C&EE’s Professor Gaurav Sant and UCLA C&EE alumnus Dr. Mark Hanna were honored with awards at the ASCE MLAB ceremony on Thursday, June 17. They were recognized for their great contributions to the Civil Engineering Community and Los Angeles.
Professor Sant received the Outstanding Civil Engineer in Innovation or Research award, and Mark Hanna, MS ’99, PhD ’04, Vice President and Senior Principal for Geosyntec Consultants, received the Outstanding Civil Engineer in Private Sector.
Gaurav Sant is a professor and Henry Samueli Fellow at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. He holds faculty appointments in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. He is the principal investigator in the Laboratory for the Chemistry of Construction Materials. At UCLA, Sant is also the director of the Institute for Carbon Management, which is developing pioneering market-focused technology solutions to reduce the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
His research interests include cementitious materials and porous media, with a focus on their chemistry-microstructure-engineering properties, reducing the carbon footprint of construction materials and other related topics.
Sant has developed methods to use waste carbon dioxide emissions in the manufacturing of concrete. He founded a UCLA startup, CarbonBuilt, to commercialize the technology. The UCLA CarbonBuilt team won the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE global competition in April 2021, the first university team to win the XPRIZE. In addition to his groundbreaking research, Sant has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications and his work has been supported by federal and state agencies, foundations and Fortune 500 corporations. He has received numerous awards from the National Science Foundation, American Concrete Institute, American Institute for Chemical Engineering, and International Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems and Structures.
Sant received a Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. in civil engineering from Purdue University. He joined the UCLA faculty in 2010.
Mark Hanna, PhD, PE, received his Masters and Doctorate from UCLA in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. He is a Vice President and Senior Principal for Geosyntec Consultants, managing their downtown Los Angeles office and leading groundbreaking integrated planning projects such as the LA River Master Plan and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Stormwater Capture Master Plan. During his nearly 30-year career Dr. Hanna has worked within non-profit, academic, public, and, for the past 11 years, private practice. His accomplishments include innovative award-winning projects that focus on the interrelationship of water, people, and the environment. His work has won awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists, the California Stormwater Quality Association, the American Public Works Association, and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
His recent work focuses on major planning efforts and civil infrastructure that enhance conditions for local water supply reliability, improved water quality, and reduced flood risk and floodplain resilience. Dr. Hanna spent seven years as a water resources engineer for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and during this time he developed multiple stormwater capture projects including spreading grounds and subregional facilities, while also serving as the water rights lead for groundwater remediation initiatives. Prior to joining LADWP, Dr. Hanna managed the Bureau of Reclamation’s (U.S.B.R.) “Real-Time Wetland Water Quality Management Program” balancing water supply, water quality, and habitat needs for a 50,000-acre wetland complex in California’s Central Valley. Dr. Hanna teaches a capstone design courses at UCLA and leads the Geosyntec nation-wide Water Supply Practice.