Director, School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Professor of Civil Engineering
Education:
Ph.D., Civil Engineering, University of Illinois, 1988
M.Sc., Civil Engineering, University of Illinois, 1984
B.Sc., Civil Engineering, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico, 1978
Areas of Interest:
Construction Engineering and Management, Highway Infrastructure Management, Information Technology in Construction, and Design-Construction Integration. My Philosophy towards the A/E/C Industry is:
1) Construction is the last phase of the Design process.
2) Design is not what is on CAD drawings; rather, Design is what gets built.
3) Design-construction integration is fundamental.
Work Experience:
- Chair, National Academies' Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment, BICE (2023-Present)
- Editor-in-Chief for ASCE's Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (2011-Present)
- Member of the National Research Council's Committee on Defense Materials, Manufacturing, and Infrastructure (2010-2016)
- Member of the National Research Council's Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (2008-2014)
- Program Director, National Science Foundation, Civil and Mechanical Systems Division (2004-2006)
- Assistant, Associate, Professor, Vecellio Professor, Virginia Tech, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (1988-2019)
- Project Engineer with the ICA Group, Mexico City (1978-1982)
Honors and Awards:
- 2021 Outstanding Projects And Leaders (OPAL) Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
- Distinguished Member of ASCE (2014)
- Vecellio Endowed Professorship (2003)
- The Construction Industry Institute's Richard L. Tucker Award for Leadership and Service (2013)
- John L. Tishman Distinguished Lecture, University of Michigan (2013)
- Fellow of the Construction Management Association of America (2011)
- The Construction Industry Institute's Outstanding Instructor Award (2013)
- The Construction Industry Institute's Distinguished Professor Award (2009)
- Visiting Eminent Scholar at the Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University (6/04 and 4/13)
- The College of Engineering Dean's Award for Research Excellence (2012)
- The College of Engineering Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence (2009)
- The College of Engineering Dean's Award for Service Excellence (2014)
- ASCE Peurifoy Construction Research Award (2011)
- Member of the National Academy of Construction (2010)
- ASCE Faculty of the Year Award, Student Chapter, Virginia Tech. (1998)
- ASCE Best Paper Award, Technical Council on Computer Practices, Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering (1998)
- ASCE Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize (1992)
- ASCE Appreciation Certificate for outstanding service as Faculty Advisor to the Student Chapter (1990)
- Who's Who in Computing (1989)
Selected Research Projects:
- Flash Tracking for Accelerated Project Delivery (APD), Phase III, VDOT
- Flash Tracking for Accelerated Project Delivery (APD), GDOT
- Flash Tracking for Accelerated Project Delivery (APD), Phase I and II, VDOT
- RBS: Performance-based decision support system for resilient and sustainable multi-hazard building design, National Science Foundation, with Drs. M. Flint, M. Eatherton, G. Olgun, J. Irish, R. Leon, G. Reichard, A. Rodriguez-Marek
- Successful Delivery of Flash-Track Projects, Construction Industry Institute, with Dr. Pardis Pishdad-Bozorgi at Georgia Tech
- VDOT/VT Partnership for Highway Maintenance Monitoring and Innovation in Maintenance and Construction Contracting, Virginia Department of Transportation, with Dr. M.C. Vorster @ Virginia Tech
- Development of a Highway Maintenance Management System, Swedish National Road Administration, with Dr. Hans Bjornsson @ Chalmers University of Technology
Selected Publications:
- de la Garza, J.M., and Pishdad-Bozorgi, P. (2018). “A Workflow Process for Flash Track Projects.” ASCE, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001501
- Shahtaheri, Y., Flint, M.M., de la Garza, J.M. (2018). “Sustainable Infrastructure Multi-Criteria Preference Assessment of Alternatives for Early Design.” Elsevier, Automation in Construction, 96, 16-28
- Franco-Duran, D., y de la Garza, J.M. (2019). “Phantom Float in Commercial Scheduling Software.” Elsevier, Automation in Construction, 103, 291-299
- Shahtaheri, Y., Flint, M.M., de la Garza, J.M. (2019). “A multi-objective reliability-based decision support system for incorporating decision maker utilities in the design of infrastructure.” Elsevier, Advanced Engineering Informatics, 42, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.100939
- Franco-Duran, D., and de la Garza, J.M., (2019). “Review of Resource-Constrained Scheduling Algorithms.” ASCE, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Forthcoming.
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