Expertise
Transportation, pavement engineering and management, infrastructure management, resilient infrastructure, life cycle assessment, geotechnical engineering, construction work zone safety, automated distress collection
Areas of Specialization
Research Clusters
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Professor
Civil Engineering
Overview
Dr. Susan Tighe, PhD, PEng, FCAE, FCSCE, FEIC, C.Dir., is Provost and Vice-President (Academic) and professor of civil engineering at McMaster University. She was appointed in July 2020.
Dr. Tighe continues to be an active researcher and has gained national and international recognition for her outstanding contributions to the development, design, and management of sustainable concrete and asphalt transportation infrastructure. Her reputation as a scholar, educator, and professional engineer is well illustrated by the breadth of her technical publications in pavements and infrastructure and involvement in several national and international research projects in Canada, Africa, Chile, India, China, Australia, New Zealand and throughout North America. She led the development of the 2013 Pavement Asset Design and Management Guide for the Transportation Association of Canada and is author of more than 400 technical publications.
Dr. Tighe, received her BSc in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University, and her MASc Civil Engineering and PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo. She has also earned the Chartered Director designation from the DeGroote School of Business Director’s College Program at McMaster University. She has been a professional engineer in Ontario since 1995 and was a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo from 2000 to 2020 where she held a Canada Research Chair, the Norman W. McLeod Endowed Chair in Sustainable Pavement Engineering, served as Director of the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology and Deputy Provost and Associate Vice-President Integrated Planning and Budgeting. She received the Faculty of Engineering, Graduate Supervision Award and the University of Waterloo, Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision. Dr. Tighe has supervised more than 100 MASc, PhD and post-doctoral students and continues to supervise graduate students at McMaster.
Prior to pursuing graduate studies, Dr. Tighe worked for the Ministry of Transportation Ontario in various roles including construction site engineer, geotechnical materials engineer and materials engineer writing standards and specifications. She also spent a sabbatical working in the private sector for a leading civil engineering construction company in Australia.
- BASc (Queens)
- MASc (Waterloo)
- PhD (Waterloo)
Dr. Tighe’s reputation as a scholar, educator, and professional engineer is illustrated by the breadth of her honours and awards. She is internationally recognized for her contributions to the development, design, and management of sustainable concrete and asphalt transportation infrastructure. She has secured more than $25 million in research funding (PI/Co-PI).
She was elected a member of the inaugural class of the Royal Society of Canada’s College for New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. She is a Fellow Canadian Academy of Engineering; Fellow Canadian Society for Civil Engineering; and Fellow Engineering Institute of Canada and a past president of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. She won two prestigious Fellowships to undertake high impact research in New Zealand (Erskine Fellowship) and England (United Kingdom Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship). She has received 21 best paper awards, the Professional Engineers of Ontario Engineering Medal in Research and Development and Young Engineer Medal, the Sanford Fleming Award from the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, which is Canada’s top civil engineering award in transportation, the En-hui Yang Research Innovation Award, Award of Academic Merit from the Transportation Association of Canada, and the inaugural Bleeds Black Award from the Ontario Hot Mix Producers Association. She has also appeared in Canada’s Top 40 under 40 and Canada’s 80 Women to Watch lists. Dr. Tighe is a past president of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering.