Randel Dymond named ASCE Fellow

Randel Dymond, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, an Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, who specializes in water resources, land development, and GIS, has been named a Fellow by ASCE.  Dr. Dymond has more than 36 years of experience in academics, consulting, and software development.  He has taught at Fairmont State University, Penn State, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and has been at Virginia Tech since 1998.

Dr. Dymond has taught more than 25 different courses in his career, covering many different areas of civil and environmental engineering, and has been a leading integrator of computing into the civil engineering curriculum throughout his career, setting up teaching computer labs at each of his universities.  He has developed many new courses covering innovative material, usually integrating the most up to date computer techniques available at the time.  As a leading proponent of 3D design, for 5 years Dymond co-authored the Autodesk Civil 3D international curricula at the high school and university levels.  His teaching style is personal and applied, and he has been awarded many teaching honors, including the Chi Epsilon National Teaching Excellence Award (James M. Robbins).  He has also led many short courses for practitioners in the areas of GIS, CAD and hydrology.

While on leave from UW-Platteville, he was the first Director of R&D for EaglePoint Software and then became the Chief Information Officer at UW-P on his return to campus.  At Virginia Tech, Dymond was the founding director of VT’s Center for Geospatial Information Technology in 2003, and created the Land Development Design Initiative (LDDI) at VT in 2006, an innovative and collaborative partnership with industry to improve land development education and research. Five courses are now focused on land development topics in the CEE Curriculum; professionals participate in teaching, mentoring, and social programs as practitioner involvement is one of the major goals of the effort.

Dr. Dymond has published more than 75 refereed journal articles and proceedings papers, and been the principal or co-principal investigator for more than 110 research proposals from many diverse funding agencies.  His research areas include urban stormwater modeling, low impact development, watershed and floodplain management, real-time environmental monitoring of streams and rivers, STEM education, and sustainable land development. Along with several colleagues, Dymond has been instrumental in aiding the recovery of the water resources group in the CEE Department at VT from the 2007 tragic loss of many WR grad students and his friend and colleague, Dr. G.V. Loganathan.

Dr. Dymond has served as the ASCE student club advisor at Fairmont State (started the club), Penn State, and at VT.  He been an active research paper reviewer for multiple ASCE Journals, a member of the ASCE Technical Committee on Computer Practices, and continues to be an Associate Editor for the ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering.

Dymond received a BS in Chemistry from Bucknell University, a 2nd BS in Civil Engineering from Penn State, followed by a Masters and PhD also from Penn State.