Wehbe named interim head of Construction and Operations Management

Nadim Wehbe, who has served as head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since May 2014, will have an additional title for the start of the coming school year.

With the departure of Sayed Ahmed for Mississippi State, Wehbe will serve as interim head of the Department of Construction and Operations Management, which is home to four bachelor’s programs, two associate programs, two master’s programs and five minors.

Those activities include onboarding two new faculty members who will start teaching classes Aug. 21, starting a search for a new professor of practice in heavy construction after Gary Hemphill went back into private industry, and recruiting adjunct faculty to temporarily fill vacancies.

Wehbe said he plans no strategic changes in Construction and Operations Management, but he has plenty of work to do ensure a smooth transition to the future permanent department head and keep programs moving ahead in the coming school year.

The search for a permanent head for Construction and Operations Management is tentatively set to begin this summer when Dean Sanjeev Kumar forms a search committee.

The department has 12 faculty members and three support staff. In fall 2022, it had an enrollment of 270 undergraduates and 25 in the master’s program.

A native of Lebanon, Wehbe has been on the SDSU faculty since 1998, coming to Brookings from the University of Nevada-Reno. He did work in a high-bay structural lab there and was instrumental in designing and equipping the Jerome Lohr Structures Lab in Crothers Engineering Hall.

On Feb. 4, 2014, he was recognized as the first recipient of the John M. Hanson Professorship in Structural and Construction Engineering at SDSU, a title he still holds. He was recognized as a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2015 and a fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute in 2014. In March 2012, Wehbe was named a fellow of the American Concrete Institute.

Wehbe also served as interim head in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from May 2013 to May 2014.

Ahmed began at SDSU Dec. 15, 2021, after serving 11 ½ years at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. He served through the 2022-23 school year. Wehbe added the Construction and Operations Management duties to his workload June 1.