5/17/2016 Rick Kubetz
Written by Rick Kubetz
By Rick Kubetz
Sharon L. Wood, an Engineering at Illinois alumna and dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, will be the featured speaker at the College of Engineering Convocation ceremonies on Sunday, May 15, 2016.
Wood came to the University of Illinois as a graduate student in structural engineering after earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Virginia. As a graduate student, Wood studied the behavior of reinforced concrete buildings and investigated methods for improving their performance during earthquakes. After completing her master’s and PhD (1983, 1986, Civil Engineering), she served as an engineering faculty member at Illinois for ten years before moving to UT Austin.
As Cockrell’s dean, she sets the vision for engineering education and research at UT Austin and provides academic and administrative leadership to the school’s 5,700 undergraduate students, 2,100 graduate students and 280 tenure/tenure-track faculty. Prior to her appointment as dean, Wood served as chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and director of the Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory. During this period, she collaborated with colleagues in electrical and computer engineering to develop passive sensors for monitoring deterioration mechanisms within civil infrastructure systems.
Throughout her career, Wood has placed great value on professional service. She is the immediate past president of the American Concrete Institute and has served on its Building Code Committee for more than fifteen years. She has also served on federal advisory committees for the Department of Veteran Affairs, the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program, and the U.S. Geological Survey. In 2007, she was recognized as one of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Alumni, and she was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013.
The College of Engineering May Graduation Convocation Ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 15, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at Huff Hall. The College of Engineering ceremonies will be broken up into two sessions:
• Session I begins at 4:30 p.m. and includes the departments of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering.
• Session II begins at 7:15 p.m. and includes the departments of Aerospace Engineering, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Bioengineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Science and Engineering, Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering, and Engineering Physics.