NEW ENGINEERING DEAN FOR RICE
Institute of Technology, is the new dean of Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering on July 1. A fellow of the American Society of
R
Civil Engineers, DesRoches specializes in the design of resilient infrastructure systems under extreme loads and the application of smart and adaptive materials. He served as the key technical leader in the United States’ response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
and raised in Queens, New York City, DesRoches said his love of science and math and his interest in “tinkering with things“ led him to pursue a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Berkeley. He was at Berkeley when the San
Francisco area was hit with a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in 1989, and he witnessed firsthand the structural damage in the Bay Area.
“I became fascinated with studying
structural engineering and how we could design structures to perform better in earthquakes, and I ended up studying that for my master’s and Ph.D.,” he said. DesRoches joined the faculty of
Georgia Tech in Atlanta as an assistant professor in 1998 after completing his Ph.D. in structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2002 he received the Presidential
Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given to scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers. He became a professor in 2008, and in 2012 he was named the Karen and John Huff School Chair and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering—a position in which he provides leadership to a top-ranked program with 100 faculty and staff and more than 1,150 students. As chair, DesRoches has overseen a
$13.5 million renovation of the school’s main facility. He doubled the number of named chairs and professors and guided the development of a new minor in global engineering leadership for engineering
CCG ALUMNI COMMITTEE HAS A NEW CHAIR
to-day activities of the committee as well as oversight of all program events. Career Communications Group, Inc. (CCG) is the publisher of US Black
F
www.blackengineer.com
Engineer & Information Technology magazine and the producer of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) STEM Conference, which held its 31st annual event in Washington, DC, February 9–11, 2017. Since winning the 1996 BEYA for Community Service, Dr. Boyd has been active in the CCG alumni network. Each year, she takes part in events that feature past award winners from both BEYA and WOC STEM conferences. These events connect young people in high school and college with opportunities to learn about STEM careers from real-life role models and benefit from the rewards of mentoring. In 2012 she was inducted into CCG’s Hall of Fame in recognition of her significant contributions to advancing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Dr. Boyd gave a keynote speech on STEM and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) at the 2016 BEYA STEM Conference. S
DEANS ISSUE 2017 I USBE&IT 9
ormer Alabama State University (ASU) president Gwendolyn Boyd has been named President and Chair of the Career Communications Group Alumni Committee. In this position, Dr. Boyd will be responsible for day-
eginald DesRoches, chair of the School of Civil and Environmen- tal Engineering at the Georgia
undergraduates. He also became Georgia Tech’s faculty athletics representative and helped formulate policies affecting intercollegiate athletics on campus. He has served as thesis adviser to 30 doctoral candidates and 17 master’s students. DesRoches serves on the
National Academies Resilient America Roundtable, the Board on Army Science and Technology, the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Advisory Committee, the Global Earthquake Modeling Scientific Board, and the advisory board for the Natural Disasters, Coastal Infrastructure and Emergency Management Research Center. He has chaired the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Seismic Effects Committee as well as the executive committee of the Technical Council on Lifeline Earthquake Engineering. He has testified before U.S. House
and Senate subcommittees on earthquake resilience and the state of the science. He has also participated in Washington, DC, roundtables for media and congressional staffers on topics ranging from disaster preparedness to challenges for African- American men in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.. S
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