Professor O'Rourke has been a member of the teaching and research staffs at Cornell University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His teaching and professional practice have covered many aspects of geotechnical engineering including foundations, earth retaining structures, slope stability, soil/structure interaction, underground construction, laboratory testing, and elements of earthquake engineering. He has authored or co-authored over 280 publications on geotechnical, underground, and earthquake engineering.
He was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1993. He was awarded the C.A. Hogentogler Award from ASTM in 1976 for his work on the field monitoring of large construction projects. In 1983 and 1988, Prof. O'Rourke received the Collingwood and Huber Research Prize, respectively, from ASCE for his studies of soil and rock mechanics applied to underground works and excavation technologies. In 1995 he received the C. Martin Duke Award from ASCE for his contributions to lifeline earthquake engineering, and in 1997 he received the Stephen D. Bechtel Pipeline Engineering Award from ASCE for his contributions to the profession of pipeline engineering. He received the 1996 EERI Outstanding Paper Award. In 1998, he was elected to the EERI Board of Directors and served as Vice President. In 2002, he was elected President of EERI and will serve in that capacity until 2004. In 1998 and 2003, Prof. O’Rourke received Cornell University’s College of Engineering Daniel Lazar and Kenneth Goldman Excellence in Teaching Awards, respectively. In 2000 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois. In 2002, he was named an NSF Distinguished Lecturer and received the Trevithick Prize from the British Institution of Civil Engineers. He received the 2003 Japan Gas Association Best Paper Award. He testified before the US House of Representatives Science Committee on engineering implications of the 1999 Turkey and Taiwan earthquakes and again in 2003 on the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program. He has served on numerous earthquake reconnaissance missions, and holds a US patent for innovative pipeline design.
Professor O'Rourke has developed engineering solutions for problems concerning foundation performance, ground movement effects on structures, earth retaining structures, pipelines, earthquake engineering, tunneling, and infrastructure rehabilitation, both on a research and consulting basis. He has assisted in the development and application of advanced polymer and composite materials for the in-situ rehabilitation of water supply and gas distribution pipelines. He has developed techniques for evaluating ground movement patterns and stability for a variety of excavation, tunneling, micro-tunneling, and mining conditions. He has developed analytical methods and siting strategies to mitigate pipeline damage during earthquakes, analyze and design high pressure pipelines, and has established full-scale testing facilities for transmission and distribution pipelines. He has developed geographical information systems and network analysis procedures for water supply systems in areas vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters.
Professor O’Rourke has served as chair and member of the consulting boards of several large underground construction projects. He has served on the peer reviews for projects associated with highway, rapid transit, water supply, and energy distribution systems.
