O'Rourke

Thomas O’Rourke is the Thomas R. Briggs Professor of Engineering Emeritus in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University where he brings robust experience including international leadership in the extreme-event performance of geographically distributed infrastructure, such as water supplies, transportation facilities, and energy delivering systems. He has also authored or co-authored over 450 publications on geotechnical, underground, and earthquake engineering, as well as the impact of extreme events on civil infrastructure.
 
Thomas is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Mexican Academy of Engineering, Distinguished Member of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received numerous awards from professional societies, including ASCE, Institution of Civil Engineers (United Kingdom), and the American Society for Testing and Materials.
 
He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.S.C.E. from Cornell.
 
He is married to Pat, and they have one daughter, Adele and one granddaughter, Scarlet Skye.