CAEE Celebrates 2026 Distinguished Alumni and Outstanding Young Alumni Honorees

Established in 2003, the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni recognizes alumni and friends of the department who have made significant impacts in the field since their time on the Forty Acres. This year, eight CAEE graduates were honored with the distinction, joining an illustrious group of almost 200 Texas Engineers.

The recipients were celebrated at the annual ADA banquet this fall, alongside this year’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award recipient, Tyler Dube.  

Academy of Distinguished Alumni Class of 2026 

Jessica Baker Daily 

• B.S. Civil Engineering, 2004 

Jessica Baker Daily is president and CEO of Halff, an employee-owned infrastructure consulting firm ranked among Engineering News-Record’s Top 100 Design Firms. She began her career as a Halff intern while still at UT and now leads 1,400 employees who deliver infrastructure solutions that improve lives and communities. A recognized expert in water resources, Daily supported flood resilience initiatives with FEMA and other agencies. A passionate advocate for workforce development and the future of the engineering profession, she previously served on the CAEE external advisory committee. In 2025, Daily was recognized as one of Dallas CEO’s 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders.  

Robert Frosch 

• M.S. Civil Engineering, 1992
• Ph.D. Civil Engineering, 1996 

Robert Frosch is a professor of civil and construction engineering at Purdue University, where he also serves as vice provost for Academic Facilities and interim head of the School of Civil and Construction Engineering. Frosch’s leadership at Purdue has redefined the academic environment. His career has focused on improving and simplifying the design of structural concrete, advancing the profession through his work and leadership on the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Structural Concrete Building Code and ACI Board of Directors. He also serves as a trustee of the ACI Foundation. 

John Lund 

• B.S. Architectural Engineering, 1982 

John Lund is a structural engineer specializing in concrete design, repair and investigative engineering. He earned a B.S. in architectural engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1982, with an emphasis in structural engineering. After working for a precast concrete manufacturer and a Denver design firm, he joined Martin/Martin in 1988. He later spent one year opening Walter P. Moore’s Austin office, returning to Martin/Martin in 1999 to establish its investigative engineering practice. An American Concrete Institute Fellow, John serves on several ACI committees and received the Delmar Bloem Award for leading Committee 563, Specifications for Repair of Structural Concrete Buildings.  

Jonathan Pressman 

• M.S. Civil Engineering, 1995
• Ph.D. Civil Engineering, 2001 

Jonathan Pressman leads the treatment and distribution branch in the U.S. EPA’s Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water, developing and implementing a vision for a new applied research organization. Previously, he served in EPA’s Office of Research and Development, where his research addressed drinking water disinfection, disinfection byproducts, natural organic matter characterization and effective PFAS removal. A longtime American Water Works Association volunteer, he has served at committee, division and council levels throughout his career. Pressman earned a B.S. in civil engineering from Cornell University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in civil engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a registered professional engineer in Ohio and Texas. 

Bruce Russell 

• Ph.D. Structural Engineering, 1992 

Bruce Russell is currently a professor at Oklahoma State University and formerly taught at the University of Oklahoma. He has executed more than $10 million in funded research, published more than 50 journal papers and supervised more than 40 graduate students. His research has focused on precast, prestressed concrete and high-performance concrete materials. His team developed testing protocols for the bond of prestressed steel strands. National research awards include the Martin P. Korn Award, the George D. Nasser Award and the Charles C. Zollman Award from the PCI Journal, and the 1994 T.Y. Lin Award from ASCE (with Dr. Ned Burns).   

Caroline Russell 

• M.S. Environmental and Water Resources Engineering, 1999
• Ph.D. Environmental Engineering, 2003 

Caroline Russell is a vice president at Carollo Engineers with over 20 years of experience addressing drinking water treatment and distribution system water quality challenges for water systems across North America. Prior to beginning her engineering career, she supported scientific capacity building in developing countries during an AAAS Science & Technology Diplomacy Fellowship working for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Prior to completing her graduate studies at UT in 2003, Caroline received her B.S. degree in civil engineering from Duke University in 1996.  

Paul Tikalsky 

• M.S. Civil Engineering, 1986
• Ph.D. Civil Engineering, 1989 

Paul Tikalsky is a federal administrative judge and serves on the NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel. He formerly served as the dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University from 2012 to 2023. He has co-authored more than 110 technical papers and a book on the development of sustainable materials and structures, and on the national implementation of fly ash in long-life concrete. Tikalsky was formerly the chair of civil & environmental (nuclear) engineering at the University of Utah and the deputy director of the Larson Transportation Institute at Penn State University. He chaired multiple technical and educational committees and served on the Board of Directors of the American Concrete Institute. 

Eric Williamson 

• B.S. Architectural Engineering, 1990 

Eric Williamson is a professor and the Class of ’53 Distinguished Chair in Civil Engineering at the United States Military Academy. Previously, he held the Phil M. Ferguson Professorship in the Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the response of buildings and bridges under extreme loading conditions, with particular emphasis on blast, impact and progressive collapse. Williamson’s research has been sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. After attending UT, Williamson received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  

2026 Outstanding Young Alumni Award Recipient 

The Outstanding Young Alumni Award recognizes a graduate of the department under the age of 40 who has distinguished themselves with outstanding service and contributions to the engineering profession and community.

Tyler Dube 

• B.S. Civil Engineering, 2010 

Tyler Dube is currently an associate vice president at Pape-Dawson, where he leads a statewide team that delivers active transportation and accessibility projects throughout Texas. Recognized as a trusted advisor in the engineering profession, the CAEE alumnus has presented his expertise in accessibility and innovative project delivery at statewide technical conferences, contributed to hundreds of infrastructure projects, and served in leadership roles with the American Society of Civil Engineers at both the local and state levels. 

While attending UT, Dube owned and operated a lawn care and holiday lighting business that helped him graduate debt-free and employ many of his friends. He also served as a Longhorn Band trumpet section leader and drum major, earning scholarships in honor of Vincent R. DiNino’s legacy. The Texas Engineer remains deeply connected to UT through student mentorship, guest judging, faculty award selection and service. He has served as an engineering technical reviewer for more than 40 university projects, helping shape the future of the place that helped shape him.