Patrick Reed, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State, has been named the winner of the 2012 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
The honor is awarded to civil engineers younger than the age of 40 and is given to only five people per year. The ASCE cited Reed for his "pioneering advances in multi-objective systems analysis that have significantly advanced engineering practice related to hydrologic prediction, observation network design and risk-based water supply management."
The selection committee noted his contributions to multi-objective optimization, model diagnostics and visual analytics to create powerful analytical tools for discovering the tradeoffs and controlling uncertainties impacting the performance of complex engineered systems, with a focus on water resources.
The award consists of a certificate and a $1,600 prize.
Reed's expertise includes management modeling for water resources systems, multi-objective decision support, scientific visualization, high performance computing and uncertainty analysis for complex engineered systems.