Professor Jay Puckett

Vincent O. Smith Professorship in Engineering

Oct. 24, 2005 - The College of Engineering is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Jay Puckett, Head of Civil and Architectural Engineering, to the Vincent O. Smith Professorship in Engineering. This professorship, established by the late Vincent O. Smith, is to be assigned at the discretion of the Dean with special consideration to structural engineering or other sub-disciplines related to infrastructure as these are the areas upon which Vince Smith built a distinguished career.

In addition to providing leadership for the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at the University of Wyoming, Professor Puckett is known nationally for his scholarship and teaching in structural engineering, specifically as applied to highway bridges. His textbook Design of Highway Bridges – An LRFD Approach is widely accepted as one of the most authoritative in the field. He serves the bridge engineering community nationally as an advisor, committee member and consultant to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Puckett has also served on several committees of the National Academies of Science and Engineering and as a research contractor to the Cooperative Highway Research Program. He was instrumental in starting the ASCE Bridge Engineering Journal and served on the original team of editors. He was inducted to Academy of Distinguished Alumni at the University of Missouri at Columbia in 2000.

Unfortunately Vince Smith, a recipient of the University of Wyoming's Distinguished Alumni Award and a member of the College of Engineering's Hall of Fame passed away before the income from this endowment could be put to the intended use to strengthen this critical component of the College's programs.