Allen P. Davis Receives Outstanding Alumni Award

Allen P. Davis, environmental engineering professor and Charles A. Irish, Sr. Chair in Civil Engineering, has been recognized by the University of Delaware Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for his “sustained dedication, leadership, and service to the profession and society.”

The Outstanding Alumni Award was given at the department’s June 2 alumni reception.

Davis, who earned his, B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. at the University of Delaware, is an international leader in urban stormwater management and treatment. Much of his research over the last 20 years has focused on bioretention and other nature-based solutions for capturing runoff and removing the pollutants it carries before they are washed into rivers and lakes.

This work has helped inform best management practices used by public officials throughout the country. In 2012, for example, he began a project with Prince George’s County to provide recommendations on filter media type and configurations to enhance nutrient removal from stormwater runoff. Two years later, he served as a collaborator on a $2.2 million effort led by the University of South Florida to develop new technologies and management practices for addressing nutrient pollution in runoff and wastewater. And his latest research into the capabilities of compost blankets applied along highway embankments will help transportation officials nationwide better manage runoff using recycled leaf and grass byproducts.

Davis is co-author of the book Stormwater Management for Smart Growth and serves as the inaugural editor for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment. He was also the 2004-2010 associate editor of Chemosphere, Science for Environmental Technology.

He is an ASCE Fellow, an Environmental and Water Resources Institute Fellow, and a diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. Past awards include the 2010 A. James Clark School of Engineering Faculty Outstanding Research Award and the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award in 1993.

Published June 5, 2017