Texas A&M professor receives highest engineering honor

Vijay Singh, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor, and Caroline and William N. Lehrer Distinguished Chair in Water Engineering at Texas A&M University, was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering, NAE.

Singh is in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, which is jointly administered by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Engineering.

Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions an engineer can achieve.

Singh was elected for his contributions to wave modeling and the development of entropy-based theories of hydrologic processes and hydroclimatic extremes. He was among 111 new members and 22 international members elected, bringing the total U.S. membership to 2,388 and the number of international members to 310.

This distinction is something engineers aspire to and that very few in academia are lucky enough to achieve, Singh said.

“I’ve received many awards and accolades over my career, but election to the NAE is pretty much a capstone,” he said.

Singh honored for contributions to engineering

Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice or education. This includes, where appropriate, significant contributions to engineering literature and to pioneering and developing innovation in the various fields, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing new approaches to engineering education. 

Singh said he was thankful for his election and that it was an acknowledgment of his work and the impact he has made within the field.

“We in academia do not work for awards but hope that our work has an impact on our profession and on society,” he said. “Often awards follow what we do, though not always, but that should not deter us from the work that we have a passion for. Not receiving an award in no way means the quality of work is not good. Sometimes it takes a long time for the work to be recognized by peers.”

Singh and the rest of the newly elected class will be formally inducted during the NAE’s annual meeting on Oct. 2. Here is a complete list of the new members and international members with their primary affiliations at the time of election.

“This is obviously a great honor,” he said. “For me, this is an acknowledgment of my past work, but there is still much work to be done, and I look forward to continuing to contribute to the field where I can, both individually and through collaboration.”