Nine alumni from the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have been elected to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
These distinguished graduates are recognized for their expertise in their fields, advancements in research and education, and strong leadership qualities. The department established the Academy of Distinguished Alumni to acknowledge the professional achievements and contributions of its graduates. Twenty-seven charter members were inducted into the academy in 2003, and over 125 additional members have been inducted since then.
Bob Gilbert, Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, says, “We are very proud of our alumni. They have a rich history of positive contributions to society and a strong vision for the future of our profession.”
Brian Falconer – Principal, Sevrund Associates Consulting Engineers
Brian Albert Falconer, P.E., SE, SECB, was born in Evanston, Illinois, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, as the son of a minister and a teacher. He earned a B.S. in architectural engineering from the University of Kansas in 1988 and an M.S. in civil engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1990, focusing on post-tensioned anchorage zones in concrete bridge decks under Dr. John Breen. Joining Severud Associates in 1990, Brian rose through the ranks to become an associate principal in 2002 and a principal in 2007. He has served on the New York City Department of Buildings Structural Technical Committee, contributed to the 2008 and 2014 building code revisions and is a past president of the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY). Brian holds multiple professional certifications, including licensure as a professional engineer and structural engineer, and has achieved board certification and LEED accreditation.
As a principal, Brian Falconer has overseen numerous large-scale projects, working closely with owners, developers, and architects on conceptual design and project planning. He has extensive experience coordinating with geotechnical, wind tunnel, vertical transportation and security consultants and ensuring project completion through construction contract administration. Brian’s portfolio includes the design and renovation of various structures, ranging from low-rise to high-rise buildings, long-span roofs and exhibit work, utilizing materials such as steel, reinforced concrete, masonry and glass. His notable projects encompass museums, athletic facilities, academic buildings, medical complexes, transportation facilities and commercial and residential developments. He is recognized for successfully completing complex projects with renowned architects and has earned several awards, including the American Institute of Architects‘ Project of the Year and World Architecture Magazine’s Best Building in the World.
Brian’s distinguished projects include the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA, the Museum of American Folk Art in New York, NY and the Biomedical Research Building at the University of Michigan. Other significant works include the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA, the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. Additional projects include Skirball Hall at NYU Medical Center, the American Museum of Natural History, the Phoenix Art Museum Expansion, Moynihan Station and the MSG Sphere at the Venetian in Las Vegas, NV.
Brian resides in Maplewood, NJ, with his wife, Virginia, and their two children, Colleen and Daniel.
Ali Khataw – President/CEO, Encotech Engineering Consultants
A Pakistani-born immigrant with a dream and vision for a better life, Ali Khataw is now the president and CEO of Encotech Engineering Consultants. Khataw is very active in the community, giving his time to more than a dozen business and community organizations. He focuses his passion on bringing people from all walks of life together and giving back to the community.
As a testament to his experience and his community involvement, Khataw is the recipient of the 2016 Engineer of the Year Award presented by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (TSPE), Travis Chapter.
Additionally, his love of travel and photography led him to photophilanthropy. Khataw donates his photographs to auctions supporting local charities. The concept of his photography website is to encourage charitable contributions, and all proceeds are donated to organizations dedicated to making a difference in the lives of others.
In 2018, Khataw and his wife, Nahid, established an endowed scholarship to support students at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
David Lott – Founding Partner, Lott Brothers Construction Company
David L. Lott has over 36 years of experience in the construction industry and project knowledge of health care, commercial, institutional, industrial and residential construction. He is responsible for the company’s pre-construction services, as well as estimating and construction engineering functions. David is a partner at Lott Brothers Construction Company and has been with the company since its inception.
David and his brother Wayne Lott grew up in the construction industry and continued the tradition started by their great-grandfather, grandfather and father. Construction was in their blood along with a strong work ethic, dedication to guiding principles, and the core value of “doing things right the first time.”
Wayne Lott – Founding Partner, Lott Brothers Construction Company
Wayne Lott is a partner at Lott Brothers Construction Company, Ltd. (LBCC), a general construction firm based in Austin, Texas. Since its founding in 1988, LBCC has built a diversified portfolio that includes projects across various sectors such as health care, retail, office, multi-family and single-family residential, industrial, cleanrooms, water and wastewater plants and environmental remediation. As a partner and President of the general partner, Wayne oversees all company operations and provides daily supervision of the company’s construction activities.
Under Wayne’s leadership, LBCC has completed approximately 6 million square feet of building space, with over 3 million square feet dedicated to health care and medical-related projects, including hospitals and medical office buildings. His hands-on approach and commitment to quality have been instrumental in the firm’s success and reputation for delivering complex projects across a broad spectrum of industries.
Patrice Melançon – Brigadier General, United States Air Force Reserves
General Patrice Melançon studied civil engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana, while attending on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. She was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1988 and entered the Air Force as a bioenvironmental engineer. She spent the next 9 years on active duty.
In the Fall of 1997, she transferred from active duty to the Air Force Reserve as a civil engineer. She received an M.S. in water resources engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in 1999. Gen Melançon spent the next 24 years juggling a civilian career as a water resources engineer for CDM Smith and serving as an active reservist. She also served as the department manager for the San Antonio River Authority for three years, from 2016 to 2019. In February 2017, she was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. After a 33-year career in the Air Force, which included multiple deployments and activations, she retired in February 2021.
Six of her nine years of active duty were spent at base level, managing the base’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) compliance programs. Gen. Melançon spent her last 3 years of active duty managing environmental remediation work. Most of her work supported a Superfund Site in Tucson, Arizona. This project had a large public education and outreach component and included the design and installation of a Soil Vapor Extraction system.
