My overall academic/consulting background and research/teaching/outreach interests are inter-disciplinary, covering facets of geotechnical, geological, environmental, transportation, and sustainable energy engineering. I conduct research in energy geotechnics (wind energy site civil, geotechnical, and structural design; evaluation of campus- and district-scale geothermal heating and cooling systems); the beneficial reuse of industrial byproducts (e.g., cement kiln dust, coal-combustion residuals, and lime for subgrade improvement and cementitious stabilization of pavement layers); life cycle environmental analysis of geo systems; remediation of contaminated sites; and heat transfer in porous media (soil and rock). I developed these interests as a consulting/industry engineer for 13 years at prominent engineer-procure-construct firms and a Fortune 50 company and through discussions and interactions with practitioners participating in my nationally/internationally attended engineering short course programs. Examples of recent, current, and planned research efforts include:
Foundation response and soil stress dissipation for wind turbine generators at two instrumented field sites
Installation and monitoring of fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) networks for campus- and district-scale geothermal installations (geothermal exchange and deep, direct-use systems)
Performance-based landfill liner design
Emission measurements of CH4, H2S, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from landfill covers constructed with typical cover systems and co-extruded ethylene-vinyl alcohol (EVOH) geomembrane at operating landfills
Characterization of cementitiously stabilized layers for use in pavement design and analysis
Thermal conduction mechanisms and laboratory measurements of unsaturated soil for sustainable energy practice, including thermal conductivity dryout curves
In situ thermal response testing of vertical geothermal exchange wells
Assessment of coal-combustion residual waste impoundments and fill sites
Evaluation and management of landfilled Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the State of Wisconsin
Mechanisms and design of shallow, lightly loaded solar piles for freeze-thaw and wet-dry cycling conditions