RESTON, Va. — The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) today announced its 2026 class of Distinguished Members, which is the highest honor the Society can bestow upon a member. This year’s class includes 12 of ASCE’s most distinguished and active members who have made significant contributions to civil engineering throughout their careers. Of ASCE’s more than 160,000 active members worldwide, only a few hundred have been honored as a Distinguished Member. Distinguished membership is ASCE’s highest grade of membership and is reserved for those who have attained eminence within the realm of engineering, whether that be construction, related arts and sciences, or engineering education. A new class of Distinguished Members is inducted annually.

“Through innovation, mentorship, public service, and unwavering commitment to the profession, the 2026 class of ASCE Distinguished Members have made immense positive contributions to civil engineering that have improved public health, safety, and welfare and their work will have a lasting legacy that will inspire and improve life for future generations,” said ASCE President Marsha Anderson Bomar, Ph.D., AICP, ENV SP, H.ITE, NAE, F.ASCE. “I look forward to honoring and celebrating the accomplishments and achievements of the 2026 class of Distinguished Members when they are formally inducted at ASCE’s OPAL Awards Gala this fall.”

The 2026 Class of ASCE Distinguished Members are:

  • Pedro J.J. Alvarez, Ph.D., P.E., AAA&S, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE: An internationally recognized leader in environmental engineering, Dr. Alvarez is celebrated for groundbreaking contributions to nanotechnology, bioremediation, water treatment, and antibiotic resistance mitigation. His career in academia spans more than three decades, and he is currently the George Brown Professor and Director of the WaTER Institute at Rice University, where he also has been cross appointed to multiple departments including Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Materials Science and Nanoengineering. Dr. Alvarez is also the founding director of the Engineering Research Center on Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment, which has trained more than 185 graduate students and published more than 900 journal articles over the last decade. Dr. Alvarez was also the recipient of ASCE’s Simon Freese Environmental Engineering Prize in 2021 
  • Chandra R. Bhat, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE: Dr. Bhat is a global authority in transportation systems analysis and travel behavior modeling. His pioneering work in activity and agent-based transportation models has impacted the design and construction of transportation systems worldwide. Dr. Bhat, who serves as the Joe J. King Chair in Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, was listed by the Eno Center for Transportation as a “Top 10 Transportation Thought Leader in Academia” and received the 2024 W.N. Carey Jr. Distinguished Service Award “for leadership and distinguished service to the Transportation Research Board (TRB)”. He has served as President of ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute 
  • Rudolph Bonaparte, Ph.D., P.E., BC.GE, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE: Dr. Bonaparte is honored for exceptional lifetime achievements in geoenvironmental engineering, most notably developing methods for the analysis, design, and evaluation of landfill waste containment systems. For the last 40 years, he has been with the firm Geosyntec Consultants, where he served as President and CEO and then Chairman of the Board for nearly three decades. His practice focuses on geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Dr. Bonaparte’s technical papers and research reports have advanced design and performance of liner and cover systems for municipal, industrial, and hazardous waste containment facilities, the geotechnical stability of those facilities, geosynthetics, including geomembranes and geogrids, and earth retaining structures and ground improvement for new construction and natural hazard mitigation. Dr. Bonaparte is the recipient of ASCE’s 2016 OPAL lifetime achievement award in design, and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2007 
  • Nicholas M. DeNichilo, P.E., BC.WRE (Hon.), NAC, Dist.M.ASCE: Mr. DeNichilo is recognized for distinguished leadership in engineering management, infrastructure delivery, and water resources. As President and CEO of Mott MacDonald North America, he guided major infrastructure programs while advancing best practices in resilience, collaboration, and innovation before his retirement in 2022. His influence extends through professional service, academic advisory roles, and mentorship across the profession. He serves as a trustee at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Mr. DeNichilo was recognized with ASCE’s OPAL leadership award in Management in 2015 and was elected to the National Academy of Construction in 2016. 
  • Garry H. Gregory, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., BC.GE, Dist.M.ASCE: Dr. Gregory is internationally respected for combining theory and practice in slope stability and geotechnical engineering. His pioneering work in fiber-reinforced soil application has led to design innovations in dams, levees, highways, and other high-profile projects around the world. Dr. Gregory developed slope stability analysis software, GEOSTASE, which is widely used in complex infrastructure projects. He has mentored countless engineers over his career and has been an invited lecturer on geotechnical engineering and professional practice issues more than 20 times at universities, conferences, and training sessions.  
