Civil & Environmental Engineering
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Panos DiplasPanayiotis  (Panos)  Diplas

Panayiotis  (Panos)  Diplas served as the P.C. Rossin Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and was department chair from 2013 to 2020. Professor Diplas made important contributions to environmental, fluvial, and infrastructure hydraulics, especially in advancing understanding of sediment transport, scour around hydraulic structures, and the impact of human activities on the environment. His research group published over 250 peer‑reviewed papers, and his work was supported by NSF, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ONR, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), as well as by industry partners. He is the recipient of several awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, as well as the Hans Albert Einstein Award, Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award, and Karl Emil Hilgard Hydraulic Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He joined the editorial board of many journals and is currently the editor in chief of the Journal of Hydraulic Research. Recognized for his leadership, he is an elected Fellow of both the Environmental and Water Resources Institute and ASCE.

Dan M. FrangopolDan M. Frangopol

Position: Inaugural Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture, Emeritus; Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Emeritus; Senior Research Fellow.
Education: Doctor of Applied Sciences, with the highest distinction (summa cum laude), University of Liège, Belgium, 1976; Dipl.-Ing. (equivalent to B.Sc.+M.Sc.), Institute of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, Romania, 1969.
Research Areas & Interest: Development and application of probabilistic and optimization concepts and methods to civil and marine engineering, including: structural reliability and probabilistic mechanics; life-cycle cost analysis; probability-based assessment, design, and multi-criteria life-cycle optimization of structures and infrastructure systems; structural health monitoring; life-cycle performance maintenance and management of structures and distributed infrastructure under extreme events (earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and floods); risk-based assessment and decision-making; multi-hazard risk mitigation; infrastructure sustainability and resilience to disasters; and climate change adaptation.
 
Frangopol held a position as assistant professor at the Institute of Civil Engineering in Bucharest from 1969 until 1974 when he moved to Belgium to become a research structural engineer (structural reliability, analysis and design of inelastic structures, structural optimization) in the Department of Mechanics of Materials and Structural Engineering, University of Liège.
 
In 1977 Frangopol returned to Romania as an associate professor at the Institute of Civil Engineering in Bucharest and moved to Belgium in 1979 working as a project engineer at A. Lipski Consulting Engineers in Brussels. In March 1983 he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder as an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. He was promoted to full professor in 1988 and became in 2006 an emeritus professor of structural engineering and structural mechanics.
 
In 2006 he moved to Lehigh University as Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the inaugural holder of the Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture. In 2025 he became the Inaugural Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture, Emeritus; a Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and a Senior Research Fellow. He became a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2025 for contributions to life-cycle civil engineering and leadership in its global development and adoption.
 
Read Dan's full profile here, and Wikipedia entry here .

Richard SauseRichard Sause

Richard Sause served as the Joseph  T. Stuart Professor of Structural Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and was director of the Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) Engineering Research Center for more than 20 years.

Since joining Lehigh in 1989, Professor Sause has led groundbreaking research in earthquake‑ and blast‑resistant structural systems, high‑performance materials, structural dynamics, and in‑service durability of bridges and large structures. His research portfolio included large‑scale experimental investigations and more than 130 peer‑reviewed journal articles and 230 conference papers. He led the university’s Institute for Cyber  Physical Infrastructure and Energy (I-CPIE) as its inaugural director from 2018 to 2022.

He has received numerous professional honors, including the Raymond C. Reese Research Prize, J. James R. Croes Medal, and Charles Pankow Award for Innovation presented by ASCE, as well as the Charles C. Zollman Award from the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute and the Raymond C. Reese Structural Research Award from the American Concrete Institute. 

Arup SenguptaArup K. SenGupta

For well over three decades, Arup K. Sengupta's research has encompassed nearly every aspect of water science and technology: from drinking water treatment to desalination to municipal wastewater reuse to resource recovery. SenGupta is internationally recognized for advancing and expanding the field of ion exchange science and technology, and applying it for development of sustainable technologies and new materials. SenGupta authored well over one hundred peer-reviewed journal papers and is the recipient of 12 US patents. He is the inventor of the first reusable, arsenic-selective hybrid anion exchanger nanomaterial (HAIX-Nano). Over two million people around the globe currently drink arsenic-safe water through use of HAIX-Nano. In 2014, SenGupta was inducted as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) for 'having demonstrated a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.' Two of SenGupta's patents were recognized as 'Patents for Humanity' by the US Patent and Trademark Office for their global impact in benefiting marginalized communities around the world.

SenGupta's current research thrusts address some critical issues related to water-energy nexus and identifying strategies to overcome the adverse impact of climate change. Over the years his research work has been funded by the NSF (National Science Foundation), EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DOD), state, not-for-profit organizations and private industries. SenGupta advised over fifty graduate students (about two dozen of them leading to PhD.) For his research and scholarly contributions, SenGupta received many national and international awards and accolades including: 2004 International Ion Exchange Award at the university of Cambridge, England; 2007 Grainger Challenge Silver Award (2007) from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE); 2009 Lawrence K Cecil Environmental Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE); and 2012 Intel Environmental Award for 'technology benefiting humanity,' to name a few.

Rick WeismanRichard N. Weisman

Position: Professor Emeritus
Education: B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Civil Engineering and Ph.D., Philosophy, Cornell University
Research Areas & Interest: Water Resources Engineering, Hydrodynamics, Evapotranspiration, Sediments, Fluid Mechanics, Coastal Processes, Coastal Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydraulic Modelling, Hydrological Modeling, Watershed Hydrology

Since retiring in January, 2017, Rick Weisman has kept busy at Lehigh in various ways. He continued his involvement in Study Abroad through the Costa Rica Winter Term course on Sustainable Development and the Lehigh in (Galway) Ireland summer program. Although those programs have been on hold through the pandemic, Rick continues helping with the Martindale Student Associates Program through assistance in trip planning and mentoring students through their research and writing. Most recently, he traveled to Alaska with 12 students and other faculty to study the economy and social issues.

On the research front, Rick was asked by some of his department colleagues to help with a PennDOT sponsored project to assess failure modes in highway embankments approaching bridges and to experiment with ways to “build back better.”

Personally, Rick has returned to all his trumpet playing activities: South Side Brass, Lehigh Philharmonic, Mariachi Montana del Sur, Lehigh Valley Pops Orchestra, and the Elm Street Big Band. He also has plently of time to enjoy my family, including his four grandchildren.