Gen. Melançon was recalled to active duty after the events of September 11, 2001, and served for a year on the Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) staff as the environmental program manager for all forward-deployed sites in the Middle East and Central Asian States. In her reserve career, she completed a 6-month deployment in 2012 to Qatar, again supporting AFCENT as the Director of Installations. She was activated and supported Air Force Space Command from fall 2013 to 2015, leading a team in building the Joint Space Operations Center. From 2019 to 2021, she was again activated, this time to lead the $4 billion rebuild of Tyndall Air Force Base following the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael.
Dan Stoppenhagen – Vice President and Head of Business Development for North Central and South America, Flour
Dan R. Stoppenhagan was a distinguished leader with over 35 years of international experience in the engineering and construction industry, specializing in the transportation and infrastructure sectors. Throughout his career, Dan built and maintained deep relationships with top-level officials in transportation departments and transit agencies across North America.
Dan played a pivotal role in transforming a business unit from non-existent in the late 1990s to a $2 billion enterprise by 2020. His efforts included launching a self-perform, direct-hire construction company capable of executing construction-only projects up to $400 million.
A professional engineer by training, Dan advanced through the ranks to manage an engineering department at a major international engineering-procurement-construction-maintenance (EPCM) company. His comprehensive understanding of the engineering process and the management of risk and profit in service delivery was complemented by his deep appreciation for client-relationship management. A significant portion of his career was dedicated to self-performing construction and managing construction subcontractors, which greatly benefited his professional journey.
Dan was an expert in navigating industry contracts and mitigating associated risks. His negotiation skills secured terms and won bids that resulted in over $250 million in profit over a decade. He successfully led pursuits of alternative delivery projects ranging from $30 million to $2 billion.
Known for his ability to form successful teams and build effective client relationships, Dan established joint ventures capable of bidding on and executing some of the most complex projects in North America. His portfolio includes landmark infrastructure projects across seven states and provinces. Dan excelled at attracting, developing, motivating and retaining top talent and developed strategies to build the workforce of the future. He understood the diverse needs and values of people from all age groups.
Dan R. Stoppenhagan’s unique blend of skills, experience, and reputation made him exceptionally qualified to lead engineering and construction companies of any size and serve in leadership roles across virtually all areas of a company.
Victor Torres-Verdín – CEO of the Torres Group
Víctor Torres-Verdín is currently the CEO of the Torres Group of consulting companies in Mexico. The company specializes in pavement evaluation, pavement management systems, laboratory testing and quality control, geotechnical engineering, traffic engineering and transportation planning.
He has been instrumental in implementing various modern devices for evaluating pavements for the first time in Mexico, including falling-weight deflectometers, laser profilers, ground-penetrating radars, multi-functional vehicles for collecting distress data, and coefficient of friction testers. Under his leadership, some of the first pavement management systems (PMS) in Mexico were developed.
Torres-Verdín started his professional career as a project engineer and eventually became the CEO of three important consulting companies, which have over 100 employees. They are recognized as the largest pavement engineering consultants in Mexico.
He has been responsible for the gradual development of a comprehensive pavement materials lab, which includes a full “Superpave”-type facility for asphalt concrete pavements; this laboratory has also obtained complete quality management systems certifications in Mexico. His companies also established the first AASHTO-certified calibration center for falling-weight deflectometers south of the U.S. border.
In 1991, Torres-Verdín worked as an assistant professor and research engineer in the civil engineering department of Monterrey’s Institute of Technology (ITESM), where he taught college courses on pavement design, geometric design, traffic engineering and airport design. He has also conducted eleven continuing education courses in Mexico in pavement management systems, pavement design, traffic engineering, transportation planning and economic evaluation of projects.
Torres-Verdín was awarded a B.S. in civil engineering with highest honors by the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) of Mexico in 1980. He also holds an M.S. (1982) and Ph.D. (1984), both in transportation engineering, from The University of Texas at Austin, which were obtained under the supervision of the late Professor B. Frank McCullough, internationally known as the “Father of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements.” From 1986 to 1987, he was granted a post-doctoral fellowship by the French Government at the Central Laboratory of Bridges and Roads (LCPC, Nantes).
David Wilkes – Water Brand Leader, OBG
David R. Wilkes, P.E., BCEE, is a retired water consulting engineer who served the water industry for almost 40 years. He worked as a technical lead, project manager, business development leader and business unit leader over his career with five different firms. He authored and presented over 80 technical papers and presentations. His professional career allowed him to work on cutting-edge projects all over the world, including procurement of the first dual membrane water treatment plant in the Netherlands, a large program of water treatment works for a private water firm in the Northwest of the UK and many leading-edge ozone, membrane and UV projects in the United States.
In terms of his volunteer work for the industry, he was involved with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as a younger member, including receiving the ASCE Younger Member of the Year award in 1992. For the American Water Works Association, he held various roles, including Chair of the Standards Council, which entailed service on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors.
Gregor Wollmann – Senior Structural Engineer, HNTB Corporation
Gregor Wollmann came to The University of Texas at Austin in 1986 on a Fulbright scholarship immediately after earning his Diplom-Ingenieur degree at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. His initial intention to stay for one year expanded to six, during which time he earned a master’s degree, a Ph.D., and a wife – fellow distinguished CAEE alumna Carin Roberts-Wollmann – along the way.
In his professional career, Gregor is engaged in the design and construction of long-span and complex bridge structures, ranging from post-tensioned concrete to arch, suspension, and cable-stayed bridges. Most notably, with the Blennerhassett Island Bridge opening in 2008, his portfolio includes one of the first network-tied arch bridges ever built in the United States, boasting, at the time, a world-record-setting span length.