Academy of Distinguished Alumni

Inducted October 9, 2009

Ahmad Abdelrazaq has extensive experience in the design of buildings ranging from complex low-rise buildings to ultra high-rise, and long span structures. He is Senior Executive Vice President of the Highrise Building and Structural Engineering Divisions at Samsung C&T Corporation and has been associated with some of the firm's most complicated projects.

Inducted October 21, 2005

Dr. Carl Adams, Jr. is considered one of the leading international experts on industrial wastewater management. He has consulted on more than 900 U.S. and international projects in nearly 40 countries and major clients have included GE Plastics, ExxonMobil, MarathonAshland, Olin Corporation, Monsanto, Solutia, DuPont, Huntsman Chemicals, Nova Chemicals, Formosa Chemcials and 3M.

Inducted October 24, 2014

Sandra Akmansoy is a Director and the Group Leader for Arup in Denmark, responsible to Arup’s Europe Region Board with the responsibilities for staff and projects in Denmark. Since being appointed Group Leader in June 2012, she has doubled the Danish business adding many prestigious projects and client’s to Arup’s portfolio, including: the Nordhavn metro extension to Cityringen Metro line in Copenhagen, the Roskilde Fjord Bridge, terminal development plans at the Copenhagen Kastrup Airport, and a laboratory building at the Bispebjerg Hospital.

Inducted October 9, 2009

Zuheir Alami was born in Gaza, Palestine in 1935 and currently splits his residence between Beirut and Dubai. He is Senior Partner of Khatib & Alami, a multidisciplinary urban and regional planning, architectural and engineering consulting company. Throughout the years, he helped grow the company into one of the most highly respected consulting firms in the Middle East and in the world.

Inducted October 26, 2012

Raúl Allegre was born in 1959 in Torreón, México and came to the U.S. as an exchange student in 1977. Originally a soccer player, he received a football scholarship to attend the University of Montana where he studied for two years before transferring to The University of Texas at Austin to pursue a degree in civil engineering. He excelled in the classroom and as a kicker on the football field, and went on to build a career in Spanish language sports broadcasting and marketing.

Inducted October 21, 2010

With a distinguished career in engineering research, higher education and public service, Sergio M. Alcocer is a Research Professor at the Institute of Engineering of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the former undersecretary for North America in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico. In 2017, he was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering for improvements to the seismic safety of buildings in developing countries through improved design standards and government policies.

Inducted November 7, 2003

Nasser I. Al-Rashid is the founder and chairman of Rashid Engineering, a full-service consulting engineering firm based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which oversees major government construction projects in Saudi Arabia. He is best known as an international philanthropist, providing large gifts for a variety of causes, many of them directly linked to experiences in his own life. His deep, lasting attachment to UT is reflected in generous gifts to the Cockrell School of Engineering: a chair in civil engineering, a regents chair, a professorship, scholarships, and a sponsored laboratory. He also supports numerous programs in psychology, athletics, ophthalmology, and engineering at other institutions.

Inducted November 9, 2007

Dr. James L. Barnard is known globally as the pioneer of biological nutrient removal (BNR), a non-chemical means of water treatment to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from used water. He is recognized internationally for developing the BarndenphoR Process and Phoredox, the basis for all biological and nutrient removal process configurations in use today. He has designed over 100 innovative installations throughout the world by successfully adapting the BNR principles to a broad range of locations and environments including developing and industrialized countries. He also designed and supervised the construction and activation of the first BNR system in the U.S. in Palmetto, Florida in 1978.

Inducted October 16, 2015

Stacy Bartoletti is President and CEO of earthquake and structural engineering firm Degenkolb Engineers, headquartered in Silicon Valley and is known for his technical expertise in methods of assessing and upgrading the seismic safety of existing buildings. He has implemented techniques to improve the safety of countless buildings on the West Coast and led a multi-year effort with the Washington State Seismic Safety Committee to develop a framework and recommendations to achieve earthquake resilience in the state. The effort brought together professionals, government officials, and stakeholders to address seismic threat.

Inducted October 9, 2009

Craig H. Benson is the Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA) and a renowned geoenvironmental engineer with a distinguished record of research. Recognized worldwide for his expertise in waste containment systems, he is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His work is the interface of the built and natural environments and is focused on environmental containment of solid, hazardous, radioactive, and mining wastes;  beneficial  use  of  industrial  byproducts;  and sustainable infrastructure.

Inducted October 16, 2015

Raj Bhattarai currently manages Austin Water Utility’s Environmental and Regulatory Services Division where he directs the regulatory programs required for the city's drinking water plants, wastewater collection and treatment plants as well as the reclaimed water and biosolids treatment systems. In this key role, he has become a national and international leader in the water and wastewater field and in water quality and environmental protection efforts.

Inducted October 14, 2004

Joe Blandford improved oil and gas recovery efforts through innovative technology that he developed while leading Atlantia Offshore in Houston for more than two decades. He has more than 60 patents to his credit for creating and advancing offshore technology in shallow and deepwater marginal fields.

Inducted October 13, 2006

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Rudy Bonaparte has served as engineer-of-record and/or project manager for many major projects in the areas of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering; contaminated site and waterway assessment and remediation system design; and solid, hazardous, and radioactive waste disposal facility design, permitting, and performance evaluation. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a licensed professional engineer in 17 states, and has made many contributions that have been adapted by practice.

Inducted November 7, 2003

Dr. Jack Breen is an acclaimed civil engineer and educator who has influenced the principal design and construction standards for concrete bridges and buildings nationally and internationally. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, he is the Nasser I. Al-Rashid Chair Emeritus in Civil Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has served as a member of the faculty since 1959 and has been active in the development of new and innovative reinforced and prestressed concrete bridge and building systems.

Inducted September 30, 2016

Valerie Briggs is a visionary leader who has worked on the cutting edge of transportation research and directing critical transitions in improving and modernizing transportation services in the United States. She brought to the nation’s attention the need for comprehensive collaboration and coordination of transportation operations programs and led large-scale efforts to successfully apply technology to enhance personal mobility, safety and transportation system performance.