Civil & Environmental Engineering Frank Parker Lecture Series Wednesday, December 2, 4:10pm Featheringill Hall, Room 134, Jacobs Believed In Me Auditorium “Growth with Excellence: The 25 by 25 Initiative” DR. KATHERINE BANKS Vice Chancellor for Engineering Dean, Dwight Look College of Engineering Professor of Civil Engineering Texas A&M University Frank Parker Lecture Series The Frank L. Parker Distinguished Lecture Series honors the life and accomplishments of Dr. Frank Parker, an internationally recognized expert and pioneer in nuclear waste remediation. Dr. Parker is credited with advising the United States and Russia on the clean up of legacy radioactive wasted produced during the Cold War, and the disposition of spent fuel generated by commercial nuclear reactors in the modern era. Among his many honors, Dr. Parker became the first Vanderbilt University School of Engineering faculty member to be elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, and he is the only engineering professor to have received both the Vanderbilt’s Alexander Heard and Harvie Bransomb awards for his achievements. In addition to these accolades for his technical body of work, it was Dr. Parker’s career as ad educator that produced generations of future leaders who are shaping our world. The Frank L. Parker Lecture Series at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was endowed to celebrate the knowledge, leadership, and mentoring provided by Dr. Parker that serves as an inspiration to us all. The lecture is meant to shine a spotlight on the ways in which engineering has impacted and could impact our social, economic, environmental and other national policies. ABSTRACT The 25 by 25 Initiative was designed to address the critical demand for more engineers in Texas and the nation. The Texas Workforce Commission is projecting a 19% growth in engineering jobs over the next 12 years. This projection mirrors a recent call by the President's Council of Advisors on STEM for the US to increase the number of STEM graduates to 1,000,000 in the next 10 years. The Texas A&M College of Engineering is stepping forward to address this critical state and national need through an innovative sustainable and systemic change of our educational enterprise that includes transformation of our educational practices and facilities. BIOGRAPHY Dr. M. Katherine Banks was elected to the NAE for contributions to phytoremediation of petroleum contamination and for leadership in engineering education. Through engineering design, plant biology, and environmental chemistry, her research led to the development of a new, low-cost treatment approach for removal of petroleum contamination from soil without significant site disturbance. Dr. Banks is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and is a licensed professional civil engineer in Indiana, Texas, and Kansas. She received numerous awards including the ASCE Petersen Outstanding Woman of the Year Award, ASCE Rudolph Hering Medal, Purdue Faculty Scholar Award, Sloan Foundation Mentoring Fellowship, and the American Association of University Women Fellowship. She is the author or co-author of more than 150 journal articles, proceedings papers, and book chapters, and has made more than 200 scholarly or technical presentations before professional and related groups. She served as editor-in-chief for the ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering and associate editor of the International Journal of Phytoremediation.