G. Wayne Clough

In September 1994, Dr. G. Wayne Clough became the tenth president of the Georgia Institute of Technology and the first alumnus to serve as president. Clough received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in civil engineering from Georgia Tech in 1964 and 1965, and doctorate in 1969 in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Clough has been a member of the faculty at Duke University, Stanford University, Virginia Tech and the University of Washington. He served as head of the Department of Civil Engineering and dean of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, and as provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at the University of Washington.

During his tenure as president, Georgia Tech served as the Olympic Village for the 1996 Centennial Olympics, research expenditures have increased from $212 million to $473 million, a required computer initiative for all students was implemented, and enrollment has increased from 13,000 to 18,000. More than $1.6 billion in private gifts have been obtained. A statewide Georgia Tech regional engineering program has been implemented. An ambitious building program of more than $1 billion has been completed with another $300 million in design or construction. Georgia Tech received the 1999 Hesburgh Award, the nation’s top recognition for support of undergraduate teaching and learning, and the 2007 Paul Simon Award in recognition of its globalization initiatives. Georgia Tech is ranked among the top ten public universities by U.S. News and World Report, and Diverse Issues in Higher Education cites Georgia Tech as the top producer of African-American engineers.

Clough has been recognized for his teaching and research, including a total of nine national awards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, most recently the 2004 OPAL lifetime award for contributions to education. He is one of a handful of civil engineers to have been twice awarded civil engineering’s oldest recognition, the Norman Medal, in 1982 and in 1996. He received the George Westinghouse Award from the American Society of Engineering Education 1986 for outstanding teaching and research.

In 1990, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He received the 2002 National Engineering Award by the American Association of Engineering Societies, was named as a Distinguished Alumnus from the College of Engineering at U.C. Berkeley in 2004 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2005.

President George W. Bush appointed Clough to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in 2001, and in 2004 to the National Science Board (NSB). Clough’s other service activities include: vice chair of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, for which he co-chaired the 2004 National Innovation Initiative; chair of the National Academies Committee on New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection Projects; and chair of The Engineer of 2020 Project for the NAE. Additionally Clough chaired Georgia Governor Roy Barnes’ Blue Ribbon Natural Gas Task Force and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Clean Water Advisory Panel.

He is a member of the executive committee of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and a trustee of Georgia Research Alliance. Clough serves on the board of advisors for Noro-Moseley Partners, the southeast’s largest venture capital fund; the board of directors of TSYS; and the International Advisory Board of King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. He is a special consultant to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System for ongoing major seismic retrofit operations. For 12 years, Georgia Trend magazine has listed him among the 100 Most Influential People in Georgia.

Clough’s interests include technology and higher education policy, economic development, diversity in higher education and technology in a global setting. His civil engineering specialty is in geotechnical and earthquake engineering. Clough has published more than 130 papers and reports and six book chapters.