McCormick Announces Endowed Chairs

It’s the season of endowed chair announcements and the Civil & Environmental Engineering office is proud to announce three faculty members as this year’s recipients of the Louis Berger Junior Professorship, Patterson Junior Professorship, and the Jerome Cohen Professorship.  

Alessandro Rotta Loria, assistant professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, has been appointed as the Louis Berger Junior Professor from September 1, 2023, through August 31, 2026. The Berger Chair receives a discretionary account which may be used to support research and teaching.  

The professorship is named after Louis Berger, founder and CEO of Louis Berger Group, a collection of global civil infrastructure consulting and design organizations. Dr. Berger was a member of the Civil and Environmental Engineering advisory committee. He passed away in 1996, and the strong and active family interest in this chair is in the hands of Dr. Berger’s granddaughter, Sofia Berger, who is a very active current member of the Dept.’s External Advisory Board.   

Amanda Irini Blomberg Stathopoulos, associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, has been reappointed as the William A. Patterson Junior Chair in Transportation for an additional year from September 1, 2023, through August 31, 2024. This appointment recognizes Stathopoulos’ continued contributions in transportation engineering. The Patterson Chair receives a discretionary fund that can be used for teaching and research.  

Sinan Keten, professor, and associate chair of Mechanical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering and (by courtesy) Biomedical Engineering, has been appointed as the Jerome B. Cohen Professor of Engineering from September 1, 2023, through August 31, 2028.  

Named after a former Dean of the McCormick School, this honor reflects Keten’s distinguished and widely recognized scholarship in the field of computational materials science. The goal of the chair is to recognize and develop faculty who align with Dean Cohen's strong and balanced dedication to innovative research and teaching, and who show the potential to become exceptional leaders. The Cohen Chair will receive a discretionary fund that may be used for research and teaching.