Four new faculty members are joining the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering starting in the fall 2024 semester, bringing with them a range of expertise in various areas.
Abdulrazak Abdulghafour
Associate Professor of Practice in the construction area
Abdulghafour is a UT graduate (MS/CEE ’91, PhD ’98). He comes to UT from Saudi Arabia, where he was a professor of civil engineering at Umm Al-Qura University. Abdulghafour has over 30 years of experience in academia and industry. He has a strong background in construction engineering, project management, structural engineering, and architecture. Abdulghafour has taught a wide range of courses in civil engineering, supervised numerous master’s theses, and published extensively in his field of specialization. Complementing his academic background, Abdulghafour has carved a distinguished career steering and advising on many large-scale infrastructure ventures encompassing roads, bridges, airports, and tunnels.
Abdulghafour’s son, Osama (MS/CEE ’21), was born in Knoxville and obtained his master’s degree on Rocky Top. Learn more about the father-son alumni duo.
Oriana Calderón
Assistant Professor
Calderón earned her PhD in transportation engineering in 2023 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). She also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Universidad ICESI and bachelor’s degrees in economics and industrial engineering from Universidad del Valle in Colombia. Her primary research goal is to enhance the sustainability of urban freight systems by studying supply chain agent behavior, for both private and societal benefits. She has experience as a postdoctoral research associate at RPI, where one of the most important projects she worked on was the “Super Truck 3 – Volvo Zero Emission Freight Future” with Volvo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Calderón has been a lecturer in the Industrial Engineering Department at Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia, and a teaching assistant in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at RPI. She also has industry experience, having held roles in different areas of the supply chain, including logistics. She is the Treasurer of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Latin America & Caribbean (LAC) Chapter and the Junior VP of Communications for the Women of Operations Research and Management Science (WORMS).
“I am excited to join UT for the opportunity to work with a transdisciplinary team to tackle the most complex challenges in future mobility. In Tennessee, where 1 in 13 jobs are in the trucking industry, I foresee making significant contributions to advancing sustainable freight mobility. One of my goals is to help maximize the impact of implementing emerging technologies, such as electric trucks and drones, to foster more sustainable freight systems.”
Sarah Donaher
Assistant Professor
Donaher, a joint hire with the Department of Nuclear Engineering, is an environmental engineer and radioecologist who studies the mobility and bioavailability of radioactive metals and contaminants in the environment. She has previously worked on projects investigating the accumulation and toxicity of radioactive metals in shellfish and the environmental behavior of metals in wetland habitats. Donaher graduated with her PhD in environmental engineering and earth sciences from Clemson University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from Clemson and a master’s degree in marine science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Donaher served a six-month AmeriCorps term as a Montana Conservation Corps Fellow with the Bureau of Land Management and is currently a member of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Task Group 125: Ecosystem Services in Environmental Radiological Protection. In her free time, Donaher enjoys training agility with her dog Murphy, hiking, and reading.
“I am so excited to be joining UT because the university is leading the way to improve education and research in the nuclear-environmental arena. UT is the only school in the country to offer a minor in Nuclear Decommissioning and Environmental Management and I am excited to contribute to meeting workforce needs in this area through worldclass education and research. In addition, Knoxville is a hub of the nuclear-environmental community in the US, with organizations like Y-12, ORNL, and UCOR involved in pioneering work and research in our field.”
Ben Fennell
Lecturer
Fennell, who will teach in the new BS environmental engineering program, has over 13 years of combined research and engineering experience, serving as a professional licensed engineer and project manager on water and wastewater projects. Prior to joining UT, Fennell worked as a consulting engineer for nearly seven years at Strand Associates, Inc., obtained his PhD at Texas A&M University, and served as an Instructional Assistant Professor in the Zachry Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University. Fennell earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Tennessee Technological University. Fennell has designed numerous water and wastewater treatment and conveyance projects throughout the southern United States ranging in size and complexity. His research interests broadly include water treatment (PFAS, DBPs, & advanced reduction/oxidation), water quality, and water system modeling. Fennell is passionate about engineering education and teaches several national review courses to prepare civil engineers for the Professional Engineering Exam. Fennell spends most of his spare time outside with his wife and children, enjoying the natural beauty of Tennessee.
“As a Tennessee native, I grew up enjoying the beauty of the state – the Smokies, the rivers, the kind people, and occasionally country music. Enjoying these gifts, coupled with a knack for engineering, gave me a passion to help protect this beauty for generations to come. What better way to do this than teach the next generation of Civil & Environmental Engineering students here at the University of Tennessee. I am extremely excited to invest in our students – for they are the leaders of our tomorrow.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (865-974-0683, rpotkey@utk.edu)