Two New Faculty Bring New Expertise in Water to CEE

The UC Davis Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering is excited to welcome two new faculty to the Department this fall, Dr. Alvar Escriva-Bou and Dr. Casey De Finnda. Both bring their distinctive expertise to focus on critical water challenges at the nexus of food, energy, environment, and climate.

Alvar Escriva-Bou

Assistant Professor Alvar Escriva-Bou is committed to solving the most pressing water issues facing California and beyond, using multidisciplinary approaches. His research uses systems analysis to explore integrated water, energy, food and environmental resources management. A key aspect of his work is a focus on the integration of the human dimension in these socio-environmental systems, linking engineering and economic models to assess drought impacts, improve urban and agricultural resilience, or analyze policy outcomes and tradeoffs. 

Prior to UC Davis, Prof. Escriva-Bou was an Assistant Professor at UCLA for a year. Previously, he spent eight years as a Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, where he learned how to connect research with the practical policy issues that govern water management at local, state, and national levels. Earlier in his career, he worked as a civil engineer, managing and developing large infrastructure projects in Spain.

While earning his PhD in Water and Environmental Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia in 2015, Prof. Escriva-Bou spent three years at UC Davis as a visiting PhD student working collaboratively with faculty, other students, and researchers and earning an MS in Agricultural & Resource Economics. He also holds an MS in Hydraulic and Environmental Engineering and a BS in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. 

Casey De Finnda

Assistant Professor Casey De Finnda (formerly Finnerty) is dedicated to developing socio-technical interventions informed by stakeholder engagement and systems-level analyses to address critical water challenges. With expertise in membrane- and thermal-based water treatment technologies, Prof. De Finnda’s Water-Nexus Lab aims to close the loop on wastewater management by facilitating water reuse, enabling resource recovery, and mitigating environmental pollution. Holistic wastewater management is vital for building resilient water systems, as it can be the cost-limiting factor for implementing reuse and is often the final opportunity to remediate anthropogenic pollutants before their release to the environment. Prof. De Finnda is committed to working with communities that are directly impacted by diverse water challenges and developing effective interventions that account for real-world complexity. 

Born and raised in California, Prof. De Finnda earned his PhD and MS in Environmental Engineering and his BS in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining UC Davis, Prof. De Finnda worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University with Dr. Menachem Elimelech. He also serves as the Board President of the Peoples Public Lab, an organization committed to bridging the gap between research and communities while empowering and amplifying voices of those who have faced historical and systematic oppression, displacement, and other forms of social injustice.