Sharon Wood

Ph.D., University of Illinois, Civil Engineering, May 1986
M.S., University of Illinois, Civil Engineering, August 1983
B.S., University of Virginia, Civil Engineering, May 1982

Sharon L. Wood is an esteemed American structural engineer, currently serving as the executive vice president and provost of the University of Texas at Austin. She has a rich legacy in engineering, being the descendant of three generations of civil engineers, and developed an interest in the field at the young age of eight during a visit to a construction site with her father. Wood holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Virginia, and she furthered her education with a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, supported by a Tau Beta Pi fellowship.

Wood began her academic career at the University of Illinois, where she served as a faculty member for ten years before moving to the University of Texas in 1996. Her tenure at UT Austin has been marked by numerous groundbreaking achievements. She was the first woman to chair the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering and the first woman to be appointed as the dean of engineering in 2014. As dean, she significantly increased the number of women among both the faculty and student body of the school.

Internationally recognized for her research on the earthquake response of reinforced concrete structures, Wood's work focuses on improving the structural response of buildings, the design and evaluation of bridges, and the development of passive sensors for infrastructure systems. Her contributions to the field have earned her election to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013 and numerous accolades, including the Alfred Noble Prize and the OPAL Award in Education from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

As executive vice president and provost since July 19, 2021, Wood leads strategic planning for the university’s academic mission, ensuring that programs across UT Austin’s 18 colleges and schools are world-class and aligned with the university’s commitment to diversity and equity. She continues to uphold her dedication to excellence in education and research, impacting over 51,000 students and supporting more than 3,000 teaching and research faculty.