Caroline Bennett, PhD, PE

Bennett is the Charles E. & Mary Jane Spahr Professor in and chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE) at the University of Kansas (KU).

Her research has addressed some of the most pressing challenges in structural engineering, including fatigue and fracture performance of steel infrastructure, constraint-induced fracture in steel bridges, and innovative structural retrofit strategies for a wide range of structures. Bennett has led national projects with the Federal Highway Administration, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center, and several state Departments of Transportation, delivering solutions that extend the service life of structures and improve infrastructure performance.

She serves on AISC’s Committee on Research as well as the TC10 Materials and Fabrication Committee. She recently served on AISC’s Game Changer panel. She also contributes to the AISI Steel Bridge Task Force and Transportation Research Board committees, strengthening connections between research and practice.

Bennett received AISC’s Special Achievement Award in 2024 for her work on advancing knowledge about the behavior of hot-dip galvanized steel structures as well as AISC’s inaugural Early Career Faculty Award in 2016. In 2013, AISI named her the Robert J. Dexter Memorial Lecturer.