David Ford named Vecellio Professor of Construction Engineering and Management
David Ford, a professor of civil engineering at Texas A&M University who will join the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech this fall, has been named the Vecellio Professor of Construction Engineering and Management by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
Established in 2000, the Vecellio Professorship in Construction Engineering and Management is a gift from the Vecellio Family Foundation and individual members of the Vecellio family to enhance education and research in the Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Ford is a distinguished scholar who is internationally recognized in the field of system dynamics with application to construction engineering and management of the built environment. He has made notable contributions to his discipline of civil engineering and introduced innovative methods from the field of system dynamics through research.
He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, many of which have been published in the most highly respected journals in his field. His scholarship has received more than 5,000 citations. Over his academic career, Ford has obtained more than $6.6 million in external research awards.
Known as an enthusiastic teacher, Ford effectively integrates his research and applications of system dynamics into both undergraduate and graduate-level civil engineering classes. He is an instructor in the System Dynamics Society Summer School, which he co-developed in 2017. He has advised more than 100 graduate students to degree completion at the master’s degree and Ph.D. levels.
Ford is the associate editor for Systems Dynamics Review, a position that he has held since 2017, and he served as president of the System Dynamics Society in 2012. Ford was a fellow in the Institute for Science Technology and Public Policy in the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University from 2008 until 2015.
Ford earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Tulane University and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
