Tom Sheahan is a professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Northeastern, where he has been on the faculty since 1991. He is also the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the College of Engineering. His expertise is in geotechnical engineering, specifically experimental methods for studying the mechanical behavior of soft ground and its relationship to environmental contaminant problems. He has been the Principal Investigator and co-PI on a number of NSF grants and an NIH R01 (basic research) grant in this area. He also has extensive experience in designing and implementing training, mentoring and integration programs for research trainees on large-scale, multi-institution research projects. In addition to his involvement as education and training lead on the NSF coastal adaptation project, he is the Training Core Leader for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) program called PROTECT, a multi-institution effort examining the link between groundwater contamination and high preterm birth rates in Puerto Rico. Prof. Sheahan is the author of 90 publications, including co-author of a textbook on geotechnical engineering. He has been recognized with outstanding teaching awards at Northeastern, and received the national Tau Beta Pi McDonald Mentoring award for his work as a faculty advisor, mentor to junior faculty, and his advising of student groups.