Jean-Lou Chameau

As president of the California Institute of Technology, Jean-Lou Chameau leads one of the world’s preeminent centers of instruction and research in engineering and science. Prior to coming to Caltech in the fall of 2006, Chameau had a distinguished career as a professor of civil engineering and a university administrator. A native of France, he received his graduate education in civil engineering at Stanford University. In 1980 he joined the civil engineering faculty at Purdue University, where he subsequently became full professor and head of the geotechnical engineering program. He moved to Georgia Tech in 1991 as director of the school of civil and environmental engineering. He was the president of Golder Associates, Inc., an international geotechnical consulting company, from 1994 to 1995, after which he returned to Georgia Tech as Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and vice-provost for research. He was named dean of its college of engineering, the largest in the country, in 1997, becoming provost of the university in 2001. Chameau currently serves on the boards of directors for MTS Systems Corporation, InterWest, the Academic Research Council of Singapore, the Council on Competitiveness, John Wiley & Sons and Safran. His technical interests include sustainable technology; soil dynamics; earthquake engineering; and liquefaction of soils.  He is a member of National Academy of Engineering and the French Académie des Technologies.