Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Hanadi Rifai has been named the Environmental Professional of the Year by the Texas Association of Environmental Professionals (TAEP).
Rifai, who also serves as the Cullen College’s associate dean for research and facilities and the environmental engineering graduate program director, will be honored at TAEP’s annual Environmental Challenges and Innovations Conference, set for Oct. 17 in Houston.
TAEP has a long association with the Cullen College’s environmental engineering graduate program, said Rifai, including funding a $1,000 student scholarship in the program every semester for several years.
Rifai is widely respected in the civil and environmental engineering communities. She has identified several major sources of water pollution in the Houston region and the Houston Ship Channel, including one location that was named a Superfund cleanup site by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. In 2012, she received a $500,000 grant renewal from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to expand her work into open areas of Galveston Bay. In addition, she was named a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2012 and has served as editor-in-chief of Bioremediation Journal since 2002.
“I’ve been affiliated with TAEP for many years and find the work they do and the services they provide to be extremely valuable. I’m both honored and humbled by this award,” Rifai said.