UW Professor Jay Puckett Named ASCE Fellow

Jay Puckett, longtime educator, researcher and administrator in the University of Wyoming Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, has been elected as a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

The honor, which is held by fewer than 4 percent of ASCE members, recognizes Puckett’s contributions to the civil engineering profession, including his work as an educator and mentor.

The award cites Puckett’s leadership in the advancement of load and resistance design for highway bridges and ancillary structures. He conducted research, led national-level software development and published the first book on LRFD (load and resistance bridges design specifications) bridges, “Design of Highway Bridges,” now in its third edition (John Wiley and Sons, 2013).

As an educator, Puckett, the V.O. Smith Professor at UW, has advised 44 graduate students who conducted research primarily in the area of bridge and transportation structures; served on five ASCE committees; and was among the founding associate editors for the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering.

Among his awards are the college’s Outstanding Research and Graduate Teaching Award and the American Society for Engineering Education DOW Outstanding Young Educator Award, a national honor recognizing excellence in teaching and research. The University of Missouri at Columbia Department of Civil Engineering, in 2000, named Puckett to its Academy of Distinguished Alumni.

“Jay has been a passionate and dedicated educator of engineers in Colorado and Wyoming for 35 years, and has been a consummate contributor to journal articles on various structural topics over his career,” wrote a nominator for the award. “He owns an engineering software company where he employs four professional engineers, and has helped develop bridge and design software that is used in 38 states.”

Additionally, Puckett has published three reports for the National Academy’s Cooperative Highway Research Program that address software “validation guidelines and examples” and “live load distribution.” He recently led a national team of experts for the rewrite of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ “Specifications for Structural Supports for Signs, Luminaires and Traffic Signals.”

Puckett joined the UW faculty in 1983. He received a bachelor’s of science degree in civil engineering at the University of Missouri (1978), and earned master’s of science (1980) and Ph.D. (1983) degrees at Colorado State University.