John S. McCartney has received several research awards, including the NSF Faculty Early Development (CAREER) Award in 2011, the J. James R. Croes medal from ASCE in 2012, the DFI Young Professor Award in 2012, and the Young IGS Award from the International Geosynthetics Society in 2008. His research interests include unsaturated soil mechanics, geosynthetics, and thermally active geotechnical systems. His teaching efforts were recognized by the 2012 Shamsher Prakash Prize for Excellence in Teaching of Geotechnical Engineering.
For his service on ASTM Committee D18 on Soil and Rock, he has received the President's Leadership Award in 2013 and the Richard S. Ladd D18 Standards Development Award in 2011. He received BSCE and MSCE degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder and a PhD degree in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He is active on the editorial boards for ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering (JGGE), ASTM Geotechnical Testing Journal (GTJ), Computers and Geotechnics, and Geosynthetics International.