From failed infrastructures during a disaster to chemical threats to various environments, civil engineers are seeking ways to defend against imperceptible threats to healthcare.

How does engineering intersect with healthcare? That's the theme of Engineering Impact's Winter 2006-07 issue. From implantable devices to pandemic planning to pharmaceuticals, Purdue engineers are at the forefront of biomedical accomplishment.

The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies awarded Chuanxin Fang, Ph.D. 2003, and Assistant Professor Samuel Labi the Concrete Materials Section Bryant Mather Award for their research paper titled "Evaluating the Static Segregation Resistance of Hardened Self-Consolidating Concrete Using Image Processing Technology."

Ph.D. candidate Anuj Sharma and Professors Darcy Bullock and Srinivas Peeta received the 2007 Best Paper Award for their paper "Recasting Dilemma Zone Design as a Marginal Cost and Benefit Problem" conferred by the TRB Traffic Signal Systems Committee.

Bowen Engineering (Robert L. Bowen, BSCE 1962) received the BKD Build Indiana Industrial/Utility award for their recently completed Cinergy Gibson Station FGD project in Owensville, Indiana.

Professor Julio A. Ramirez has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors of NEES, Inc. and also has been named chair of the National Technical Committee on Concrete and Masonry Structures of the ASCE/SEI.

Jen-Yu Han, Geomatics Engineering Ph.D. student, has received the 2006/2007 Stevan J. Kristof Outstanding Graduate Student in Remote Sensing Award.

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies has appointed Professor Srinivas Peeta as the Chair of the Committee on Transportation Network Modeling, ADB30.

The School of Civil Engineering would like to congratulate Professor Rodrigo Salgado on the recent publication of his book titled "The Engineering of Foundations." This book provides readers with a modern text that incorporates theory with real world practices.

Professor Fred Mannering and transportation research team has found in a new study statistical differences in traffic-accident injuries depending on the gender and age of drivers.

Carrie L. Warner, BSCE '95, has been named in the top 40 under 40 list of Crain's Chicago Business news. Ms. Warner is a senior project engineer at Halvorson & Partners in Chicago, Illinois, currently working on the Moscow City Tower.

Professor Makarand Hastak has accepted an appointment as Head of Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) beginning January 2007. Professor Hastak is taking on the challenge of broadening the scope of CEM to become a multidisciplinary Division in the College of Engineering, while building on CEM's well-recognized strengths in Civil Engineering.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $3.6 million NEES Grand Challenge grant to ten multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research teams for a five-year study to mitigate collapse risk of older nonductile concrete buildings during earthquakes. The Purdue University team led by co-PI Professor Julio Ramirez, will study shear and axial failures of older-type reinforced concrete columns, as well as simple retrofitting techniques for delaying axial failure in poorly reinforced columns.

The Second Annual Joint Conference of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and Midwest Crossroads Alliance for Graduate Education for the Professorate (AGEP) honored the top undergraduate and graduate oral and poster presentations. Graduate student Julia Clarke received second place in the graduate competition for her poster on "The Micro-Structural Breakdown and Recovery of Bentonite Suspensions Modified by Sodium Pyrophosphate."

Civil Engineering extends congratulations to Cecelia (Cindy) D. Lawley recently promoted to Director of External Relations

It was recently announced that the 2007 Fred Burggraf award will be given to Gaurav Sant, undergraduate student, Pietro Lura, post-doc, and Associate Professor Jason Weiss, for their paper titled "Measurement of volume change in cementitious materials at early ages: review of testing protocols and interpretation of results".

Professor Vincent P. Drnevich was recently recognized at Purdue for U.S. Patent No. 7,040,145 issued on May 9, 2006 for "Method and Apparatus for Measuring Density and Water Content of Soil." He is co-inventor with Xiong Yu, a former doctoral student who is now an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jeff Hagerman, BSCEM '93, president of GDH and executive vice president of Hagerman Construction, was named to Indy's Best & Brightest Under 40 list at a luncheon benefiting Junior Achievement of Central Indiana.

Engineering News Record announces Bowen Engineering Corporation ranking 367th in the top 400 U.S. construction firms. Robert L. Bowen, BSCE '62, Chairman and CEO of Bowen Engineering, continues to be an inspiration within the engineering profession and in education with leadership in the Bowen Foundation, Science Bound and the Robert L. and Terry L. Bowen Laboratory for Research in Civil Engineering.

Researchers at Purdue University have created a mathematical simulation that could be used in a new national strategy to ease airport congestion and improve the overall transportation system.