UA Names New Drummond Chair in Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.–The University of Alabama College of Engineering recently named Dr. G. Edward Gibson Jr. as the Garry Neil Drummond Endowed Chair in civil, construction and environmental engineering and as founding director of the construction engineering and management program.

As the Garry Neil Drummond Endowed Chair, Gibson will work to advance research in areas such as organizational change, front end planning, risk management, construction productivity, alternative dispute resolution, and electronic data management.

In addition, Gibson will oversee the development of the new construction engineering and management program by working closely with faculty on construction engineering research projects and directing students in pursuit of the new bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. He will also serve as research director for UA’s Aging Infrastructure Systems Center of Excellence.

Most recently, Gibson served as the W.R. Woolrich Professor of Engineering in the department of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. His previous experience also includes work as a project engineer for Texas Instruments Inc. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Gibson has also consulted with many organizations including Amgen, Frontier Oil, American Electric Power, NASA, 3M, BroadWing, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, BE&K and Union Carbide.

Active in many professional organizations, Gibson was recently elected as president of the Architectural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Gibson will begin serving a one-year term as president beginning in October.

Gibson has been recognized with numerous fellowships and awards, including induction into the National Academy of Construction in 2005, a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant to Norway in 2004, and the National Society of Professional Engineers Outstanding Engineering Educator Award in 2002. In addition, he has published more than 60 papers in technical journals and conferences and taught more than 170 short courses to industry.

Gibson received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Auburn University in 1980. He then went on to pursue a master of business administration at the University of Dallas in 1987, and he received his doctorate from Auburn University in 1990.

The Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama established the Garry Neil Drummond Chair of Mining Engineering at the Capstone in 1977 with gifts from Dr. Garry Neil Drummond, the coal mining companies in the state of Alabama, along with colleagues of Drummond in the mining industry. In 1997, the Board amended the Garry Neil Drummond Chair such that it was transferred to the department of civil and environmental engineering and was renamed the Garry Neil Drummond Chair of Civil Engineering.

In 1837, The University of Alabama became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering has about 1,800 students and more than 95 faculty. It has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.