🎓 Successfully Defended My PhD!
Date: March 28, 2025
I’m thrilled to share that I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UT Austin! Grateful to many people, I would like to share the acknowledgements section of my dissertation here.
------The most important thing I have learned in doing research is to stay objective. That realization came five years ago when I submitted my first paper for peer review. People will judge, and some will criticize, but the key is that all those comments are about the scientific question and how it is being addressed. Nothing is personal. Research is not about people; it is about science. Once I incorporated that, I became more open to different opinions, more comfortable with critique, and even grateful for disagreement.
When I began my PhD, my supervisor Dr. Dev Niyogi once told me, “Sui, you won’t be short of papers.” And he was right: publishing has never been my biggest struggle. His words echoed in my mind more than once during these four years, which helps me stay calm and not rush through things. Instead, I concentrate on the questions: What are the most important scientific questions? What is the right way to answer them?
As a minimalist, I tried to limit the number of papers I read, the seminars I attended, the hours I worked each day, and even the number of papers I published. I know this approach may differ from the advice of many professors, but in an era overloaded with information, I do not think the challenge is getting exposed to more fields or opportunities. The real challenge is judging how much of it actually benefits your growth and being intentional about what and how you choose to learn and expose yourself to. I wanted to do meaningful research and aim for high-quality publications through efficient working habits. Looking back, I see four years, six first-author manuscripts—including one in PNAS and one under revision in Science Advances—and maybe one in Nature someday. I am secretly proud of that.
Coming back to my supervisor, Dr. Dev Niyogi, his working style and strengths are very different from mine. I have always noticed his talent for communication, negotiation, and adaptation, especially in how he interacts with people. This is an area I am not naturally strong in. These differences sometimes made things a little less smooth, but as we tried to cooperate and adapt, I learned a lot and truly benefited from it. Over the four years we worked together, I have seen him evolve just as much as I have grown. I joined UT one year after he did, and I am happy to be his first PhD graduate from UT. It has been fascinating to watch TExUS Lab grow from just four PhD students to a full team of 25 members now. I believe these four years have been meaningful and transformative for both of us.
Still, I struggled, especially when things unrelated to research came up. Research makes me calm and happy. Everything else? Not always. I am deeply thankful to Dr. Zong-Liang Yang for co-advising my PhD. He always made me feel warm and supported, almost like a parent figure. His office is in the newly built part of the Jackson School of Geosciences, behind a warm yellow wooden door that always felt like walking into a therapy room. We could talk about work or just life. He was always positive when I was down, and never once let me feel unsupported.
I am also grateful to Dr. Paola Passalacqua, my committee member, who is not only a cool professor but also a thoughtful graduate advisor in Civil Engineering. Whenever I needed guidance, I tried to catch her during student lunch hours to talk face-to-face. I have admired her strong sense of responsibility and dedication to the department’s growth, as well as her incredible time management. Having her in Civil Engineering made my transition between the two departments feel grounded.
I would not have enjoyed my PhD journey that much without Dr. Charles Werth, another committee member of my dissertation. I have had a great time with many of my friends in Dr. Werth’s group. I have to say Dr. Werth have done an amazing job recruiting and mentoring students. I have admired your mentoring style from afar and have secretly taken notes while listening to lab stories from your group.
I would not like to say thank you to my collaborators and co-authors, Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, Dr. Marshall Shepherd, Dr. Guoqiang Tang, and Dr. Zhi Li. I would not have come this far without your help. I truly admired your expertise, so I reached out to invite you into my work. I have benefitted a lot from that decision, as I have learned so much from each of you in the collaboration. By the way, I have noticed that all of you have become brilliant, strong, and accomplished professors now (congrats especially to Guoqiang and Zhi on your new positions!). I hope to join your ranks soon.
I am glad that I made the decision to come to UT for my PhD four years ago. It is a beautiful and vibrant university filled with wonderful people. I truly cherish the opportunity to meet, work with, and become friends with so many of you. Thank you for the companionship, the conversations, and the exciting moments over the past four years—thank you Meghna Thomas, Mahmoud Mubarak, Harsh Kamath, Ting-Yu Dai, Samuel Fung, Shyama Mohanty, Naveen Sudharsan, Manmeet Singh, and Jeil Oh. I am sorry that I cannot list everyone from the two research groups and two departments by name, but please know I truly appreciate each of you. Thanks to my parents, family, and to Eric. Your endless love and support made this possible.
In the end, I would like to thank the NASA FINESST (Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology) program for supporting my PhD study. I also want to express my respect to all the researchers who continue to pursue scientific questions with curiosity and passion.