The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is pleased to announce the following faculty promotions:

Lydia Bourouiba is promoted to the rank of full Professor, effective July 1, 2025. Bourouiba received her PhD from McGill University in 2008, working on turbulence and geophysical applications.  A physical applied mathematician by training, her research interests span a broad range of fundamental to applied curiosity-driven questions in fluid physics, biophysics and mathematical modeling.  Her work typically involves fluid physics across scales from turbulence, interfacial, and complex biofluids, to soft matter and porous media, and how these phenomena interact with chemical and biological mechanisms to shape emergence, transport, and adaptation of pathogens in human, animal, and plant populations, or life itself.  Her recent work focused on the multi-scale dynamics of unsteady fluid fragmentation, drops and bubbles, and phase transitions relevant to addressing industrial, energy, food, environmental, contamination, and health challenges. 

Desirée Plata is being promoted to the rank of full Professor, effective July 1, 2025. Plata received her B.S. from Union College in 2003 and PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2009. Her research seeks to maximize technology’s benefit to society while minimizing environmental impacts in industrially important practices using geochemical tools and chemical mechanistic insights.

César Terrer is being promoted to the rank of Associate Professor without Tenure, effective July 1, 2025. Terrer received PhD in Climate Change Ecosystem Ecology from Imperial College London in 2017. His research leverages field and satellite data to advance knowledge about the terrestrial carbon cycle with a goal of identifying and implementing data-driven strategies to maximize carbon uptake and slow global warming.