Bheemasetti, Jung and Zhang Hired as Assistant Professors
The Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering and Engineering Mechanics is growing as we enter the new school year with three new assistant professors.
Tejo Bheemasetti completed his PhD in civil engineering and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has also worked as an assistant professor at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. In his research, he investigates the way changing climate affects geomaterial behavior and works to develop sustainable solutions to infrastructure problems such as slope failure, soil erosion, settlement due to swell-shrink, and thawing-induced landslides.
“I grew up reading the textbooks written by Professor Desai and Professor Budhu, renowned geotechnical faculty here at the University of Arizona,” he said. “It’s exciting to work in a place where world-class textbooks are written. I am looking forward to being part of the dynamic CAEM team in solving complex infrastructure problems with changing climate.”
Wooyoung Jung earned his PhD in civil engineering from Virginia Tech, then worked as a postdoctoral research associate and a research engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. His research is focused on cognitive and adaptive buildings designed to provide benefit and comfort to occupants. More generally, he aims to realize sustainable build environments with high energy efficiency using Internet of Things and data-driven modeling approaches. He is excited to live in Tucson and be part of the College of Engineering’s forward-looking team as an assistant professor in CAEM.
“I was very much impressed by the vision of the leadership team: looking for a significant expansion of the College of Engineering, which will naturally foster interdisciplinary research initiatives,” he said. “Also, I find Tucson very attractive.”
Liang Zhang joins the university after earning a PhD in architectural engineering from Drexel University and working as a research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. His research interests center on energy efficiency and sustainability, particularly on using artificial intelligence, large-scale energy modeling and high-performance computing to create intelligent buildings and urban environments.
“The synergies of my research with CAEM and its faculty brought me here,” he said. “My research in the past 10 years explores how building can adapt to climate change and grid transformation, and my major research work on Urban Building Energy Modeling and grid-interactive efficient building perfectly aligns with the expanding focus of the department on increasing the sustainability and resiliency of the built environment.”
These three join 13 other new faculty at the University of Arizona College of Engineering for the new academic year.