 9, 2008
Honors and Awards
RAYMOND E. LEVITT, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, has been named a distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The title is the society's highest accolade and recognizes those who have achieved eminence in a branch of engineering. Levitt was honored for his achievements in construction engineering and management research, including development of the Stanford Virtual Design Team, which predicts project cost, schedule and quality for alternative organizational designs. He is also director of Stanford's Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects and is a leader of the Woods Institute's "sustainable built environment" research initiative. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the oldest national engineering society in the United States with a worldwide membership of more than 140,000 civil engineers, of whom 193 are distinguished members. Levitt will be inducted at ASCE's annual conference in Pittsburgh on Nov. 6.
Stanford Report, June 18, 2008
New grants to fund research in ‘sustainable built environment’
The Woods Institute for the Environment has awarded planning grants to 17 Stanford faculty members to develop a campus-wide research agenda for the sustainable built environment (SBE), an emerging field that promotes the sustainable development of buildings and urban areas.
"Buildings consume about 40 percent of the energy and about 70 percent of the electricity in industrialized society," said Ray Levitt, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute. "Because the built environment has such a big impact on the natural environment, a consensus emerged across campus that SBE should be a core area of research at Stanford."
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