John S. McCartney, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a professor and department chair in the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
McCartney’s specialty is geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. His research interests include unsaturated soil mechanics, geosynthetics engineering, and energy geotechnics, and he has led research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, Caltrans, and the DoD ESTCP program.
He is also passionate about teaching geotechnical engineering and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. These teaching efforts were recognized with the 2017 Advisor of the Year award from the ASCE San Diego section and the 2012 Shamsher Prakash Prize for Excellence in Teaching of Geotechnical Engineering.
McCartney currently serves as vice-chair of ASCE’s Geo-Institute Unsaturated Soils Committee and is a member of the ASCE Geo-Institute Geoenvironmental Engineering Committee and the Outreach and Engagement Committee. For his service on ASTM Committee D18 on Soil and Rock, he received the President’s Leadership Award in 2013 and the Richard S. Ladd D18 Standards Development Award in 2011. In addition, he is the president-elect of the North American Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society.
He is the current editor of ASCE’s Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, for which he won the 2012 Associate Editor of the Year Award. He is also active on the editorial boards of ASTM’s Geotechnical Testing Journal, Elsevier’s Computers and Geotechnics, Geosynthetics International, Soils and Foundations, Géotechnique Letters, Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment, Journal of GeoEngineering, and the Canadian Geotechnical Journal.
McCartney has received several research awards, including three from ASCE: the Walter L. Huber Research Prize in 2016, the Arthur Casagrande Professional Development Award in 2013, and the J. James R. Croes medal in 2012. Other awards are the DFI Young Professor Award in 2012, the NSF Faculty Early Development (CAREER) Award in 2011, and the Young IGS Award from the International Geosynthetics Society in 2008.
He earned his B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2003 and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. Before joining the University of California, San Diego, he was on the faculty of the University of Arkansas and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is a registered civil engineer in Colorado.
