Dr. Wael Zatar, J.H. Fletcher Professor and dean of the College of Information Technology and Engineering at Marshall University, has been named the 2019 West Virginia Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator of the Year by the West Virginia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The award recognizes a distinguished civil engineering educator who is a tenured faculty member in a West Virginia engineering school, a resident of the state, and a member who has demonstrated outstanding service to the civil engineering profession and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Fewer than a handful of professors have received this highest-level civil engineering educator award in West Virginia. Zatar had earlier received the West Virginia Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator of the Year award in 2015 and is the only civil engineering educator in the state of West Virginia to receive the award twice.
Zatar was nominated by David Meadows, P.E., chief technical officer and corporate safety officer of Triad Engineering Inc. and a member of the West Virginia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Zatar served as a past president of the West Virginia Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and has earlier been the vice president of the same professional organization.
“I am very honored and humbled to be named the recipient of the West Virginia American Society of Civil Engineers Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator of the Year award for the second time,” Zatar said. “I am also very grateful to Mr. David Meadows for his kind nomination and unconditional support.”
Zatar has served in a variety of roles – as a faculty member at all ranks and a seasoned administrator who has exhibited a great passion to educate and graduate civil engineering students. He led the creation of Marshall University’s engineering facilities and established a first-class academic environment to educate many civil engineering students for many years to come. Many of his students have graduated and become licensed professionals with the main goal of protecting the health, safety and welfare of the people in the state of west Virginia and beyond.
Previously employed at the University of Kentucky, Zatar has been at Marshall University for the past 13 years. He has 30 years of combined research, teaching, administration, and experience in the field of civil engineering, pre-stressed concrete structures, seismic design and retrofit of bridge structures, which gained him national and international acclaim and awards. Zatar has also been recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, American Concrete Institute, Japan Society of Civil Engineers, Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences and Transportation Research Board.
Zatar serves as the director of the Appalachian Transportation Institute and director of the Brickstreet Center for Engineering and Safety at Marshall University. He earlier served as director for the Multi-Modal Transportation and Infrastructure Consortium, Marshall University’s Transportation Center, Innovations and Asset Management of Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure Systems program. He has also served as associate director of the Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability Center.
Originally from Jean Hardiman for Marshall University Communications.