Clemson University’s Jesus M. de la Garza honored by alumni association

Jesus M. de la Garza of Clemson University has received a high honor from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association.

de la Garza was selected this year for the association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. He earned his master’s degree in 1984 and his doctorate in 1988, both in civil engineering from Illinois.

de la Garza then began a 31-year academic career at Virginia Tech. He joined Clemson in 2019 as chair of the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering and now serves as director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences.

The award recognizes the most accomplished alumni of Illinois’ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and is presented annually at the association’s largest event of the year.

de le Garza received his award March 12 in Chicago.

“I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association for honoring me with what is truly the most consequential professional recognition of my academic career,” he said.
de la Garza has had a distinguished career in civil engineering, marked by high honors.

He has been elected to the National Academy of Construction, named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and selected as a Fellow of the Construction Management Association of America. In 2021, he received the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Outstanding Projects and Leaders Award.

In March 2023, he was appointed chair of the National Research Council’s Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment, part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.