Research
Quick Facts
external research funding (2022-24)
young investigator awards
research centers and institutes
tenured/tenure-track faculty
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering education and research missions are focused on Urban Engineering, anchored by several multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional centers and programs. Building on current strengths and expanding into new and vital areas, three overarching interdisciplinary research and education thrusts of the department include Environmental Health, Civil Infrastructure Security, and Sustainable Resource Engineering, with subthemes and disciplinary excellence in each of these areas. We have premier departmental strengths in four integrated enabling technologies that include Simulation (both computational and experimental), Smart Sensing, and Data and Network Science, and Urban Informatics.
q.wang@northeastern.edu
Urban and social resilience; geo-social networking; coupled, human-natural systems, natural disaster response and evacuation; urban computing
ya.zhang@northeastern.edu
Air quality; atmospheric chemistry; cloud/aerosol microphysics; sensitivity and uncertainty analysis; multiscale atmospheric modeling and forecasting; climate and Earth system modeling; health impact assessment; eco-environmental sustainability; human-Earth system interactions
Recent News
Why Disasters Leave Countries Deeper in Debt
CEE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly and Aayushi Mishra, PhD ’28, civil and environmental engineering, analyzed how severe disasters trap vulnerable nations in a “climate-debt doom loop” and proposed financial policy reforms to help countries invest in long-term resilience.
2026 Stanford University Annual Assessment of Author Citations
The following COE professors are among the top scientists worldwide selected by Stanford University representing the top 2% of the most-cited scientists with single-year impact in various disciplines.
Forever Chemicals Raise Pregnancy Blood Pressure Risks
Bouvé/CEE Assistant Professor Julia Varshavsky led a Northeastern study linking exposure to “forever chemicals” (PFAS) during pregnancy with an increased risk of hypertension later in gestation, particularly among first-time mothers and those carrying female fetuses.
AIResQ Startup Uses Physics-Guided AI for Flood Resilience
Co-founded by CEE PhD alumni Udit Bhatia, PhD’18, and COE Distinguished Professor Auroop Ganguly, the startup AIResQ combines physics-guided artificial intelligence with localized data and custom low-cost sensors to help Indian cities and transportation networks predict and prepare for monsoon floods in real time.