The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is pleased to announce the following faculty members have been granted tenure by MIT:

Benedetto Marelli was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with Tenure effective July 1. His research focuses on structural biopolymers, self-assembly and nanomanufacturing to design biomaterials with applications in precision agriculture, food security and food safety. Technologies developed in his lab include delivery of biofertilizers that boost seed germination and enhance yield in marginal lands and different solutions to precisely deliver actives in plants.

Tal Cohen was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with Tenure effective July 1. Her research focuses on nonlinear solid mechanics and seeks to understand how materials behave when pushed to their extremes. Her lab observes materials under stress including instabilities, growth and chemical coupling, and extreme dynamic loading conditions to apply their theories to engineering applications.

Serguei Saavedra was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with Tenure effective July 1. His research seeks to understand the emergence, sustainability, and transformations of ecological systems under changing environments. His lab develops quantifiable and predictive tools to know if a group of species will have the capacity to adapt in a new environment and therefore assess which parts of an ecosystem (from megaherbivores to bacteria) are most threatened by climate change.