Reginald DesRoches, Ph.D, F.SEI, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE, president of Rice University and professor of both civil and environmental engineering and mechanical engineering, has been honored with election by ASCE for its class of 2025 distinguished members. He is recognized for his notable contributions to the development of effective national policies on disaster mitigation and community resiliency, and his leadership and mentorship to improve engineering education.
DesRoches is leading a period of strategic growth at Rice, increasing the number of undergraduate and graduate students by 30% while maintaining the university’s low student-to-faculty ratio and deep commitment to excellence and access. Under his leadership, DesRoches has overseen the hiring of a record-number of faculty, established new majors, increased the university’s research awards, launched several new centers and institutes, and forged new partnerships and programs in the Houston area, including the Texas Medical Center. He is a proponent of the international role of education and research and most recently launched Rice Global India in Bengaluru to increase collaboration between Rice and one of India’s rapidly growing high-tech cities. Rice also has a presence in Europe and Latin America.
DesRoches’ research expertise is in resilient infrastructure systems, the design of lifeline systems under earthquake loading, and the application of smart materials. Much of his work is focused on seismic risk assessment of transportation systems and includes the development of new methods and approaches for seismic risk assessment of highway bridges. His work includes the first comprehensive study on seismic vulnerability for the most common types of bridges in the Central and Southeastern United States, which resulted in changes in practice for the design and construction of bridges. His work also provides the first set of vulnerability models for a range of bridge types and retrofit measures and provides decision-makers with essential tools for maximizing investment in bridge retrofit.
In 2010, DesRoches was the technical leader in the U.S.’s response to the Haiti earthquake. In that role, he led 28 engineers, architects, city planners, and social scientists to study the devastating impact of the disaster on the country.
Early in his career, he received the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in relation to his National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He also received ASCE’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize and the Charles Martin Duke Lifeline Earthquake Engineering Award. His election to the National Academy of Engineering came in 2020 for the “research and design of resilient infrastructure systems to mitigate damage from natural disasters and other extreme conditions.” He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute.
DesRoches earned his master’s degree in civil engineering and a doctorate in structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
