Dr. G. Wayne Clough was initiated into Chi Epsilon in 1963 at Georgia Tech and received his BS in civil engineering in 1964. He went on to receive an MS from Georgia Tech in 1965. He received a Ph.D. in 1969 at Berkeley under the direction of Dr. Mike Duncan. He briefly worked for the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, MS, where he made important contributions to fundamental understanding of the performance of embankments on soft clay and U-frame locks.

Dr. Clough went on to positions as a faculty member at Duke and Stanford, Chairperson and Dean at Virginia Tech, Provost at Washington, and President of Georgia Tech. He was elevated to Chapter Honor Member of Chi Epsilon in 1994 while at the University of Washington.

He has received numerous awards from ASCE, including the OPAL award for lifetime achievement, the Norman medal, the Huber prize, the Collingwood prize, and the Terzaghi lectureship. He has also been honored by the American Society for Engineering Education. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, for whom he served as Chairperson of the Engineer of 2020 project, and a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He has received many other awards and honors too numerous to mention here.

In 2008, Dr. Clough was named Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the foremost entity of its kind in the world, and currently serves in that capacity. In 2009, he chaired the Committee on New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection Projects for the National Academies.

Dr. Clough has made major contributions to the profession of civil engineering, with his work in embankments, tunnels, soil-structure interaction, and earthquake engineering, and major contributions to engineering education through his leadership at prestigious institutions and service in charting its future. He has served our nation through his service on numerous boards and committees and his present service at the Smithsonian. As such he is an inspiration and exemplar to civil engineering students.

He embodies Chi Epsilon’s virtues of scholarship, character, practicality, and sociability, and is honored as our 62nd National Honor Member, joining the ranks of the most distinguished and exemplary civil engineers of the past 90 years. Dr. G. Wayne Clough was elevated at a special ceremony at the University of Maryland on December 1, 2012.