Minneapolis, MN
August 23, 2022
June 26, 2022
June 29, 2022
7
10.18260/1-2--41429
https://peer.asee.org/41429
259
Dr. John Rice is an Associate Professor at Utah State University (USU) where he teaches senior and graduate-level courses in Embankment Dams and Slopes, Ground Improvement, Advanced Shear Strength of Soils, and Foundation Analysis and Risk Assessment for Dams. He received he Ph.D. from Virginia Tech with a dissertation titled The Long-Term Performance of Seepage Barriers in Dams. His research at USU focuses on seepage and internal erosion in dams and levees and he has published over 40 professional papers on this subject. During the 2018/2019 academic year he received a Fulbright Scholar Fellowship to support a sabbatical in the Netherlands where he worked with Deltares, Rijkswaterstaat, and TU Delft on the issue of Backward Erosion Piping in the Netherlands levee system.
Prior to his academic career, he had a 16-year career as a geotechnical consultant in California working for Woodward-Clyde (now part of AECOM) and Kleinfelder. The latter part of this consulting career was dedicated to assessing seepage issues in California levees and he consulted on the first two Deep Mix Method cutoff walls constructed in California under the auspices of the US Army Corps of Engineers. In addition to his academic career, he currently works as an independent consultant where he is regularly consulted for seepage and slope stability issues by clients such as the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Department of Justice, Tennessee Valley Authority, Electrical Generation Authority of Thailand, and several private entities. He is currently the Committee Chair of the ASCE GeoInstitute Committee on Geomechanics of Soil Erosion. He was the Symposium Chair for the 2016 International Symposium on the Mechanics of Internal Erosion for Dams and Levees and was the Technical Chair for the International Conference on Scour and Erosion – 10 in October 2021.
The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program provides opportunities for US Academics, Administrators, and Professionals to teach and perform research with colleagues from a vast array of countries worldwide. The authors of this paper are Civil Engineering Professors who have recently completed Fulbright Fellowships in the Netherlands and Namibia, where they collaborated with local academics on research and teaching. Due largely to the diversity of the cultures they visited, the authors’ experiences were highly varied yet both rewarding and fulfilling experiences that opened new doors to international collaboration, cultural exchange, and professional development. The authors describe their experiences with their host countries, the research they were able to perform, and how these experiences affected the development of their academic careers. Each author will describe the unique challenges associated with the cultures they visited and the preparation they undertook leading up to their international experience. The paper concludes with a general discussion of the opportunities and potential professional development benefits of international collaboration for STEM faculty.
Rice, J., & Jones, S. (2022, August), Engineering and the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program A World of Opportunities Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41429
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