BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

MEHMET T. TÜMAY, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, Fellow ASCE

Georgia Gulf Distinguished Professor Emeritus; Consulting Engineer

 

 

 


Dr. Mehmet T. Tümay, Fellow and a Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a Diplomate of the Academy of Geo-Professionals, is the Georgia Gulf Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Louisiana State University. He has been on active LSU Faculty 1976-2005, and has served the LSU College of Engineering as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, and as Director of the Donald W. Clayton Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Engineering Science, 1997 –2004. Dr. Tümay received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Robert College School of Engineering, University of Virginia, and Istanbul Technical University, respectively. He also holds a postdoctoral Docent degree from Istanbul Technical University. His academic, research and consulting affiliations include universities, research institutions, and industry in the U.S., The Netherlands, France, Turkey, Korea, Norway, Taiwan, Poland, Brazil and People’s Republic of China.

 

Dr. Tümay is currently an Adjunct Professor at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is also a Senior Consultant for Fugro Onshore Geotechnics, Fugro Consultants, Inc. He is a licensed Civil Engineer in the States of Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina.

 

Dr. Tümay’s major field of interest is geotechnical engineering. He has done extensive research for the past 45+ years in the areas of in-situ evaluation of engineering properties of soils, soil physico-chemical behavior, and novel methods of soil improvement. He has earned national and international recognition from the consulting and academic communities for his pioneering research accomplishments, mainly in electronic cone penetration and computer-aided data collection/reduction systems for evaluation of the engineering behavior of geomedia.  He was recently recognized “for outstanding contributions to the profession, research and education in geotechnical engineering,” at the GeoShanghai 2006 International Conference in Shanghai, China, June 2006. He was inducted to the LSU Department Civil and Environmental Engineering Hall of Distinction “to recognize individuals who have made stalwart contributions to the profession,” on April 17, 2009. He was selected by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, ATAA, as “StarTURK” (to recognize and commend successful Turkish Americans in the Sciences, Medicine, Arts, Business, Literature, Politics, Sports and general vocations) on December 15, 2011. 

 

Dr. Tümay has served as Project Director / Principal Investigator of numerous grants from prestigious national and international agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation, the office of Naval Research, the Federal Highway Administration, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the French Ministry of Research, and the United Nations Development Program. Fugro Consultants International, b.v., a major international consulting company from the Netherlands, established the Fugro Post-Doctoral Fellowship at LSU dedicated to the advancement of in-situ testing under Dr. Tümay’s supervision.

 

During 1990-1994 Dr. Tümay served as the Director of the Geomechanical, Geotechnical & Geo-Environmental Systems (G3S) program at the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C., on an Intergovernmental Professional Act (IPA) assignment. During his tenure the budgetary and technical scope of the G3S program he directed was enhanced by including inter- and multi-disciplinary research areas of infrastructure development, environmental geotechnology, underground space development, and high performance geomedia materials. Multi-national technology transfer and international research efforts were encouraged through Workshops held in France, Canada, Turkey, P.R. of China, Brazil, Scandinavia, and Taiwan to enhance bi-lateral scholarly collaboration.

 

In 1994, Dr. Tümay was appointed as the Director of Research at Louisiana Transportation Research Center to initiate/broaden technology development and implementation concepts, and expand the nationally competitive cross-disciplinary funding base from external sources. During Dr. Tümay’s 1994-1999 tenure as Director of Research, LTRC has been awarded research grants and contracts from National Science Foundation, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Federal Highway Administration, Priority Technologies Program, U.S.C.E. Waterways Experiment Station, and private industry. As Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, and a member of the LTRC Policy Committee, Dr. Tümay continued to participate in the planning and development of LTRC’s research expansion project 1997-2004.

 

Dr. Tümay has done extensive design and consulting for state, private, national and international agencies. In addition, he has successfully conducted special workshops, programs, and seminars at universities, agencies and industrial institutions worldwide. He has served as Maitre de Conference en Mechanique des Sols, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees, Paris, France, and as an Advisory Professor to Tongji University, Shanghai, P.R. China, and Federal University of Vicosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He participates actively in various professional organizations, including ASCE, NRC, TRB, NCHRP, USUCGER, ASTM, ISSMGE, ABET, and ASEE.

 

He is a member of many national and international technical committees, and was Chairman of NRC/TRB Section AFP00 “Geology and Properties of Earth Materials,” 1996-2002, overseeing 6 technical committees, AFP20 – AFP60, and was on the NRC/TRB Group AF000 Council on “Design and Construction of Transportation Facilities, and served as Chairman of the “Scope, Organization and Function Committee, 1999-2002. He was Chairman of TRB Committee AFP30 - Soil and Rock Properties 1989-1995. In 2003, Dr. Tümay was elevated to Member Emeritus status of Committee AFP30.

 

In 1994 he was elected to the Board of Directors of U.S. Universities’ Council on Geotechnical Engineering Research, USUCGER, and served as treasurer and than as the president 1997 - 1999. Dr. Tümay served as Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems 1994-2004, and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Geotechnical and GeoEnvironmental Engineering of the ASCE 1984-1994. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering and is on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering and the International Scholarly Research Network. He has been active in ASCE Committees on Publications, Placement and Improvement of Soils, and Safety and Reliability.

 

Dr. Tümay served as a charter member of the Academic Research Council of the Civil Engineering Research Foundation 1995-2002, and represented LTRC on the National Council for Civil Engineering Research. He was a member of The Engineer and Surveyor Selection Board, City of Baton Rouge Parish, 2004 –2006. He was selected as Louisiana State University’s recipient of the Louisiana Engineering Foundation Faculty Professionalism Award for 2001. His scholarly activities include more than 150 published scientific articles, and contributions to numerous conferences and symposia. He has presented invited papers worldwide on technical topics and general research, education and policy issues in geotechnical engineering, and general civil infrastructure.