Scott Ashford’s career with Oregon State University began in the early 1980s, when he was a civil engineering undergrad hired to stack rocks for a riprap study at the Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. Now, as Kearney Dean of Engineering, he oversees the 7th largest college of engineering in the nation, with nearly 400 faculty and staff and serving nearly 12,000 students. He considers this to be a lot more gratifying than stacking rocks.

After graduating from Oregon State, he worked in private industry and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His academic career began at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand and then moved to the University of California, San Diego, where he earned the rank of Professor. As an earthquake geotechnical engineer, much of his research focuses on the performance of lifelines following natural disasters. He was thrilled to return to Oregon State in 2007.

Dean Ashford is committed to empowering the research and innovation of the College of Engineering’s world-class faculty, building multi-disciplinary collaboration across the university and beyond, and supporting the success of an increasingly diverse student body. He believes Oregon State Engineers are needed now more than ever to deliver the solutions that will change the world.