David R. Steward has been appointed chair of the NDSU Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and awarded the Walter B. Booth Distinguished Professorship. Steward, who was a professor of civil engineering at Kansas State University, will join NDSU on July 1.

“This is an exciting hire for the department and the College of Engineering,” said Michael Kessler, dean of engineering. “David is an accomplished teacher and researcher who will further our land-grant heritage of education, research and service.”

Steward grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota, and earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering and a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Minnesota. He joined Kansas State University in the Department of Civil Engineering in 1998 as an assistant professor. Steward was promoted to associate professor in 2004 and full professor in 2010.

He led interdisciplinary teams studying the grand challenge of water resources, secured more than $15 million in research grants as lead or co-principal investigator and taught courses in groundwater flow and analysis, hydraulics, engineering mathematics and water-and-society. 

“NDSU has outstanding engineering programs and international acclaim,” Steward said. “I plan to lead the civil and environmental engineering department towards preparing our students to successfully design sustainable solutions for the infrastructure needed by society today and into the foreseeable future.”

During his time at Kansas State University, he was honored with the Thomas and Connie Paulson Civil Engineering Outstanding Faculty Member endowment, Frankenhoff Outstanding Research Award and Professorial Performance Award.

Steward is a fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers, a registered professional engineer in Minnesota and is widely published in his field.

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