David E. Daniel

David Edwin Daniel ( born December 20, 1949 in Newport News, Virginia) is an American geotechnical engineer.

Daniel studied civil engineering at the University of Texas (UT ) at Dallas with a bachelor's degree in 1972, the Master's degree in 1974 and his doctorate in 1980. 1974 to 1977 he worked as a civil engineer in the construction company Woodward Clyde. From 1981, he was first an assistant professor and later professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas. In 1996 he moved to the University of Illinois, where he was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. In 2005 he returned to the UT back as the fourth president.

He led from 2005 to 2008, the Commission of Inquiry of the American Society of Civil Engineers ( ASCE ) for failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In 2010 he became a member of a commission of inquiry of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council to study the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In 2012 he held the Terzaghi Lecture. He received the Norman Medal ( 1975) and twice the J. James R. Croes Medal (including 1984) of ASCE. In 1995, he received the Richard R. Torrens Award. In 2000 he became a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2009 he was president of the tamest ( The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas ).

He's in the Steering Committee of Sandia National Laboratories.

1992 to 1995 he was editor of the Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

He has been married since 1989 and has three children.