SUMMARY OF  ACTIVITIES

First, I will discuss teaching.  My teaching philosophy is based on my belief that the ability of a student to understand a subject matter is contingent upon cultivating a student's interest in the subject.Therefore, I try to make the course material interesting to students by clearly defining the practical use of class lectures. At FSU, I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses, developed graduate courses, and offered several Directed Individual Study (DIS) courses to our graduate students.My average classroom teaching load is four courses per year. My student evaluation averages (2009-2013) were: Excellent (60%), Very Good (26%), Good (13%), Fair (1%).Since my last promotion I have graduated twoPhD students, currently supervising dissertations of twoPhD students and co-chairing the dissertation of one PhDstudent.  I have chaired the committees ofthirteenMS thesis committees for thirteenstudents while currently supervising two MS degree students. During the same period, I directed and supervised five Post-Doctoral fellows.  Internationally, I served on thedissertation committees of onePhD students at Gent University in Belgium, chairedMS degree thesis committees for twostudents, and undergraduate thesis committees for two students at the University of Gabes, Tunisia. 

My most significant national and international impact on the state of practice in my discipline has been achieved by my work on mitigating methane (a potent greenhouse gas) emissions from landfills. My research productivity on this topic has built my national and international reputation in the solid waste research and consulting community, and. had significant national and international impact on the state of practice in my field:  The U.S. EPA and the state of Colorado published a guidance of water balance cover designs for the state of Colorado largely based on the findings of our report. Similarly, the U.S. EPA engaged me to access the existing situation of landfills in Puerto Rico and develop a Guidance Document to remediate existing landfills the Island. My work on the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from landfills was the main reference used by U.S. EPA in their report “Available and Emerging Technologies for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste Landfills.” My research team also developed a now-widely-referenced numerical model (FSU Model) to predict surface emissions and methane oxidation in landfills.  Recently, the U.S. EPA proposed a change to their rule assigning 10% methane oxidation to landfill covers, as a direct outcome of the work we have been doing at Florida State University.  Internationally, I received a Fulbright Research Award to assess the feasibility of using water balance landfill covers in North Africa.  The applicability of my research to contemporary environmental issues is the highlight of my research achievements.

My overall publication record consists of 39peer-reviewed journal papers and 24peer-reviewed proceeding papers for a total of 63peer-reviewed publications.  A significant number of my publications were published in high impact journals within civil engineering. According to Google Scholar, my publications have been cited 975 times overall and 716 times since 2008.  My H-Index on Google Scholar is 17 overall and 16 since 2008.  My i10-Index is 25 overall and 19 since 2008.  These metrics are among the highest amongst my US peer group.In terms of funding, I have obtained funding from Local, State, Federal, and Private entities for a total of 25 Contracts and Grants, 16 as a PI and 9 as a Co-PI, for a total amount of around $2.5 Million.  This performance earned methe Exceptional Research Productivity Award from the College of Engineering.

I have also been dedicated to service while at FSU.  I have served on Faculty Search, ABET, Laboratory, Undergraduate, and Graduate department committees.  I also serve on the Florida State University Fulbright committee.  I have served as the faculty advisor for the Student Chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers and our Student Chapter for Engineers Without Borders (EWB). I have traveled to Peru twice withEWB to provide 400 families with potable drinking water and construct latrines.  Because of my service with EWB, I received the Faculty Advisor of the Year Award from Florida State University.In addition to serving as a reviewer for several journals, I am an Editor for Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering and a member of the Editorial Board for Geomechanics and Engineering.  I have chaired technical sessions in Global Waste Symposiums, Geo-Institute annual meetings served on their technical board.  Professionally, I am a registered Professional Engineer and serve on the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Geo-environmental Engineering committee for new standard review and on the American Society for Testing and Materials committees (ASTM D18 Soil and Rock Committee, and D18.04 Hydrologic Properties and Hydraulic Barriers.)