About Our Speakers

ASCE Global President 2021

Jean-Louis Briaud, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, Dist.M.ASCE, is a distinguished professor of civil engineering and director of the National Geotechnical Experimentation Site at Texas A&M University. He is also holder of the Spencer J. Buchanan chair at Texas A&M University’s Zachry Department of Civil Engineering.

Briaud recently completed a three-year term on the ASCE board of direction and previously served as president of the Geo-Institute. He was also president of the Federation of International Geo-Engineering Societies. In 2014, Briaud was recognized as a Distinguished Member of ASCE.

Briaud started his career four decades ago as an assistant professor at Texas A&M University. He has also worked as a consultant on numerous projects, including highway embankments, oil tanks, dams, bridges, levees, shallow and deep foundations and soil erosion. He is a licensed professional engineer in Texas.

Additionally, he has written two books, “Geotechnical Engineering” and “The Pressuremeter”, and published about 300 articles and reports. He has received the Ralph Peck Award from ASCE, the CGS Geoffrey Meyerhof Foundation Engineering Award from Canada and the Honorable Aitalyev Medal from Kazakhstan.

Briaud earned his Bachelor of Science at Ecole Speciale des Travaux Publics in Paris, France, a Master of Science at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada, and a doctorate degree in geotechnical engineering at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada.

In his free time, he enjoys tennis, soccer, and rugby, and he plays piano jazz at the amateur level.