Professor Sybil Derrible named ASCE fellow
Professor Sybil Derrible was recently named a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
“Becoming a fellow of a society is a form of recognition,” Derrible said. “It shows that I have produced meaningful work and have had a strong and positive impact on my community. It’s very rewarding.”
The ASCE is a leading provider of technical and professional conferences and continuing education, and it’s the world’s largest publisher of civil engineering content. It is also an authoritative source for codes and standards that protect the public. The society advances civil engineering technical specialties through nine dynamic institutes and leads with its many professional- and public-focused programs.
ASCE fellow is a prestigious honor held by only 3% of ASCE members who have made celebrated contributions and developed creative solutions that change lives around the world.
Derrible, director of the Complex and Sustainable Urban Networks Laboratory at UIC, was nominated by the Illinois Section of the ASCE, who described him as a “leading scholar, educator, and science communicator for the civil engineering community.”
His contributions to engineering include teaching, research work, and publications on smart, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure.
Derrible has co-authored more than 100 scientific articles and taught hundreds of students. In 2023, he received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the ASCE for “outstanding research focusing on smart, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure.” In 2016, he received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award.
He is a lead author on the United Nations Environmental Program’s Seventh Global Environment Outlook (GEO-7) assessment report. He authored two books relevant to civil engineering, the textbook “Urban Engineering for Sustainability” and the popular science book “The Infrastructure Book: How Cities Work and Power Our Lives.”
Within ASCE, he has beenan associate editor for the Journal of Infrastructure Systems since 2018 and has published in several ASCE journals. He is also chair of AMR10 Critical Transportation Infrastructure Protection with the Transportation Research Board and past chair of the Sustainable Urban Systems section of the International Society for Industrial Ecology.
“Few researchers and engineers become fellows. It takes continuous hard work and dedication. Being a Fellow of the ASCE is prestigious and a sign of academic success in civil engineering departments. I am proud to join my many colleagues who are fellows of the ASCE and other societies. They inspired me to be a better researcher and educator. I could not be prouder to be a member of the Department of Civil, Materials, and Environmental Engineering at UIC,” he said
As a longtime member of ASCE, Derrible recommends joining professional organizations to advance careers and expand your network.
“Professional societies are akin to professional families. Between members of the ASCE, we get to share, exchange, and argue, making us better civil engineers and better people more generally. I wear my ASCE membership as a badge of honor, and I try to contribute to the society as best as I can,” he said.