The NDSU College of Engineering has announced the creation of the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. The new department was formed July 1 with the merging of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Construction Management and Engineering.
The Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering consists of the same academic programs housed in the previous departments, including civil engineering, environmental engineering, construction engineering and construction management.
Xuefeng Chu has been named the interim chair of the new department. Chu previously was the interim chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and has served as director of the North Dakota Water Resources Research Institute since 2018. An expert in hydrologic engineering, he is a fellow of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a former NSF CAREER award winner.
“I am very excited to work with Dr. Chu as the chair of our newly merged Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering,” said Michael Kessler, dean of engineering. “This department will provide operational efficiencies while maintaining and growing our program offerings in construction management, construction engineering, environmental engineering and civil engineering. Dr. Chu is an accomplished faculty member and administrator with the right combination of experience, influence and consultative team-building skills to lead these programs to even greater heights.”
The goal of the new department is to organize faculty from closely-aligned programs into a common department to better prepare students for the types of interdisciplinary interactions they will face on the job, while maintaining their important disciplinary understanding and methods.
“My focus as interim chair will be to promote excellence in teaching, scholarly activity and service, maintain a caring environment especially for students and junior faculty to enable them to maximize their intellectual and professional capabilities, and to promote department-industry collaborations,” said Chu.
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