Sharon L. Wood
For pioneering leadership in engineering education at the University of Texas at Austin; for championing the role of women and advancing diversity efforts in engineering; and for an ongoing career of academic leadership in structural engineering research, teaching, and service.
Dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin
Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #14
- BS, Civil Engineering, University of Virginia, 1982
- MS, Civil Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1983
- PhD, Civil Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986
Sharon L. Wood is the dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering and holds the Cockrell Family Chair in Engineering #14 at The University of Texas at Austin, where she has been a member of the faculty for more than 20 years. Wood is a structural engineer whose research interests focus on improving the structural response of reinforced concrete buildings, design and evaluation of bridges, and development of passive sensors for infrastructure systems.
Sharon began her career as a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1986, and she joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1996. Prior to her appointment as dean, Sharon served as chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering for five years, and as director of the Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory, one of the nation’s leading research centers in the large-scale study of the behavior of bridges, buildings, and structural components, for one year.
Sharon was elected into the National Academy of Engineering (2013) and received the OPAL Award for Education from the American Society of Civil Engineers (2018). She is a past president of the American Concrete Institute and 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.
Current as of 2020.