Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

Endowing the Future

As we celebrate the James M. Hoover Chair in Geotechnical Engineering and the Gerald and Audrey Olson Professorship in Civil Engineering, it’s a good time to explain how endowed faculty positions benefit the Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Department.

An endowment is a promise for the future. The donated money is placed in an account, and the earnings from that account are given to the faculty recipient to advance the department. Endowed chairs and professorships provide resources to faculty for enhancing programs such as geotechnical engineering, transportation engineering, and environmental engineering. The endowment may be used to hire new faculty or retain outstanding current faculty.

Endowments may be established for any of the many programs within the CCEE Department. The following are just a few examples of opportunities currently available:

  • environmental engineering professorship ($500,000)
  • integrated curriculum professorship ($500,000)
  • transportation engineering chair ($1.5 million)

How the money is used

Terry Wipf, Pitt-Des Moines Professor in Structural Engineering, uses his professorship to

  • support graduate students on his research projects,
  • purchase specialized equipment,
  • enable graduate students and others to attend technical conferences, and
  • provide graduate student fellowships.

Chuck Jahren, W.A. Klinger Teaching Professor, uses the funds provided by his professorship to enhance the construction engineering program. He uses some of the funds to support a database that allows collaboration between several assistant editors for an academic journal.

The CCEE department and the ISU Foundation work closely with the donor to develop endowment criteria. For example, the endowment may be used for salary incentives for top faculty, to support graduate students, or to provide monies for guest lecturers.

For more information

If you would be interested in learning more about endowment opportunities, please contact James E. Alleman, department chair, 515-294-3892, jea@iastate.edu.

Or contact Carla Wiedmier, senior director of development at the Iowa State University Foundation, 515-294-4494, wiedmier@iastate.edu, or visit www.foundation.iastate.edu/giftplanning.