Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Reston, Va.—Vincent P. Drnevich, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, Dist.M.ASCE, professor of civil engineering at Purdue University, was recently named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). ASCE’s highest accolade, distinguished membership recognizes eminence in a branch of engineering, and is currently comprised of only 192 of the Society’s 144,000 members worldwide. Drnevich will be formally inducted, in honor of his contributions to geo-technical engineering, at the Celebration of Leaders luncheon during ASCE’s 140th Annual Civil Engineering Conference in Las Vegas, which will be held from October 21 to 23, 2010.
ASCE is recognizing Drnevich for his pioneering work that has shaped the geotechnical engineering field through ingenious methods of measuring soil properties. He has also demonstrated distinguished service as an engineer, teacher, mentor, researcher and administrator who has had great influence on thousands of students.
Drnevich’s research has focused on several areas: stress wave methods and time domain reflectometry for the measurement of soil properties, analysis of electromagnetic waves for intrinsic properties of soil and chemically modified soil, as well as a method for determining maximum dry unit weight and water content range for the effective compaction of granular soils using a vibrating hammer. He holds six patents and three standard methods have been developed from his work.
Drnevich began his academic career with the University of Kentucky, after which joined Purdue University as Professor and Head of the School of Civil Engineering, a position which he held for nine years. Over the last decade, he made major improvements to, and published papers on, the civil engineering capstone design.
Drnevich who recently chaired the Civil Engineering Division of the American Society for Engineering Education is also a Fellow of the American Society for Testing and Materials. Among his many accolades are the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Prize, the Norman Medal, the Hogentogler Award and the Woodland G. Shockley Award. Drnevich is on the editorial board of the Geotechnical Testing Journal, and has also authored or co-authored more than 100 technical papers and articles in various journals and proceedings.
Drnevich has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame and he received his doctorate from the University of Michigan. Drnevich is a registered professional engineer in Indiana and was appointed to the Indiana Board of Registration for Professional Engineers. He lives West Lafayette, Ind.
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents more than 144,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. For more information, visit www.asce.org.
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