Dr. Zachary Grasley took the helm as head of the civil and environmental engineering department on Sept. 1, 2021. Grasley has been the Center for Infrastructure Renewal (CIR) director at Texas A&M since January 2018.
“I am really excited for the opportunity to lead this dynamic department with such talented and hard-working staff, students and faculty,” he said.
While directing the CIR, he helped facilitate the initiation and continued development of research labs and established significant collaborations with key external partners. Grasley’s research spans from fundamental studies on mechanisms and modeling to applied solutions that lead to intellectual property and commercialization.
He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Concrete Institute and the American Ceramic Society. Grasley also has held leadership and service roles in the American Concrete Institute and the American Ceramic Society.
He originally joined Texas A&M in 2006 after completing his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Michigan Technological University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in
civil engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Grasley accepted a faculty position at Virginia Tech in 2012 and returned to Texas A&M in 2014.
Grasley holds the Zachry Chair for Construction Integration and is an inaugural Presidential Impact Fellow. He is also a professor in the materials science and engineering department.
Grasley replaced Dr. Robin Autenrieth, who served in an interim capacity for one year before becoming department head in 2014.
She returned to full-time faculty in the fall. During her tenure, Autenrieth oversaw the growth of the department, including academic programs such as the environmental engineering degree program. She also increased endowments and recruited several highly talented faculty members.