Catherine French elected to the National Academy of Engineering
Professor Catherine French has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). This is among the highest professional distinctions awarded to an engineer. The NAE elected only 114 new members and 21 foreign members this year. She joins previously elected members from the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering: Professor Emmanuel Detournay and Professors Emeriti Steve Crouch, Charles Fairhurst, and Theodore Galambos.
Catherine E. French, a College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering, is a renowned structural engineer. She was recognized by NAE for “design, safety, and construction of structural concrete buildings and bridges.” Her research interests include the behavior of reinforced and prestressed concrete structural systems, field monitoring of structures, numerical and experimental investigations of structural systems including time-dependent and environmental effects, evaluation and repair of damaged structures, and development and application of new materials. She has served on the national concrete building code committee for nearly 30 years.
A professor at the University of Minnesota since 1984, French has received numerous awards for her research and teaching from the University and professional organizations. Among those is being named an American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Distinguished Member and an American Concrete Institute Honorary Member. Since 2019, she has been a member of the University of Minnesota Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
She has mentored more than 85 graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scholars. She also has published and edited more than 175 research papers, publications and discussions.
French earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.