Dr. Richard N. Wright

Dr. Richard N. Wright, Dist.M. ASCE and NAE Member

In Memory of our Late Colleague and Friend
(May 17, 1932 to May 31, 2019)

Dr. Wright was a Research Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Maryland College Park, past chair of ASCE’s Committee on Adaptation to a Changing Climate, member of the ExCom of the Infrastructure Resilience Division, and member of the ASCE Committee on Sustainability and chair of its Sustainable Infrastructure Education Subcommittee. He was a Distinguished Member of ASCE and member of the National Academy of Engineering. He worked as the director of the Building and Fire Research Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and as Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was the president of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction (CIB); and president of the Liaison Committee of International Civil Engineering Organizations. His professional honors include: the Gold Medal of the Department of Commerce (1982); the Federal Engineer of the Year from the National Society of Professional Engineers (1988); the Mahaffey Award from the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (1998); The Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research from the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (1999); election to the National Academy of Engineering (2003); the International Award of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (2003); University of Illinois, College of Engineering, Alumni Award for Distinguished Service (2006); the President Medal of ASCE (2010), and the Hans Oser Standards Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award (2014). He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Syracuse University, and the Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, all in Civil Engineering.