Congratulations Dr. Brent Nelson!
CEFNS 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year 
Construction Management 
Pictured from left: John
Tingerthal and Stephen Mead, Professors of Civil Engineering, Construction Management
and Environmental Engineering, NAU Provost Laura Huenneke, and Dave Woods, Executive
Director of the Beavers Heavy Engineering Construction Association.
NAU
Construction Management recently received a $50,000 gift from
the Beavers Heavy Engineering Construction Association to fund an endowed
scholarship for students interested in pursuing careers in the fields of heavy construction
and civil engineering. NAU joins 40
other higher education institutions recognized by the association for
outstanding construction management programs.
A
research project,
Japan Trench Fast Drilling
Project, contributed to by Jim Sample, Professor of Geology, recently reached a
milestone when the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
research vessel Kairei successfully retrieved sensors from the deepest borehole
observatory ever installed. The Kairei carried out the complex sequence
of operations in the Japan Trench at a depth of 7,000 meters. Sample sailed on
the Kairei a year ago and collected samples from the fault for further
analysis
Ann Marie Chischilly,
Executive Director of NAU’s Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals and
Paul Beier,
Professor of Forestry and President, Society for Conservation Biology have
been named members of a newly created federal advisory committee, The Advisory Committee on Climate
Change and Natural Resource Science, that will provide guidance
about the Interior Department’s climate change adaptation science initiatives. Sue
Wotkyns, ITEP Climate Change Manager, will be an alternate. Twenty-five
committee members were selected from more than 100 nominations received by the
U.S. Department of the Interior. Members represent the Interior Department and
other federal agencies; tribal, state, and local governments; nongovernmental
organizations; academic institutions; and the private sector.
Congratulations 2013 WERC Environmental Engineering Teams!
Landfill Team Award Ceremony: WERC official, John Jowers, Nathaniel Lail, Gabriel Murray, Annalise O’Toole, Daniel Hamill, Amy Anderson
Solar Distillation Team: Yiguo Chen, Yang Yang, Chaz Enbody, Banning Burt, Ben Shields
The International Environmental Design Contest sponsored by the
Institute for Energy & the Environment – WERC (Consortium for Environmental
Education and Technology Development) was held at New Mexico State
University in Las Cruces, NM on April 7-11, 2013. 22 teams from
universities around the country and Canada competed in several design task
divisions.
The NAU Environmental Engineering program sent two of our senior
Capstone project teams. The two projects from NAU were the design of a
solar-powered water distillation unit, and the other was a composite landfill
cap design using paper sludge waste material. The landfill team won the
Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Award for Innovation in Sustainability for
their design. All students are
environmental engineering majors, except for Annalise O’Toole who is a chemistry
major.
Congratulations 2013 CEFNS Gold Axe Winners!
Nolan Bade - Environmental Sciences-Management
Matthew Blanford - Forestry
Bret Clawson - Chemistry, Biomedical Science
Audrey Ford - Biology, Mechanical Engineering
Brianna Gomez - Exercise Science
Kali Harmon - Exercise Science
Katelynn Jenkins - Forestry
Amanda Jochimsen - Chemistry
Margaret Landis - Physics & Astronomy
Ryan Monahan - Physics & Astronomy
Mallory Moore - Biomedical Science
Heidi Moyer - Exercise Science
Brittany Oletti - Mathematics
Nina Porter - Secondary Education-Chemistry
Cruz Romero - Exercise Science
Caitlin Thede - Exercise Science
Sidney West - Biomedical Science
NAU Car Team-Electrical Engineering
Left to right: Michael Young, Aniza Brown, Stephen Aranda, Derek Benallie, Brendan George, and Justin Cummings with the battery-powered vehicle they entered in the Shell Eco Marathon in Houston 4/4/13
A
group of NAU Electrical Engineering students put the pedal to the metal at the
Shell Eco-Marathon in Houston, Texas where students were tested on their
ability to create an electrical car with a sustainable design and energy
efficiency. With the assistance of
faculty and local engineering businesses, these six EE majors were given a
unique opportunity to compete with students around the world and size up the
competition in their field. After
several years of helping students create competitive cars, John Tester, the
students’ NAU Faculty advisor, saw the opportunity in attending competitions as
a great way for student to marry theory and experimentation. “The
advantage of going to a competition is that you get to go to an event where you
realize you’re not just from NAU-you’re part of engineering…it really matures you
in your profession better than isolating yourself on campus with your design
project.” As the second year entered in this
competition, the NAU team had great improvements from the previous year, in
which the team was unfortunately unable to race. Using the same body from last year, and
refitting it with a touchscreen system built and programmed from scratch by the
students, the team placed 18th out of 31 teams.Nina
Congratulations Dr. Kathy Eastwood!
Dr. Kathy Eastwood has been selected as the 2013 NAU Outstanding
Faculty Advisor of the Year and will be recognized during the
President/Provost’s P&T Awards Reception on April 24th, 2013. The 2013 Advisor Recognition Committee
reviewed numerous nominations and determined that the comments from nominations
demonstrated her impressive dedication to students and colleagues.