Photos Courtesy from CEE AAB Members
It is with great pleasure that we announce the recent achievements of two distinguished alumni from the UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Their dedication and contributions to the field have not only brought them personal accolades but also great pride to our academic community.
Congratulations to Benjamin Baker, P.E., for being recognized as a 2024 Rising Alumnus by the UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. The Rising Professional Achievement Award honors UCLA Samueli alumni who are in the earlier stages of their career. Awardees are within 15 years of their undergraduate degree conferral. Benjamin is a Senior Civil Project Engineer with Gannett Fleming, contributing to major projects such as the Metro East San Fernando Valley Light Rail and the Inglewood Transit Connector. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA and a Master of Science degree from UC Berkeley.
He worked for more than eight years on LA Metro’s $2 billion 8.5-mile “K” Line, also known as the Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Transit Corridor megaproject. He now works as a Senior Civil Project Engineer for Gannett Fleming as a design lead on composite utility rearrangements and an LADWP electrical relocation design package for the Metro Rail East San Fernando Valley Project.
Baker is active with ASCE since 2006, Benjamin has served as the ASCE Metropolitan Los Angeles Branch President (2022-2023) and will join the ASCE Los Angeles Section Board in the coming years. He has also been a practitioner advisor for the UCLA ASCE student chapter since 2015. Benjamin’s dedication to civil engineering and his commitment to mentoring are truly commendable.He received the ASCE LA Section award for Excellence in Promotion of Infrastructure. He has also served as Treasurer and University Outreach Chair for the ASCE Los Angeles Younger Member Forum (LA YMF).
We also extend our congratulations to Christine G. Goulet, M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’08, for being honored with the 2024 UCLA Distinguished Alumnus Award.Christine’s remarkable contributions to the field have set a high standard for excellence and innovation.Her academic achievements and professional accomplishments serve as an inspiration to the UCLA community.
Her influence on the academic and technical paths of multiple generations of students go back to that time where she shared insights from her practical field experiences and helped convey the fundamentals of geotechnical engineering principles to aspiring engineers, first as a teaching assistant and later as a lecturer for graduate students. Leading by example, she showed her students how to communicate complex technical information in an approachable and relatable way.We had a wonderful turnout at the event, with many UCLA alumni in attendance, including our Dean, Alissa Park. Here, we provide some photos of the alumni who attended the event.
Christine Goulet’s contributions to UCLA began in 2003 when she started as a graduate student and teaching assistant in the CEE department. Christine’s research at UCLA and beyond has forged new levels of understanding related to how earthquakes affect soils and the performance of structures. This work has improved our understanding of how we can design and construct structures to protect life and property so that our investments in buildings and infrastructure can match the hazards on the ground and add to the resilience of our communities. She led large collaborative projects at the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center and the Southern California Earthquake Center, exerting a leadership style that fosters a sense of community, where contributions from various researchers lead to better integration of knowledge into practical solutions. While the Western United States has been an obvious area of focus due to the active nature of the seismic activity in the region, Christine’s work has also resulted in important new hazard mapping for the central and eastern parts of North America. Her work has had influence in the public and private sectors, notably affecting building codes in the U.S. and Canada. Currently, Christine is the Director of the Earthquake Science Center at the U.S. Geological Survey where she oversees the leadership, administration, operation, and management of the center
As we celebrate these outstanding individuals, we are reminded of the impact that dedicated professionals can have on the world. Their achievements inspire current and future students to strive for excellence in their endeavors. Congratulations once again to Benjamin Baker and Christine Goulet on their remarkable accomplishments.
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