Dr. M. Katherine Banks, Dean
Texas A&M College of Engineering
 
To Register for August 13, 2015
 
 

Dr. Banks is the vice chancellor for engineering for The Texas A&M University System and dean of the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.

As vice chancellor, Banks oversees coordination and collaboration among the engineering, academic and research programs at seven universities throughout the A&M System, as well as three state agencies: the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). Banks also is TEES director, overseeing research administration of more than 4,400 projects and $157 million in sponsored research awards.

As dean of the Look College and holder of the Harold J. Haynes Dean's Chair in Engineering, Banks leads one of the largest engineering schools in the country, with more than 15,000 students and nearly 500 faculty. Dr. Banks leads, 25 by 25 program, a controlled growth initiative which will increase the engineering enrollment at Texas A&M to 25,000 by 2025.

Banks was previously the Bowen Engineering Head for the School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University and the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor at Purdue. She received her B.S.E. from the University of Florida, M.S.E. from the University of North Carolina, and Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Duke University. For her research, Banks has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA, as well as industry and state government. She served as director of the EPA Hazardous Substance Research Center, associate director of the NASA Center for Advanced Life Support, and co-director of the 21st Century Center for Phytoremediation Research, all headquartered at Purdue.

Banks is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the America Society of Civil Engineers. She is a licensed professional civil engineer in Indiana and Kansas. She has received numerous awards including the ASCE Petersen Outstanding Woman of the Year Award, ASCE Rudolph Hering Medal, Purdue Faculty Scholar Award, Sloan Foundation Mentoring Fellowship and the American Association of University Women Fellowship. She is the author or co-author of more than 150 journal articles, proceedings papers and book chapters, and has made more than 200 scholarly or technical presentations before professional and related groups. Banks has served as editor-in-chief for the ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering and associate editor of the International Journal of Phytoremediation.