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For Graduate Elyse Pollack, There’s Nothing Better Than Being a Trojan

From playing on USC’s world-famous marching band to mentorship for USC’s female engineers, USC Viterbi graduating senior Elyse Pollack thrives on Trojan spirit and family.

2022 Graduate Yun Li Awarded Top PhD Honor for Exemplary Research

The 2022 graduate was honored for research on the role of energy system decarbonization and land surface properties on urban air quality in Southern California.

Catching Smoke: How a USC Team is Helping Clear the Air in Alaska

Innovative USC Viterbi course unites interdisciplinary students to clean Fairbanks smoke pollution with “Chimney Cherries”

Professor J.J. Lee retires after changing students’ lives at USC for over 50 years

Inspired by a desire to safeguard coastal spaces, Lee moved from Taiwan to the U.S. to catapult the next generation of engineers at USC Viterbi.

Becoming an Engineer, One Extreme Hike at a Time

USC Viterbi student Prathmesh Bakshhi translates his passion for discovery to impact communities and infrastructures across the globe.

What Do Civil & Environmental Engineers Do?

Our standard of living depends on our civil infrastructure, a sophisticated system of buildings, bridges, dams, airports, transportation networks, water and power distribution systems, and environmental protection systems.

Civil and environmental engineers are responsible for designing, maintaining and enhancing our civil infrastructure. They help to sustain the living standards and quality of life of the population. Civil engineers are also master builders. They create structures that stand as timeless symbols of our civilization. Environmental engineers identify and design solutions for problems involving the environment. To do so, they have to be broadly educated and technically trained to address a wide spectrum of issues.

Civil & Environmental Engineering @SC

Featured Research Assistant

Lily Shi

Lily Shi, a doctoral candidate in the USC Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is using the tools of environmental organic chemistry to conduct research devoted to mitigating human health risks caused by emerging contaminants in drinking water.

“My early Ph.D. research focused on understanding the formation pathway of halonitromethanes, a class of extremely potent carcinogen, which are often detected in reuse water and drinking water,” Shi says. “Subsequently, I studied the nitromethane removal mechanism during the wastewater recycling process. My future research will be devoted to uncovering the toxic drivers in wastewater reuse and developing new ways to treat water safely.”

Shi is a recipient of the Teh Fu “Dave” Yen Fellowship in Environmental Engineering and a USC TA/RA fellowship. Prior to coming to USC, she earned a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and science from Tongji
University in Shanghai, China.

Research Areas

Sustainable Development

Sustainability in the context of civil engineering targets long-term viability of natural resources and engineered civil systems.

Water Quality, Access, and Distribution

Providing an adequate supply of potable water, considering population growth and climate variability.

Disasters and Extreme Events

All aspects of an event, from a fundamental understanding of the physical processes controlling its evolution to the resulting environmental and social reaction.

Coupling of Complex Systems

Efforts aim to integrate research across the Sonny Astani Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, as well with all outside disciplines that interact with civil systems.

Learn More

Events

Announcements

CEE Students Honored at 2022 Graduate and PhD Awards

On May 2nd, USC Viterbi’s 2022 Graduate and PhD Awards were held at the USC Hotel grand ballroom. The Sonny Astani Department congratulates Raven Althouse, PhD ENE ’22, for receiving the Jenny Wang Excellence in Teaching Award; and Jiaming Shi, PhD ENE ’22 for receiving the Best Research Assistant Award. Additionally, students were honored for their overall excellence. Kexin Shen, … Read More

Qiming Wang Awarded EMI Leonardo Da Vinci Award for Groundbreaking Research

Assistant Professor Qiming Wang received the EMI Leonardo Da Vinci Award. Sponsored by the Engineering Mechanics Institute for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the award honors Wang’s “groundbreaking research in mechanics of bioinspired living materials made by integrating living components (including living chemistry, living bacteria, and living plants) into engineering materials to achieve self-healing, self-growing, and self-strengthening.” … Read More

Sophomore David Palafox Awarded a Simpson Strong-Tie Scholarship

CEE sophomore David Palafox was awarded an academic scholarship by the Simpson Strong-Tie Company. The scholarship ($2,000), one of about 100 awarded for the 2022-2023 academic year, was established to assist architecture, structural and civil engineering and construction management students through support of education and encouragement of the design and building of safer structures in our communities. Said Palafox, who … Read More

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