Faculty Members
Faculty | Emeritus | New Faculty
Craig H. Benson
Title: Professor and Chair Designate
Start Date: July 2008
Areas of Speciality: Professor Benson's research is on waste containment systems and sustainable construction. He develops mechanistic mathematical models of environmental systems and conducts experimental research in the laboratory and field. Professor Benson has received the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, the Distinguished Young Faculty Award from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, and the Huber Research Prize and the Collingwood, Middlebrooks, Croes, Casagrande Awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers. Professor Benson teaches courses in geoenvironmental engineering for waste containment, geoenvironmental engineering for site remediation, probabilistic methods, unsaturated flow and transport, and geosynthetics engineering.
Craig H. Benson is Wisconsin Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has a BS from Lehigh University and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. All three degrees are in Civil Engineering, with the MS and PhD degrees focused on Geoenvironmental Engineering. Professor Benson is Chairman of Geological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Co-Director of the Recycled Materials Resource Center.
Professor Benson is a member of the ASCE Geo-Institute (GI) and is former Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE/GI Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering. He currently serves on the ASCE/GI Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of ASTM Committee D18 on Soil and Rock. Professor Benson is also a founding member of ASTM Subcommittee D18.14 on Geotechnics of Sustainable Construction.
Seana Davidson
Title: Research Assistant Professor
Start Date: September 2007
Areas of specialty: Seana Davidson's research examines diversity, function and effects of bacteria associated with host animals. Current work focuses on understanding the function and potential applications of bacteria associated with earthworms. This includes understanding the interactions of the bacteria with the host during the early life stages and within the adult earthworms. She employs a variety of molecular based methods to identify bacteria associated with host tissues including mixed populations. Population profiles are determined using gene signature profiles based on the bacterial 16S rRNA genes or ITS region. These methods have been applied to a variety of systems. The phylogenetic relationships among the bacteria under study are determined by analysis of gene sequence characters. Both host and symbiont genes are examined to determine the evolutionary relationships between them. Dr. Davidson also uses methods to image bacterial cells within tissues and environmental samples using laser scanning confocal imaging for three dimensional distribution of bacterial cells (fluorescent in situ hybridization, and stains). Genomic analyses and genetic transformation of bacteria are tools recently applied to the understand the activities and interactions of bacteria within host systems.
Seana Davidson completed a PhD in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanongraphy in San Diego. The work there specialized in marine microbiology, microbial ecology, function of microbial systems, and bioactive bacterial secondary metabolites. Her work determined the bacterial source of anticancer compounds, the bryostatins, originally purified from a marine invertebrate. Since then, Dr. Davidson has continued to work with bacteria associated with host animals in a variety of systems, including the mammalian gut. Her first postdoc was spent as an NIH National Research Service Award fellow in Hawaii at the Kewalo Marine Lab studying the oxidative stress molecules involved in limiting access of bacteria to a specialized light organ in the bobtail squid. While conducting that research, she learned detailed imaging methods using a confocal laser scanning system, as well a number of protein and chemical markers to identify and image molecules in living cells. She then moved to Seattle to work in the environmental microbiology lab of Dave Stahl to develop the earthworm-bacteria association as a research model for host-microbe interactions, and has since examined a variety of aspects related to the complex bacterial consortia associated with earthworms.
Alan F. Hamlet
Title: Research Assistant Professor
Start Date: September 2007
Areas of Specialty: Professor Hamlet’s research topics include hydroclimatology of the Pacific Northwest and western U.S., impacts of climate variability and change on hydrologic and water resources systems, hydrologic modeling, water resources modeling, hydrologic forecasting based on PDO and ENSO climate forecasts with applications to water resources management, development of long range climate change scenarios for water planning, impacts of climate change on the PNW ski industry, development of long term driving data sets for hydrologic modeling studies, downscaling and bias correction of global and regional scale climate model output, bias correction schemes for hydrologic modeling studies, hydropower and electrical demand modeling, modeling studies of observed climate change in the western U.S. and effects on snowpack, runoff, evaporation, and soil moisture, studies of climate effects on flooding and extreme events, transboundary implications of climate change, and adaptation to the hydrologic impacts of climate change using optimization models. Outreach, ongoing partnerships with stakeholders, and development of pilot climate services have been an important part of my research relating to the CIG’s mission statement.
Alan F. Hamlet joined the CEE faculty as a Research Assistant Professor in September 2007, with joint affiliation with the inter-disciplinary Center for Science in the Earth System (CSES) Climate Impacts Group. His research over the last 10 years has focused on the impacts of climate variability and change on rivers and water resources systems in the western U.S., with a particular emphasis on the Columbia River basin in the Pacific Northwest.
Ed McCormack
Title: Research Assistant Professor
Start Date: September 2007
Areas of Specialty: Professor McCormack’s research interests include freight transportation, transportation and technology, transportation infrastructure protection, land use and transportation.
Ed McCormack received his Masters of Science in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor and Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Washington. Prior to joining CEE, he conducted research on a wide range of transportation topics at the Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC). His experience includes examining the use of technology to improve freight mobility, developing freight performance benchmarks, and exploring the land use-transportation relationship. During his time TRAC, he was also responsible for managing a series of border and freight technology projects for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Previous experience also includes working as transportation planner/modeler for a engineering consulting firm and for a Metropolitan Planning Organization.