Bjorn Birgisson, chair of the UGA College of Engineering’s School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural and Mechanical Engineering and founding executive director of the Georgia Network for Electric Mobility (GNEM), has been named the inaugural holder of the Georgia Power E-Mobility Distinguished Professorship.
Birgisson, who joined UGA’s faculty at the beginning of 2022, is an accomplished educator with experience leading engineering education and research programs in the United States, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
“It is an honor to be named the inaugural Georgia Power E-Mobility Distinguished Professor, and I am incredibly grateful to Georgia Power, the Board of Regents, the University of Georgia, and the College of Engineering for this recognition,” said Birgisson. “Electric mobility is critical to the future of sustainable transportation in Georgia and I look forward to continuing to help grow Georgia’s electric mobility sector.”
Trained as a professional engineer in the U.S. and with extensive experience in the United Kingdom and Sweden, Birgisson is an authority on the current state of infrastructure research and implementation. He earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering with a concentration in geomechanics at the University of Minnesota. He received a M.S. in civil engineering from Cornell University and B.S. degrees in civil engineering and mathematics from the University of North Dakota.
Prior to joining UGA, Birgisson held the J.L. “Corky” Frank/Marathon Ashland Petroleum, LLC Chair at Texas A&M, where he also served as the inaugural director of the Center for Infrastructure Renewal and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Distinguished Research Professor and TEES Eminent Professor. Before that, he was professor of transport science, pro vice-chancellor and executive dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University in the U.K. where he co-led the formation of the U.K. Energy Research Accelerator (ERA), which is now the largest UK research network dedicated to solving and accelerating innovative energy solutions through cooperation between universities, industry and government. He also served as the vice president for research at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, as well as a head and professor in the Division of Highway and Railway Engineering.
An accomplished researcher, Birgisson has authored more than 230 publications and is a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and a Fellow in the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Engineering Mechanics Institute. He was a founding member of the Academy of Pavement Science and Engineering, a global community of researchers working to advance pavement science and engineering, and served as a member of the academy’s board of governors for 5 years. In addition, Birgisson led the development of the U.S. National Roadmap for Nanotechnology for Concrete-Based Materials in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Federal Highway Administration, Transportation Research Board, Portland Cement Association, and the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office.
“As the executive director of the GNEM and a leader in the field of electric mobility, Dr. Birgisson’s appointment as the Georgia Power E-Mobility Distinguished Professor is well deserved,” said Stephan Durham, interim dean of the College of Engineering. “We are grateful to Georgia Power for their continued and generous support of our college and the establishment of this professorship.”
Writer: Lillian Ballance