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Position Description – Chair, Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering
The School of Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) seeks an ambitious leader and outstanding researcher, teacher, and scholar to serve as tenured Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE). This is an exciting opportunity to significantly grow the department in the coming years and increase its research productivity while maintaining already strong relationships with industry in Birmingham – a metro area of 1.1 million and a regional construction hub. Candidates must have a PhD in Civil, Construction, or Environmental engineering, or a closely related discipline. Preferred qualifications include demonstrable leadership experience and professional licensure. The Chair will join a department of 11 faculty, 150 undergraduate majors, and 35 full-time graduate students. With ample resources from strong enrollment in our successful online master's programs, the Chair will have the opportunity to make multiple faculty hires in the coming years. CCEE enjoys strong relationships with industry and an outstanding track record of educating students for careers in the engineering and construction industries. The department's context within a university that ranks No. 32 in the nation among federal research funding offers excellent opportunities for collaboration with units across UAB, including a top School of Public Health with a Department of Environmental Health Sciences, the Materials Processing and Applications Development Center (MPAD), and the Heersink School of Medicine. Outside the university, CCEE faculty enjoy ongoing collaborations with state and local departments of transportation, local governments and planning agencies, and industry partners that include utilities, construction companies, manufacturers, and design firms. The School of Engineering is in the process of establishing an endowed professorship to be held by the Chair and will be moving into a new state-of-the-art building in 2025.

UAB is a Carnegie Level 1 research university and academic health center with more than 22,000 students and 2,400 full-time faculty members. The University has made great advances across several metrics in recent years, including enrollment, student academic quality, and research productivity. Driven by a collaborative and entrepreneurial character, UAB is Alabama's economic and research engine and the top provider of healthcare to Alabamans. In 2021, Forbes named UAB the No. 1 best large employer in the nation and No. 4 for diversity. UAB was ranked the top young university in the nation and 10th world-wide in 2019 in the Times Higher Education rankings.

The next Chair will strategically pursue opportunities for growth in areas where the department can be world class, leveraging existing strengths and exciting opportunities for future directions provided by UAB and Birmingham. They will articulate an exciting vision for leading and building innovative programs and expanding research through strategic faculty hires, drawing upon the strengths of the CCEE Department and collaborations with other units across the School and University.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist with this important search. Inquiries, nominations, and applications should be directed in confidence to the firm as indicated at the end of this document.

The Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at UAB

The Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering boasts a thriving undergraduate program, multiple highly-ranked online Master of Engineering programs, and MS/PhD programs. CCEE faculty conduct research in the built environment, congestion management, infrastructure resiliency, and high-performance structural materials. Birmingham is home to major construction companies that generate over $6.5 billion in annual revenue. The department has a 100 percent placement rate for graduates seeking jobs and 85 percent of undergraduates in the department complete a regional internship or co-op during their time at UAB. The Department is also a partner in STRIDE, the US DOT/RITA funded University Transportation Center for the Southeast, and has strong, longstanding working relationships with the Alabama Department of Transportation, the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham and the City of Birmingham. CCEE has coordinated degree programs and research collaborations with UAB's School of Public Health (SPH), which is ranked in the top-20 nationally by US News and World Report.

More information about CCEE can be found at: https://www.uab.edu/engineering/civil/

The UAB School of Engineering is dedicated to research excellence and providing the highest quality education to a diverse population of future engineers. It consists of four departments: Biomedical Engineering (joint with the School of Medicine), CCEE, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical and Materials Engineering. The School has approximately 50 faculty and enrolls about 900 undergraduate and 500 graduate students across six undergraduate majors and 15 graduate degree programs. The School offers highly adaptable programs that range from M.S./Ph.D. pathways to thriving online master of engineering degree tracks for working professionals. The School offers unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research collaboration within engineering, across the university, and with local industry. The School is ABET accredited with the next comprehensive view scheduled for 2024-25.

UAB Engineering emphasizes real-world, hands-on education, with students developing projects for local clients as early as freshman year. Most of our students pursue internships, co-ops, and other experiential learning, and in 2021 we launched our Guaranteed Internship program to ensure this opportunity is available to everyone. Nearly 30% of our undergraduates are women, more than 25% are students of color, and many are first-generation college students. Most of our graduate students are working professionals employed by construction, utility, materials, and manufacturing firms in Birmingham and beyond. Beyond the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department, the School of Engineering boasts one of the top-ranked Biomedical Engineering programs in the South, and a long tradition of advanced materials research supported by an on-campus foundry and the Materials Processing & Applications Development (MPAD) Center. Our Engineering Technology and Applications Development (EITD) group builds hardware for the International Space Station (ISS) and is supporting multiple payloads aboard the ISS at any one time.

In 2025, the School will move to an $80M state-of-the-art building as part of UAB's new Science and Engineering Complex. This new facility will house classrooms, teaching labs, and interdisciplinary research labs in areas ranging from neuroengineering and wearable devices to transportation and smart cities. A Student Success Center combining career services, tutoring, and advising and a Design and Prototyping Lab supporting design classes, student projects, and K-12 outreach will anchor the new building.

UAB is home to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Optometry, Public Health, Health Professions, Engineering, Business, and Education. In addition, the Graduate School and the Honors College are organized to provide the special resources necessary for students in those schools to be successful. The UAB Libraries are integrated academic and health science libraries, reflective of UAB's unique role as both a major research and teaching institution and as an academic medical center.

President Ray Watts, MD, became UAB's seventh president in 2013. Prior to being named President, Dr. Watts had been Senior Vice President and Dean of the School of Medicine, and the John N. Whitaker Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology in the UAB School of Medicine. Provost Pamela Benoit, PhD, became Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost at UAB in 2017. She joined UAB from Ohio University, where she served as Executive Vice President and Provost for eight years.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System is an academic health system based in Birmingham with facilities and affiliations throughout the State of Alabama. The centerpiece of the system is UAB Hospital, which is today one of the four largest academic medical centers in the United States. The hospital is also the third-largest public hospital in the nation, providing patients with a complete range of primary and specialty care services. As a university hospital, UAB Hospital is a major center for clinical research and home to some of the top medical programs in America, according to U.S. News & World Report. UAB Hospital is listed on Becker's Hospital Review's 2019 list of 100 Great Hospitals in America.

The University of Alabama System consists of three doctoral research universities: The University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and The University of Alabama in Huntsville. The System is governed by the Board of Trustees. Each of the component institutions has a unique mission that is consistent with the broader mission of the System. The System's Chief Executive Officer is Finis St. John, IV, who served for 17 years on the Board of Trustees before becoming Chancellor in 2019.

In 2019, through a process known as the UAB Grand Challenge, UAB launched

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