Chair Henri Gavin

In December 2023, Henri Gavin was appointed to a second term as the W.H. Gardner, Jr. Chair of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Duke.

The W.H. Gardner, Jr. Chair

Under Henri Gavin’s leadership, Duke CEE has adapted to meet the grand challenges facing humanity and our planet.

During his tenure, the department was awarded a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center on precision microbiome engineering and launched an innovative professional master’s program in climate and sustainability engineering.

The department is a critical partner in Duke’s Climate Commitment to building a resilient, flourishing net-zero-carbon world by mid-century.

Meanwhile, new faculty have been recruited to work in vital areas that will define the profession’s future and increase Duke’s capacity to serve society by offering bold new solutions.

Seismic Hazard Mitigation

Gavin is an internationally regarded expert in magneto-rheological material modeling, visco-elastic rolling resistance, constrained dynamics, nonstationary wind field simulation, system identification, structural dynamics, multi-agent robotics and nonlinear control.

Through his wide-ranging work on seismic hazard mitigation, Gavin has forged relationships with leading universities and researchers in Japan, Nepal and New Zealand.

At Duke, he is a faculty network member of the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and a Bass Fellow.

Gavin holds an appointment in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and is the director of the Structural Dynamics and Seismic Response Control Laboratory.

Among his accolades are the President’s Award from the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering, the Southeast Mid-Career Teaching Award from the American Society for Engineering Education and the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

W.H. Gardner, Jr.

1925-2010

The Chair of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Duke is named for William Henry “Nick” Gardner, Jr.—a member of the Class of 1945, former faculty member and philanthropist.

After serving in the Navy’s 35th Construction Battalion—the “Seabees”—at the end of World War II, he returned to Duke to teach civil engineering. He rose to the rank of associate professor.

Later, he formed the Durham-based consulting firm through which he served as engineer-of-record on over 1,300 projects—including Duke’s Bryan Center and Nello L. Teer buildings.