Brent Stephens Appointed Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
Natacha DePaola, Carol and Ed Kaplan Armour Dean of Engineering, is pleased to announce the appointment of Brent Stephens as Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering effective September 1, 2018. Stephens earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tennessee Technological University in 2007. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin where he received his M.S. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering (2009) and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (2012).
Stephens joined the faculty at Illinois Tech in 2012 quickly taking on roles in the administration and management of the department. Stephens started a new M.S. program in Architectural Engineering; started a joint Ph.D. specialization in Technologies of the Built Environment with the College of Architecture; became program director for Architectural Engineering; and in 2016 began serving as one of the co-leaders of the department’s Transition Leadership Team alongside Professors Jamshid Mohammadi and Paul Anderson who together managed the everyday affairs of the department and worked on the strategic planning for the CAEE department.
Stephens runs the Built Environment Research Group at Illinois Tech, in which he and his team investigate the emissions, transport, and control of indoor pollutants; human exposure and health risk assessment; building energy efficiency and sustainable building operating and design; building science measurements and method development; and development of low-cost building environmental sensors and controls.
Research funding for Stephens’ work has come from a number of sources including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineering (ASHRAE), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), among others. He has authored almost 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, editorials, and commentaries in his career, and has given over 40 invited talks since joining Illinois Tech. Some of Stephens’ most visible research accomplishments include the ASHRAE New Investigator Award (2015) and publishing what became the most downloaded paper in the history of the journal Atmospheric Environment.
Stephens is active in service to his profession as current Secretary of the International Society for Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ); Chair of the ISIAQ Scientific and Technical Committee (STC) 21 on Ventilation; Member and Research Subcommittee Chair of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Technical Committee (TC) 2.4 on Particulate Air Contaminants and Particulate Contaminant Removal Equipment; Technical Chair of Indoor Air 2018, the 15th international conference of the International Society of Indoor Air and Climate; Editorial Board member for the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology; Chair of sessions and workshops, and on advisory committees, for several national and international conferences; and Member of numerous nonprofit and academic project advisory boards including projects led by the U.S Department of Energy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Shedd Aquarium.
Stephens looks forward to working with students, staff, and faculty to build upon existing strengths in the department and to grow strategically in new areas of research and education.
Please join DePaola in welcoming Stephens as the new department chair.
