Dr. Robert Gilbert, professor of civil engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, has been honored by the U.S. Army with its Outstanding Civil Service Medal.
Gilbert received the award along with two university engineering alumni at a formal U.S. Army ceremony in Washington D.C. The award recognized Gilbert’s guidance to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in its assessment of levee-failure risks and human safety concerns related to New Orleans’ hurricane-protection system.
Gilbert, Dr. David Daniel, president of the University of Texas at Dallas, and Dr. David Espey, president of Espey Consultants Inc., received the Outstanding Civil Service Medal for providing an independent review of the Corps’ Hurricane Katrina Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force. The three provided their review as members of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ External Review Panel, a group commissioned by the Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, chief of engineers and commander of the Corps.
A member of the panel since March 2006, Gilbert helped by providing a peer review of the Corps’ levee investigation. Specifically, he assessed why the New Orleans’ levees failed and why floodwaters caused so much damage during Hurricane Katrina. The Hudson Matlock Professor, an expert in risk management, also helped the group outline levee enhancements and other improvements the city could consider to prepare for future hurricanes.
As stated in the award given by Strock, Gilbert “provided valuable input based on his experience that has been instrumental in the development of the risk model,” and “challenged the team by asking difficult questions that kept them focused on the important issues.”
