Dr. Christopher M. Chini – Stillwell Research Group

Former Postdoctoral Research Scholar
Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

cchini2@illinois.edu

Biography

Dr. Christopher M. Chini is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the urban energy-water nexus. He uses urban metabolism concepts to account for water flows through an urban environment in order to evaluate the sustainability and resilience of the urban water-energy environment. The resulting model evaluates potential policy and engineering solutions to the water cycle in terms of their effectiveness in improving urban sustainability and resilience.

Christopher graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering in 2011. Following graduation, he spent two years at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Fort Worth, TX, working on a variety of design projects, specifically flood mitigation efforts in Dallas. After deciding to return to graduate school, Christopher earned his M.S. in Civil Engineering in 2015 and his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 2018 from the University of Illinois. His professional experience and academic work has led him towards an interdisciplinary approach to civil engineering as an important component of understanding civil infrastructure systems. Christopher’s goals are to bring concepts of sustainability and resilience into the forefront of the civil engineering education structure.

Research Topics

Urban metabolism
Urban water cycle
Water policy
Links between policy, engineering, and civil infrastructure

Publications

C.M. Chini, L.A. Djehdian, W.N. Lubega, and A.S. Stillwell. (2018). “Virtual water transfers of the US electric grid.” Nature Energy, 3(12), 1115-1123.
C.M. Chini and A.S. Stillwell. (2018). “The State of U.S. Urban Water: Data and the Energy-Water Nexus.” Water Resources Research, 54(3), 1796-1811.
C.M. Chini, J.F. Canning, K.L. Schreiber, J.M. Peschel, and A.S. Stillwell. (2017). “The Green Experiment: Cities, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Sustainability.” Sustainability, 9(1), 105. Featured on journal cover.
C.M. Chini, M. Konar, and A.S. Stillwell. (2017). “Direct and indirect urban water footprints of the United States.” Water Resources Research, 53(1), 316-327.
C.M. Chini and A.S. Stillwell. (2017). “Where Are All the Data? The Case for a Comprehensive Water and Wastewater Utility Database.” Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 143(3), 01816005.
C.M. Chini, K.L. Schreiber, Z.A. Barker, and A.S. Stillwell. (2016). “Quantifying Energy and Water Savings in the U.S. Residential Sector.” Environmental Science & Technology, 50(17), 9003-9012.
C.M. Chini, J.F. Wallace, C.J. Rutherford, and J.M. Peschel. (2015). “Shearing Failure Visualization via Particle Tracking in Soft Clay Using a Transparent Soil.” Geotechnical Testing Journal. 38(5), 1-17.
C.M. Chini. (2015). An experimental method for visualizing undrained shearing failure in a transparent soft clay surrogate. M.S. thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Education

Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018
M.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015
B.S. in Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, 2011
Foundation Honors

Awards

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
EWRI 2016 Best Student Presentation Award in Sustainability
Department of the Army Achievement Medal for Civilian Service, 2013
Zachry Department of Civil Engineering Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, 2011
SMART Scholarship Recipient, 2009