Karl Frederic Meyer, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, who teaches courses in structural design and fundamental mechanics, and mentors senior capstone design projects at Georgia Tech, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Meyer joined Georgia Tech in 2021 after 37 years of service as an officer in the U.S. Army. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1984 and commissioning as a Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers, he served in positions of increasing responsibility. Early in his career, he led soldiers during deployments to Central America and in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, overseeing challenging construction projects with limited resources. Serving in Germany later in his career, he oversaw administrative, logistics, and operational activities of an Engineer Brigade with almost 1,700 soldiers deployed across the European Theater.
In 1999, he was selected as an academy professor to return to West Point for service in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Prior to assuming those duties, he attended graduate school at Georgia Tech, earning his Ph.D. in civil engineering with his dissertation focused on the construction of prestressed bridge girders using high-strength lightweight concrete. It was during his doctoral studies that he became involved in the American Concrete Institute (ACI), something that has continued through his career involving service on several committees and the Board of Directors.
In 2000, Meyer took part in one of the early offerings of the ASCE Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) Teaching Workshop as a senior mentor and continued to serve in this role over many offerings of the workshop. He has authored or co-authored multiple papers and made presentations on lightweight concrete, education and curricular development, and sustainable design.
Meyer, following completion of his Ph.D. in 2002, assumed duties as Structures Group Director in CME overseeing all structural analysis and design courses in an ABET-accredited CE program. In 2006, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and became director of the CE Division, a position he held for seven years. He led the CE Division through an ABET re-accreditation visit, revised the program of study to better reflect the needs of program graduates during the War on Terror, and saw the CE program consistently ranked in the “top two nationally” by U.S. News and World Report for CE programs not offering a Ph.D.
In 2013, he was selected as a professor, USMA, assuming duties as deputy department head, then in 2017 as department head overseeing nationally ranked programs in both civil and mechanical engineering.
Upon retiring from the Army in 2021 as a Brigadier General, Meyer joined the CEE faculty at Georgia Tech. He also serves as advisor for the ASCE Student Chapter and the ACI Student Chapter, and was recently selected as “Faculty Member of the Year” by the GT Student Government Organization.