  • Jerome F. Hajjar, Ph.D., P.E., F.SEI, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE: A leader in structural engineering education and research, Dr. Hajjar is known for fundamental contributions to steel and composite structures, structural stability, and earthquake engineering. A distinguished academic leader at Northeastern University and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, his work has directly influenced design standards while advancing civil engineering education globally. Dr Hajjar has received the 2000 ASCE Norman Medal, the 2003 ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, the 2009 ASCE Shortridge Hardesty Award, the 2025 ASCE William H. Wisely American Civil Engineer Award, and numerous other awards from ASCE and other organizations. 
  • Jie Han, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE: Dr. Han is recognized worldwide for leadership in geotechnical engineering, geosynthetics, ground improvement, and roadways. He is a Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas. Dr. Han’s design methods for reinforced roads, embankments, and foundations are widely adopted in engineering practice and incorporated into national and international design standards or manuals. Dr. Han is the past-president of ASCE’s Geo-Institute, and the treasurer of the International Geosynthetics Society, and the current chair of the Geomaterial Properties and Behavior Committee of the Transportation Research Board. 
  • Arpad Horvath, Ph.D., NAC, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE: A pioneer of life-cycle assessment in civil engineering, Dr. Horvath helped establish the analytical foundation for evaluating the environmental and economic impacts of infrastructure systems from design to dismantling. His research has been documented in more than 140 peer reviewed publications, and his methods for evaluating lifecycle emissions and costs have been widely cited. Dr. Horvath is the 2008 recipient of ASCE’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, which recognizes top young civil engineering research. He was elected to the National Academy of Construction in 2022 and the National Academy of Engineering in 2024. 
  • Arif Masud, Ph.D., F.EMI, Dist.M.ASCE: Dr. Masud is internationally recognized for seminal contributions to computational mechanics, stabilized finite element methods, and multiphysics modeling. He is the William J. and Elaine F. Hall Endowed Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, holding multiple distinguished appointments across Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Science and Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering, and the Carle Illinois College of Medicine. Dr. Masud’s work bridges infrastructure, materials, and advanced manufacturing, while his leadership and mentorship have shaped interdisciplinary research and professional service across engineering disciplines. He served as President of the Engineering Mechanics Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers from 2023 to 2025. 
  • Soroosh Sorooshian, Ph.D., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE: A global leader in hydrology and remote sensing, Dr. Sorooshian is renowned for groundbreaking work in precipitation modeling, flood forecasting, and satellite-based hydrologic data systems. He has served as a Distinguished Professor at the University of California Irvine since 2003, and as Regents Professor of hydrology at the University of Arizona from 1983 to 2003. Dr. Sorooshian is an internationally recognized leader in the development of mathematical calibration methodologies for river flow and flood forecasting models as needed by the hydrological services of the world. His innovations have transformed water resources management and trained generations of engineers and scientists around the world. 
  • Berrin Tansel, Ph.D., P.E., BC.WRE, F.EWRI, Dist.M.ASCE: Dr. Tansel is recognized for her leadership and pioneering research in water conservation, coastal water quality, and for outstanding contributions that have advanced environmental engineering and water resource management. She currently is a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Florida International University. Dr. Tansel’s career reflects an exceptional commitment to research, education, accreditation, and equity in engineering, with measurable impacts on water sustainability and professional practice.
  • Robert D. Wolff, Ph.D., SES (Ret.), Dist.M.ASCE:  Dr. Wolff is recognized for his extensive accomplishments in the military, civil service, and nonprofit sector. Over the course of his 60-year career, he has been instrumental in developing programs to advance engineers in military and civilian employment. Dr. Wolff’s leadership at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Air Force, and the Society of American Military Engineers helped strengthen project management, foster effective water resources planning, and develop new partnerships that led to improvements in project delivery time, quality, and cost. Dr. Wolff has established endowments with ASCE and West Point to encourage early career and student military engineers to participate in Society activities. 

The 12 new Distinguished Members of ASCE will be formally inducted on October 15 at ASCE’s OPAL (Outstanding Projects and Leaders) Gala in Reston, Virginia.

About the American Society of Civil Engineers

Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 160,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society. ASCE works to raise awareness of the need to maintain and modernize the nation's infrastructure using sustainable and resilient practices, advocates for increasing and optimizing investment in infrastructure, and improve engineering knowledge and competency. For more information, visit www.asce.org or www.infrastructurereportcard.org and follow us on X (Formerly Twitter), @ASCETweets and @ASCEGovRel.