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Moving trucks won’t be needed when the new head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at South ��ֱ���� State University moves into the third-floor executive suite in Crothers Engineering Hall.

Guanghui Hua will only have to move a few doors down the hallway when the environmental engineering professor becomes department head June 22.

Hua was notified Feb. 7 by Sanjeev Kumar, dean of the Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering, that his candidacy was successful.

Kumar said he is pleased to have Hua as a part of the college leadership team. 

“I strongly believe that Dr. Hua’s commitment to excellence, his research track record and experience as graduate program coordinator will be very valuable as we position the Lohr College of Engineering to contribute to the university’s goal of being recognized as R1 institution,” Kumar added.

Hua has been on the SDSU faculty since August 2012. He will replace Nadim Wehbe, who has been on the faculty since 1998 and department head since 2013. Wehbe had been looking to retire a year earlier, but an initial search didn’t produce the desired candidate. Wehbe agreed to continue during a second search.

That also prompted Hua to consider his career path and the department.

“I was promoted to full professor two years ago. Our department has a highly dedicated group of faculty and staff. I’ve seen this department grow in the last 12 years, and I like the direction the department is going,” so when the application deadline arrived in September, Hua was among those who had applied. 

Aims to continue Ph.D. growth

In looking at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which had 221 undergraduate and 45 graduate students in fall semester, Hua said, “This is a very strong department that has grown in teaching and research. Our Ph.D. program started in 2014. After 10 years we are able to achieve more than 15 enrolled Ph.D. students this spring.

He noted, “Every discipline is very active in recruiting Ph.D. students. Nadim has done a tremendous job. I would like to thank him for what he has done for this department.”

Hua also was complimentary of the leadership at the college level and the direction the college is going, which is to mirror SDSU’s objective of obtaining R1 research status and increasing enrollment in the Ph.D. program. To reach R1 status, the university’s research expenditures must hit $50 million annually and award 70 doctorates annually based on a three-year average.

For fiscal year 2024, the university’s research expenditures hit a school record $74 million for a 13.5% climb from FY 2023.

Hua said his top three priorities as department head are to:

• “Grow the Ph.D. program and diversify the funding sources so we have adequate research funding sources.”

• “Work with the faculty to continue to improve our undergraduate and graduate curriculum to make sure our curriculum meets workforce needs.” That will involve working closely with the department’s curriculum and assessment committee and the industrial advisory board.

• “Work with the college and university to recruit the highest and best quality students to make sure our enrollment continues to grow.”

Plans to continue his research

Another immediate concern is to work with Wehbe to fill a vacancy in structural engineering (Mostafa Tazarv left after 9 ½ years to take a position at Nevada-Reno) and Hua’s faculty position in environmental engineering.

While Hua’s main job will be to serve as department head, he does plan to continue to explore federal funding to continue his research. 

He notes he has active National Science Foundation-financed projects on the formation and control of disinfection byproducts created by the treatment of drinking water.

Hua came to SDSU from Gainesville, Florida, where he was a process engineer with Jones Edmunds & Associates. He earned a doctorate in environmental engineering from the University of Massachusetts in 2006 and took the Florida job in February 2007.

Hua earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental engineering from Qingdao Technological University in China in 1997 and 2000, respectively.

He met his future wife, Kyungnan (Karen) Min, at UMass. They both got jobs with Jones Edmunds in Gainesville and at SDSU. She is a senior lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. They have two daughters. Emily, 19, is a freshman finance major at the University of Minnesota. Amy, 13, is a Brookings seventh grader.

Hua said in his free time he likes watching food and travel videos from foreign countries and playing soccer and football with his daughters.