White to head MSU’s civil engineering
December 13, 1999
A Purdue University professor formerly of Vicksburg is the new head of Mississippi State University’s civil engineering department. Thomas D. White, who has headed Purdue’s materials engineering curriculum, assumes his MSU duties Aug. 10. Formal approval of the appointment is pending by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning.
Prior to a 15-year academic career at the Indiana land-grant institution, White, an MSU graduate, held successive leadership positions in Vicksburg. In addition to heading the Waterways Experiment Station’s Pavement Materials Research Facility and Pavement Systems Division, he was a regional director of the Chem-Crete Corp.
In announcing the appointment, MSU engineering Dean A. Wayne Bennett said White “has an exceptionally well-balanced career, including experience in a government research laboratory, private industry and academia.”
A Tallulah, La., native and registered professional engineer, White holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MSU and a doctorate from Purdue, all in civil engineering.
He has held numerous professional organization leadership positions, including chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers Pavement Committee, Highway Division.