Cox Receives Presidential Early Career Award

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Brady Cox

Brady Cox, assistant professor of civil engineering, has been named by President Barack Obama as one of 96 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

The president announced the recipients Monday.

“Discoveries in science and technology not only strengthen our economy, they inspire us as a people,” President Obama said in a White House announcement. “The impressive accomplishments of today’s awardees so early in their careers promise even greater advances in the years ahead.”

Since 2006, Cox has served as assistant professor in the College of Engineering’s department of civil engineering. During this time, he has become a national expert on the effects of earthquakes on buildings and infrastructure. He is a member of Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance, an international organization that partners with the National Science Foundation to conduct reconnaissance efforts of extreme events such as earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides. Cox traveled to Haiti as part of this group to document construction failures and collect additional data on the effects of the devastating January 2010 earthquake. He has also traveled to New Zealand, Peru, Japan, Turkey and Hawaii on similar expeditions.

Cox was selected for the Presidential award because of his work on non-intrusive subsurface imaging using seismic surface wave methods. These tests are used to determine the layering and dynamic properties of foundation soils under a building site, which is necessary information for designing structures to resist earthquake damage. Cox’s research focuses on making these methods more reliable.

The aim of his research is to quantify the uncertainty involved in these methods and create standards for them, which he hopes will lead to more accurate data and better building practices.

Cox is the first University of Arkansas faculty member to receive the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers award since 1996. Cox and the other awardees will be honored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy at a reception in Washington D.C. on July 31.

The awards exemplify the Obama administration’s priority on producing outstanding scientists and engineers to advance the nation’s goals, tackle grand challenges and contribute to the American economy. Established by President Clinton in 1996, the awards are coordinated by the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Executive Office of the President. Awardees are selected for their pursuit of innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology and their commitment to community service as demonstrated through scientific leadership, public education or community outreach.