Johnston elected to National Academy of Construction

Dr. David West Johnston, the Edward I. Weisiger Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Construction Engineering and Management in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE) at North Carolina State University, has been elected to the National Academy of Construction (NAC). He was one of 26 new inductees to be honored on Oct. 23 at the NAC Annual Meeting in Charleston, SC. More than 250 industry leaders were considered by the NAC for nomination and election into the academy.

The NAC, established in 1999, is an organization of industry leaders in the construction industry who have made outstanding contributions to the engineering and construction industry. In addition to being a personal honor, election to the Academy allows members to volunteer their expertise to a variety of organizations, governmental and nongovernmental, for the betterment of the industry as a whole.

According to the NAC, a person is qualified for membership into the National Academy of Construction if he or she has made significant contributions to the effectiveness of the engineering and construction industry over a period of several years. They are recognized as an industry leader by his or her peers for significant contributions in areas such as technology, work process, safety, working relationships, tools, communications, education, and cost/schedule effectiveness. Contributions representing step improvements in one or more of these areas together with leadership in their implementation is highly desirable. Equally, the candidate should have demonstrated high personal integrity and a concern for the health of the entire industry through sharing and communication.

Johnston earned a B.S. in civil engineering, construction option in 1966, an M.S. in civil engineering in 1968, and a Ph.D. in civil engineering in 1972 all from NC State. He joined the CCEE faculty in 1977 and served the department until his retirement in December 2010. From 1997 until 2007, he was associate department head and director of graduate programs. In 2008, he was named Edward I. Weisiger Distinguished Professor in Construction Engineering and Management.

Johnston is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute and a licensed Professional Engineer. He has served as an evaluator for the ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission and chairs the Construction Engineering PE Exam Module Subcommittee for the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. Johnston has authored about 100 papers and reports, has made about 50 presentations at conferences and meetings and is the author of the 8th edition of ACI SP-4 Formwork for Concrete published in 2014. Among his many honors, he is the recipient of the ACI Construction Practice Award, the ACI Delmar Bloem Award and the ASCE Roebling Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of construction engineering.