Professor John Stormont Selected as Chair of UNM Civil Engineering Department

Professor John Stormont has been selected as Chair of the Civil Engineering Department at UNM after having served as interim chair for the past 17 months. He brings 16 years of experience at UNM, 12 years at Sandia National Labs, and is an enthusiastic teacher and active researcher. “Prof. Stormont has accomplished important objectives as Interim Chair, including engaging the department in developing a strategic plan and preparing the department for accreditation reviews,” said UNM School of Engineering Interim Dean Arup Maji. “I am confident that he will now be able to focus more on the strategic goals of the department, along with hiring new faculty.” Stormont’s research interests are related to geo-environmental issues associated with mining operations and landfills, unsaturated hydrology, and geomechanics. He has brought in more than $3.2 million of externally funded research and has been principal advisor to 19 Masters and 4 PhD students. He is a registered professional engineer in New Mexico and received his PhD from the University of Arizona in 1990.

Candyce Torres Wins Staff Recognition Award

The Office of the President and the Staff Council announced that Candyce Torres is one of three recipients of the 2010 Gerald W. May Staff Recognition Award. This year, the Staff Council Rewards and Recognition Committee received 39 nominations. Committee Chair, Kathy McKinstry said, "We were excited to receive so many nominations. It's amazing to read about all the dedicated, hard-working staff that we have on this campus." Congratulations to Candyce!

Bridge Load Rating Project

The Department of Civil Engineering has a contract with the New Mexico Department of Transportation to load-rate 80 bridges per year. The purpose is to produce bridge information models of all of New Mexico’s bridges, to structurally rate the bridges, and to identify those bridges that require structural remediation. The project, led by Professor Walter Gerstle, has so far employed five graduate students: Scott Chapman, Kelly Montoya, Artemio Zavala, Bhanu Kiran Tuniki, and Asif Rahman. The students have learned a great deal about bridge design by reading bridge plans and entering bridge information into the VIRTIS bridge information modeling system. The project is funded at the level of approximately $100,000 per year over five years.

Lunch for Fundamentals of Engineering and Professional Engineers’ Exam

The UNM Chapter of Chi Epsilon, with funding from the New Mexico Society of Professional Engineers, provided lunch on Civic Plaza in Albuquerque on October 29 and October 30 for approximately 150 people taking the Fundamentals of Engineering and the Professional Engineers’ Exams. Kelly Montoya, Chi Bui, Jeff Samson, Karen Jacobsen, Chris Johnson and Walter Gerstle provided and served the lunch.