Peter Vikesland Named Chair of Duke’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Peter Vikesland will join the faculty of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering on July 1, 2027 and begin a five-year appointment as chair of Duke’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. With deep expertise in nanotechnology and its application in sensors for water quality monitoring, Vikesland will lead the department that has seen tremendous growth in recent years into its next phase of development.

A faculty member at Virginia Tech since 2001, Vikesland earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Grinnell College before pursuing his master’s and doctoral degrees in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa. At Virginia Tech, he was the inaugural Pryor Professor of Engineering in recognition of his excellence in both research and teaching.

“As a civil engineer myself, I could not be more excited about Peter’s recruitment to Duke given his record of pioneering research, inspired teaching and bold leadership,” said Jerome Lynch, Vinik Dean of Engineering. “With our school committed to advancing the common good through our work, Peter brings to Duke a wealth of experience, energy and vision that will undoubtedly help elevate our collective capacity to accomplish our mission of engineering in service to society.”

“When I think about what skills an engineer will need to succeed 25 years from now, they’re different from how the field has approached education in the past,” Vikesland said. “The fundamentals won’t change, but how they are applied will require engineers with strong backgrounds in the liberal arts, economics, law and communication. Duke is an incredible institution for providing those connections.”

Vikesland is no stranger to Duke. Besides already having lived in the Research Triangle for several years before his tenure at Virginia Tech, he was a longtime member of Duke’s Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINT). A research conglomerate of seven academic institutions, CEINT explored the relationship between nanomaterials and the environment for nearly a decade.

After serving as Virginia Tech’s primary liaison to CEINT for many years, Vikesland turned his research attention to developing the tools to investigate the inner workings of difficult-to-reach places such as inside cells or microscopic droplets. The work was initially driven by the Covid-19 pandemic, when his colleagues were looking for help understanding how viruses are activated and inactivated while being carried and deposited by water droplets. Today, his research focuses on understanding the chemistry and biology within droplets just a few microns across, where interesting and unexpected phenomena takes hold.

At Duke, Vikesland will integrate this work into an already strong ecosystem exploring connections between water quality, water management and human health. He will also leverage the connections he has already built with Duke faculty over the years while building new ones to lead the growth of the department.

“When you’re a leader, you can’t simply decide a direction for everyone to go in, you need to figure out where they want to go and then help facilitate that growth,” Vikesland said. “I very much plan on having an open-door policy to get a deep understanding of the department and work together with this amazing group to build on its strengths in the coming years.”

A faculty member celebrated just as much for his teaching abilities as his research, Vikesland also plans to teach a couple of courses each year. His initial intention is to continue teaching a mainstay curriculum he has built during his 25 years at Virginia Tech—a class on the fundamentals of public health engineering. Going beyond designing and building systems, the syllabus is meant to teach students how issues such as epidemiology and toxicology inform water treatment practices and air pollution policies.

When not in the classroom or the laboratory, Vikesland can be found running, biking or rowing his way through the streets and countryside. And to fuel all of that activity, he often turns to one of the roughly 100 cookbooks he keeps on his shelves. It’s a hobby that speaks to his original love of chemistry.

“I was a chemist as an undergraduate, but I was always looking for a way to apply that knowledge rather than simply making new chemicals,” Vikesland said. “When I saw a presentation about the chemistry behind the hole in the o-zone layer and acid rain, I knew I could make an impact through environmental engineering.

“That’s part of the reason I’m taking on the role of chair at Duke CEE, too,” he added. “I know it’s a place where everyone cares deeply about making a difference in the world.”

Vikesland has directed or co-directed nearly $28 million of sponsored research to support transdisciplinary and highly impactful research. He is the author or co-author of over 150 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and his work has been cited in more than 13,000 articles in peer-reviewed publications. Vikesland is a fellow of both the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and the Royal Society of Chemistry and has received a number of professional awards in recognition for his contributions.