Concrete Professor Recognized for Career Achievements


Dave Darwin

A highly decorated professor at the University of Kansas School of Engineering has earned two prestigious awards for career achievement in the field of civil engineering.

David Darwin, the Deane E. Ackers Distinguished Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, has been named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and was selected as an inaugural Fellow in the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI).

Darwin, who has been a Fellow in ASCE since 1989, will receive the official recognition as a Distinguished Member in October at the ASCE Annual Conference in Montreal. Distinguished Member is the highest honor bestowed by ASCE. In the organization’s 160-year history, only 615 engineers have achieved that distinction.

Stan Rolfe, Albert P. Learned Distinguished Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, achieved Distinguished Member status in ASCE in 2001 and was instrumental in nominating Darwin to receive the recognition this year.

“Dave is certainly deserving of this award,” Rolfe said. “This type of peer recognition is indicative of the caliber of faculty in the School of Engineering at the University of Kansas.”

In March, Darwin received special recognition from an organization within ASCE, the Structural Engineering Institute. The organization recently established the Fellow grade of membership “to recognize a select group of distinguished SEI members as leaders and mentors in the structural engineering profession.”

Because of his professional accomplishments, Darwin was extended an invitation to immediately join the first class of Fellows without going through the application process.

“SEI named 64 Fellows out of an organization of nearly 22,000, that’s one-third of 1 percent.  Receiving these two awards is a really special honor,” Darwin said.

Darwin has gained international recognition for his groundbreaking research on bridge decks. In 2010, Concrete Construction Magazine recognized Darwin as one of the five most influential individuals in the concrete industry.