Faculty & Staff

Professor Abu-Lail is an assistant teaching professor of chemical engineering. She earned a PhD in civil engineering at WPI in 2011 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship while also teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in chemical engineering and civil and environmental engineering. While working with chemical engineering professor Terri Camesano, she investigated the effect of cranberry juice components on the ability of the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections to adhere to uroepitheial cells, and she continues to be interested in the studies of bacterial adhesion. She is ...

I enjoy teaching civil engineering fundamentals in 1000 and 2000-level courses, and then revisiting those fundamentals in upper level and graduate courses as a base for presenting advanced topics and fostering deeper learning. This emphasis on fundamentals can be challenging to undergraduates because they may not appreciate the relevance. Consequently, I integrate design projects into my undergraduate coursework to provide a context for learning and to emphasize my expectations for learning and actively applying the course material. I also work to align my approach to MQPs with my classroom ...

John Bergendahl is an associate professor in the Department of Civil Environmental Engineering at WPI. John has six years’ experience as a practicing engineer in industry, and holds a BS in mechanical engineering, an MS in environmental engineering, and a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut. He conducted postdoctoral research in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Program at the University of Texas in Austin. His current research interests focus on increasing our knowledge of physical and chemical processes for enabling sustainable design of engineered ...

My teaching and research interests focus on water quality and the safety of drinking waters. I study water from source to tap: where do contaminants originate from, what is their fate in the environment, and how do we engineer treatment processes to protect public health? I am particularly interested in preventing the transmission of pathogens through water. In source waters, I aim to identify sources of pollution and understand the fate, transport, and survival of those pollutants in the environment. We are interested in waters used for potable drinking water as well as recreational water ...

After the PhD and postdocs at the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG) and at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Eggleston became an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming in 1995. He had an NSF CAREER award 1998-2003, and spent a sabbatical leave working at EPFL in Lausanne and LCPME in Nancy, France. He was a Fulbright Scholar in south India 2012-2013, and part of an Interdisciplinary Fellowship team at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in both 2016 and 2017. He was head of the Department of Geology and Geophysics in Wyoming for ...

I enjoy my interactions with students at all levels of education, research, and mentoring, whether it be in the classroom, the lab, or in project work. I especially enjoy taking them to the Morocco Project Center and sharing with them the places where I grew up. Challenging the students to achieve higher levels of discovery is a thrill for me. This could be in the process of working with ASCE students to design a high-strength cement composite for the concrete canoe, working with MQP groups to design the new WPI Recreational Center or solve problems for the Panama Canal Authority, or working ...

I am a designer, researcher, and educator working at the interface of Architecture and engineering. I am currently an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Architectural Engineering program at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where I teach Design Studio and Great Project Seminar.My primary research interests focus on sustainable building technologies, urban simulation, and humanitarian architecture. I collaborated with several architectural firms on international design competitions and projects ranging from residential complexes to airports. Before joining WPI in 2016, I was a green ...

Having initially graduated from WPI with a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in 1995, I returned to teach part-time and pursue graduate studies in 2007. While the intervening years as a professional planner provided me with a wide variety of experience assisting towns and regions with long-term planning goals, the teaching and project advising activities at WPI have been infinitely more rewarding. I teach classes in urban and environmental planning and advise undergraduate projects in those topics and others. My research interests were primarily focused on storm water management because I ...

Prof. Liu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). His research focuses on built and urban environment, occupant-building-environment interaction, and integrated design for sustainable and healthy buildings. Prof. Liu envisions his research promoting built sustainability and occupant well-being through the interface among building science, information science, public health, and social science.

Nan (Nancy) Ma, PhD, Assoc. AIA, is an Assistant Professor of Architectural Engineering at CEAE and director of Laboratory for Healthy, Environmental, and Resilient Buildings (HERB-Lab). Her work investigates the integration of architectural, environmental, and computational knowledge to advance healthy, sustainable, and occupant-centric buildings. In pursuing this objective, her research applies multi-disciplinary simulation, experimental, and field study approaches using both objective (instrumental) and subjective measures (questionnaires, interviews). Specifically, her research interests ...

Professor Mathisen is the Director of Sustainability at WPI and is also a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.  As Director of Sustainability, Professor Mathisen works to promote sustainability and engage the community in WPI’s academic programs, research, operations and facilities, with consideration to areas such as water, energy, transportation, and waste management. His research emphasizes the analysis and modeling of environmental systems, with an emphasis on areas such as water resources protection, resilience and climate change adaptation, ...

Dr. Jessica Rosewitz brings to WPI a wealth of past WPI experiences, teaching and project advising, industry and community engagement, a passion for WPI’s project-based education, and focus on continual improvement of engineering education at all levels. Her P.E. license and experience in Accelerated Bridge Construction enables her to draw upon regional engineering firms, and her dedication to early engineering education drives her outreach with local vocational schools, community organizations, and pre-K-12 programs. Her goal is to provide an outstanding classroom education and opportunities ...

Replacing our crumbling national infrastructure with conventional materials would be only a temporary solution to a critical problem. My research focuses on developing new, more durable materials for use in infrastructure, which will lead to a lowered maintenance burden, improved user safety, and a reduced environmental impact. Personally, the part that I like most about this subject is the chemistry. I am also interested in appropriate technology for developing nations and preserving our cultural heritage, subjects in which I became interested during the year I spent as a Fulbright grantee in ...

I teach geotechnical and pavement engineering courses at WPI. My favorite teaching activities are helping students develop critical thinking skills and become independent learners and problem solvers for their future career in civil engineering.My areas of research are in the interdisciplinary aspects of highway infrastructure engineering, with the overarching goal to advance the state of the art in sustainable highway infrastructure engineering. One of my recent research areas is developing more durable and sustainable asphalt concrete through an interdisciplinary approach. For instance, we ...

My research and teaching activities are in the area of sustainable building design and building technology, with a special focus on the study of adaptive building enclosure systems. One of the goals of this research is to develop smart materials that can alter their thermal properties in response to changing outdoor conditions, in order to conserve energy and optimize building thermal comfort. This research entails the use of energy modeling tools, experimental investigations including synthesis of new materials, and the study of practical applications. The broader perspective of this ...

Harold Walker is the Schwaber Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at WPI. Prior to his appointment at WPI, Professor Walker was the Founding Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at Stony Brook University. Professor Walker also served as the co-Director of the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology at Stony Brook and was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to the New York State Drinking Water Quality Council. Prior to Stony Brook, Dr. Walker was a Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic ...