Course One eNews | December 2021
Dear CEE community and friends,

With the end of fall term and the holidays around the corner, I wish all of you a safe and joyful upcoming holiday break.

This month I'm delighted to share that Institute Professor Penny Chisholm was named 2022 laureate of the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Environmental and Earth Sciences. One of the most distinguished honors in the field with previous laureates that range from Marie Curie to Bill Gates. Professors Alm, Buehler, Zhao, and Cohen also end the year with accolades for their achievements in the field. Some of our graduate students published an insightful op-ed article in Nature following a panel session that was held for incoming CEE graduate students in September.

In this issue, we also share new research from Prof. Josephine Carstensen's lab that analyzed truss structures and created a suite of computational tools to help architects and engineers minimize the embodied carbon in a given project, while Prof. César Terrer discusses his new research that calculates the increase in global photosynthesis from the CO2 fertilization effect. Prof. Cathy Wu uses machine learning to speed up vehicle routing for large cities and in our featured article, Profs. Franz-Josef Ulm and Jinhua Zhao offer suggestions for spending the nation’s new infrastructure investment wisely.

Lastly, it was great to see many of you at the CEE Holiday Party, photos from the event are shared below.

Sincerely,
Ali Jadbabaie
JR East Professor of Engineering
Department Head, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering
Core Faculty, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Alm, Buehler and Zhao among world’s most highly cited researchers for 2021
Three researchers affiliated with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering have been recognized in the 2021 Highly Cited Researchers List compiled by Clarivate Analytics. The annual list identifies the world’s most influential researchers who have been cited the most in their field through the publication of multiple cited papers during the last decade.
Professor Chisholm Laureate of 2022 Benjamin Franklin Medal

Congratulations to Institute Professor Penny Chisholm for earning the 2022 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth & Environmental Science. She is being honored for her leading role in the discovery of Prochlorococcus and her work investigating how ocean microbes affect global chemical cycles and climate.
Prof. Cohen named finalist in MIT Future Founders Prize Competition

Cohen was selected among nine female MIT researchers who will go on to compete in the MIT Future Founders Prize competition at a chance to win $250K toward commercializing their human health-related invention.
Managing up: how to communicate effectively with your PhD advisor

CEE graduate students from different nationalities, genders and academic backgrounds share a set of guidelines on how to communicate effectively with your PhD advisor in Nature's
latest career column.
Timber or steel? Study helps builders reduce carbon footprint of truss structures
New analysis from Prof. Josephine Carstensen and graduate student, Ernest Ching could help identify optimal materials for the crisscrossing struts that bolster bridges, towers, and buildings.
Machine learning speeds up vehicle routing

Waiting for a holiday package to be delivered? There’s a tricky math problem that needs to be solved before the delivery truck pulls up to your door, but Prof. Cathy Wu and her students have a strategy that could speed up the solution.
Q&A: Slowing down climate change with plant and soil carbon storage

New research from Assistant Professor César Terrer and colleagues report on the increase in global photosynthesis from the CO2 fertilization effect within the last four decades. Terrer discusses his research and what this might mean for the future.
CEE Profiles
Infrastructure investment is here — how can we spend it wisely?
For nearly a year, we have asked 'how much' will we invest in our country's infrastructure, but now we need to ask “how can we spend it wisely”? In this op-ed, Franz-Josef Ulm and Jinhua Zhao offer suggestions.
CEE Holiday Party
Under MIT COVID guidelines, CEE held an in-person Holiday Party on Thursday, December 9, 2021 at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge. View the photos from the event in our CEE Flickr album.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 1-290 Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
(617) 253-7101