Course One Newsletter | September 2021
Dear CEE Community and Friends,

I hope you’re off to a great start this fall semester. I have enjoyed seeing many of you in-person again after 18 months.

This month’s newsletter shares a research collaboration to investigate how plant genes communicate with one another under the environmental stress from climate change, and CSHub researchers find that paving material selection could mitigate extreme heat and greenhouse gas emissions. I also sat down with Graduate Officer Colette Heald to discuss the new Climate, Environment and Sustainability master’s degree program that is now accepting applications.

CEE professors continue to be called on as experts in the field as hurricanes, disasters and the pandemic continue as topics in the media. I’m also thrilled that CEE continues to be a place where students can be innovators and entrepreneurs if they have a passion for developing small solutions with a big environmental impact

Finally, we share a fun faculty spotlight to get to know new Professor Michael Howland and share some exciting upcoming department events and seminars.

Sincerely,
Ali Jadbabaie
JR East Professor of Engineering
Department Head, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering
Core Faculty, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
To understand airborne transmission, follow the flow
Knowable Magazine spoke to Prof. Lydia Bourouiba on how understanding the dynamics of fluids can inform public health measures and help limit the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19. 
Grid experts grapple with 'resilience' in Ida's wake

In Hurricane Ida’s wake, Prof. Saurabh Amin was interviewed by NPR’s Morning Edition and E&E News about the need for building resilient power grids as extreme climate-infused weather becomes more widespread.
Two science-based causes for why the twin towers fell after the impact of the planes on 9-11

In an interview with BBC Mundo on the 20th anniversary of September 11th, Professor Emeritus Eduardo Kausel provides two science-based reasons for the building collapse based on MIT research in 2002. Read the article in English or Spanish in the link below.
CEE PhD candidate participates in MIT delta v Demo Day 2021

MIT delta v is just one of several entrepreneurial programs Augustine Zvinavashe ‘16 completed to support and catalyze Ivu Biologics out of the Marelli lab. His latest success, delta v demo day.
Research collaboration puts climate-resilient crops in sight
Climate change is predicted to put stress on crops, and on global food security. In a new research collaboration, Profs. David Des Marais and Caroline Uhler of MIT EECS and IDSS are investigating how plant genes communicate with one another under stress.
Countering climate change with cool pavements

Researchers affiliated with the Concrete Sustainability Hub find that paving material selection could mitigate extreme heat and greenhouse gas emissions.
Watch CEE PhD candidate Augustine Zvinavashe's pitch on MIT delta v Demo Day 2021 to learn more about startup, Ivu Biologics that is poised to positively impact our planet.
Colette Heald and Ali Jadbabaie on the New Climate, Environment and Sustainability Master's Degree
Graduate Officer Prof. Colette Heald and CEE Department Head Prof. Ali Jadbabaie, discuss how the new CEE Climate, Environment and Sustainability master’s degree can offer a path in shaping our future by mastering both the theory and practice of sustainability across scales.
Faculty Spotlight: Michael Howland

Welcome to Assistant Professor Michael Howland who recently joined us from Caltech. Learn more about him and his research focus in our faculty spotlight.
Our fall semester is full of seminar talks and informational webinars about our academic programs.

September 29, 2021 | 4-5p ET
Speaker Prof. Emeritus Eduardo Kausel

October 8, 2021 | 12-1p ET 
Speaker: Sebastian Schreiber of University of California, Davis,

October 20, 2021| 4-5p ET
Speakers: Current CEE Students and Grad Officer, Prof. Colette Heald
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Civil
and Environmental Engineering
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Room 1-290 Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
(617) 253-7101