ASCE Pittsburgh Names Andrew Bunger 2016 Professor of the Year
PITTSBURGH, PA (February 1, 2017) … The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has chosen Andrew Bunger, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, as the 2016 Professor of the Year for the Pittsburgh Section. Bunger will receive the award at the Pittsburgh Section’s Engineer’s Week Banquet on February 18 at the Engineer’s Society of Western Pennsylvania.
The ASCE Section Award Committee stated it selected Bunger for his continual excellence in teaching, contribution to professional guidance and the development of civil engineering students by reinvigorating the geotechnical engineering program at the University of Pittsburgh, among other criteria.
Bunger’s research interests include the mechanics of hydraulic fractures, interaction between shale formations and drilling fluids, the emplacement dynamics of magma intrusions, core discing and poroelasticity. His experience includes research for the oil and gas industry, geothermal industry, mining industries and carbon sequestration.
The National Science Foundation also recognized Bunger earlier this year by awarding him a $310,000 grant to study how naturally-occurring dikes swarms can lead to improved methods of oil and gas reservoir stimulation. The study will look at the 1,900-mile-long Mackenzie Dike Swarm and other ancient geological features to determine the mechanics of the self-organizing behavior within swarms. Bunger will investigate why naturally occurring dike swarms organize themselves uniformly across great distances, but man-made cracks associated with hydraulic fracturing tend to localize to one or two dominant strands.
Bunger received his PhD and MSc in geological engineering from the University of Minnesota. He also received a bachelor’s degree in geological engineering from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor of arts degree in physics/engineering science from Bethel University. He has a second appointment in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt.
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Contact: Paul Kovach