CEES Doctoral Student Zepei Tang Receives Gallogly College of Engineering Dissertation Excellence Award

Maggie Tang

CEES doctoral student Zepei “Maggie” Tang has been awarded the Gallogly College of Engineering Dissertation Excellence Award.  The highlight competitive award is designed to reward PhD students that have achieved outstanding research results and encourage these students to complete their dissertation with excellence.

Tang received her bachelor’s degree in environmental science from Wuhan University, China and spent her senior year of undergraduate work as an exchange student at the University of Dundee, Scotland. She stayed one more year in Dundee for a master’s degree in renewable energy and environmental modelling and then moved to Pittsburgh to earn her second master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University in environmental engineering. Based on these two master’s programs, Tang felt that she needed more experience in both lab and field work, and with a recommendation from professor David A. Dzombak from CMU, she met her current advisor, CEES professor Robert W. Nairn.

Tang started her doctoral program in environmental engineering with Nairn at OU in 2015. Her work consists of looking at the relationships between metals and nutrients at the sediment layer-water column interface in a large multi-use reservoir, Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees. She has performed three sets of green house studies to investigate different parameters’ impact (biomass, mixing and Mine Drainage Residues (MDRs) addition) on the re-distribution of nutrients and metals in these microcosms. She is finishing up with a field mesocosm study focused on the phosphorous removal performances of MDRs which can help to address the elevated nutrient level in the local lakes with the beneficial reuse of some mine drainage waste products.

Harvey Receives NSF CAREER Award

Scott Harvey, CEES assistant professor of structural engineering, recently received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for research to advance the analysis, design and implementation of seismic isolation solutions for buildings and their contents.  His research aims to overcome existing limitations to ensure post-earthquake functionality of mission-critical equipment in essential facilities.

According to the NSF web site, “the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research.”

Harvey joined CEES in fall 2014 and is the ninth CEES professor to receive a CAREER Award.  Other recipients include:  K.K. Muraleetharan (1995); Randall Kolar (1996); Mark Nanny (1998); Keith Strevett (1998); Michael Mooney (2000); Elizabeth Butler (2001); Tohren Kibbey (2001); and Amy Cerato (2008).