Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Reston, Va. — Dallas Little, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, Regents Professor and E. B. Snead Chair Professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The Society’s highest accolade, active distinguished membership is comprised of approximately only 200 of its 140,000 members worldwide. Little will be presented the award, in honor of his leadership and deep commitment to transportation engineering education and practices and groundbreaking research in incorporating fundamental aspects of materials engineering into models that explain how asphalt pavements and chemically stabilized pavement layers perform under various environmental and traffic conditions, on October 20-22, 2011, at ASCE’s Annual Civil Engineering Conference in Memphis, Tenn.
Little is one of the top authorities in the field of flexible pavement mechanics and pavement subgrade stabilization. His unique expertise combines pavement engineering, geotechnical engineering, materials engineering, mechanics, mineralogy and asphalt chemistry. He was one of the first to investigate surface energy as a tool in understanding how the bond between asphalt and aggregate impacts damage incurred in asphalt pavements, especially in the presence of moisture. His most significant accomplishments have been his long-term research in understanding and modeling the process of micro damage healing of asphalt paving materials and applying these concepts to design and in defining how to prevent deleterious reactions in chemical stabilization of soils and aggregates.
His distinguished career is supported by his renowned international contributions. He is widely known for his work over the past 20 years with the International Center for Aggregate Research, which has significantly impacted the way in which aggregates are used in design of asphalt and unbound pavement layers in the national design guide strategies. Little’s consulting activities include design reviews of air bases in Iraq and Afghanistan; consultation on major national projects including the Denver International Airport, numerous airport activities for Houston Airport Systems in Houston, Texas; toll road projects with international consortia including the Ferrovial-Agroman Group of Madrid, Spain; consultation on the design phase of the Bahrain-to-Qatar Causeway in the Arabian Gulf; and consultation with Qatar on development and improvement of national infrastructure design and construction specifications and in preparation for the 2020 World Cup.
Little’s career has offered significant contributions that have bridged the gap between academia and practice. An extraordinary teacher, Little has developed many undergraduate and graduate courses and has produced many outstanding students who are today leaders at major universities in the U.S. and abroad. In fact, his former students honored him with an honorary symposium for his “Contributions to the Characterization of Asphalt Materials” at the ASCE Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference, at Northeastern University in Boston, in June of 2011.
Little received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the United States Air Force Academy, a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Illinois and a doctorate degree from Texas A&M University. He currently resides in College Station, Texas.
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents more than 140,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society.
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