CEES Students Receive 2021 Dissertation Award

Trevor Looney and Alejandra Hernández-Santana, both doctoral candidates in the OU School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, have each received a Gallogly College of Engineering Dissertation Excellence Award, an award created to encourage doctoral students to graduate with excellence.  

Looney works with ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) and has published three papers related to its mix development and use in bridges as a repair material. For his dissertation, he developed a novel apparatus capable of testing materials in various multiaxial tensile stress states under the direction of Jeffery Volz, Ph.D., a CEES professor and director of the Donald G. Fears Structural Engineering Laboratory. 

The novel apparatus allows Looney to collect new tensile strength data for the non-proprietary UHPC he helped develop at OU. He uses the data combined with test data from other researchers to develop a full multiaxial failure surface for UHPC.

Alejandra Hernández-Santana’s dissertation is titled “The Role of Iron-Reducing Bacteria in the Corrosion of Carbon Steel.” Bacteria accelerates the corrosion of metallic substrates and is a costly phenomenon that is poorly understood, she says. 

“I investigated how iron-reducing bacteria accelerate the corrosion of carbon steel, one of the metallic materials most widely used in the world. We also discovered that iron-reducing bacteria accelerate the corrosion of carbon steel through several mechanisms," she said. The mechanisms are removal of the iron oxide passivating layer, direct electron uptake and hydrogen consumption.

“Understanding how bacteria interacts with metallic substrates will help us to develop effective corrosion and prevention strategies and at the same time that provides the foundation for the development of microbial electrochemical technologies that use bacteria as catalysts for the conversion of oxidized molecules,” Hernández-Santana said. Her doctoral adviser is Mark Nanny, Ph.D., a CEES professor and faculty member in the OU Institute for Energy and the Environment. 

To learn more about all seven award recipients and their research, click here. 

CREW Members Honored by American Society of Reclamation Sciences

 

Three members of the Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds (CREW) have received top honors from the American Society of Reclamation Sciences (ASRS), an international society focusing on land reclamation and the protection and enhancement of soil and water resources. Hannah Curtis, Brandon Holzbauer-Schweitzer and Bill Strosnider won three of the six awards presented annually to ASRS members.

Hannah Curtis received the ASRS Memorial Scholarship at the Bachelor of Science level. The OU senior will graduate in December with a double major in environmental engineering and cello performance and a minor in environmental sustainability. She currently works as an undergraduate research assistant at both the OU Center for Risk and Crisis Management and the Oklahoma Water Survey, and as a writing assistant for the OU Honors College. She conducts research with the Center for Restoration of Ecosystems and Watersheds, performs with the OU Symphony Orchestra, and is involved in OU’s Integrity Council. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in environmental science.

Brandon Holzbauer-Schweitzer, Ph.D., is the recipient of the ASRS Memorial Scholarship at the Doctoral level. He earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental geoscience from Winona State University in 2014. At OU, he earned a master’s degree in environmental science in 2016 and completed OU’s doctoral program in 2021. His dissertation focused on the feasibility of using small Unoccupied Aerial Systems to predict surface water quality. He is soon to be employed at Linkan Engineering.

Bill Strosnider, Ph.D., received the ASRS Richard I. & Lela M. Barnhisel Reclamation Researcher of the Year Award. The award recognizes substantial contributions to the advancement of reclamation science and technology through scientific research. He earned a doctorate in environmental engineering from OU in 2010. He serves as the director of the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory at the University of South Carolina where he is an associate research professor in the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment.