Larry W. Mays
Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering Group
School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona 85287-5306
Professor Mays’ academic career has spanned over 43 years, starting at the University of Texas in Austin in 1976, followed by the last 30 years at Arizona State University where he has been a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering since August 1989, and is now in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. Professor Mays received the B.S. (1970) and M.S. (1971) degrees in civil engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla. He received the Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1976.
His research in hydrosystems engineering has focused on the application of optimization and risk/reliability analysis to the design, management and operation of water infrastructure systems. The mentoring of graduate students has also been a major focus in his career having supervised to completion 38 Ph.D. students and many master’s degree students.
Professor Mays is the author, co-author, or editor-in-chief of 24 books including the well-known textbooks Water Resources Engineering; Groundwater Hydrology; Applied Hydrology; Hydrosystems Engineering and Management; Ground and Surface Water Hydrology; and handbooks such as the Water Resources Handbook; Water Distribution Systems Handbook; Hydraulic Design Handbook; Stormwater Collections Systems Design Handbook; and others.
His interests for over the last 20 years have expanded to the visiting many archaeological sites around the world photographing and studying ancient water structures. He has published several articles on this topic and has edited the book, Ancient Water Technologies. More recently he has been a co-editor of the new book, The Evolution of Water Supply Through the Millennia, published by the International Water Association. One of his service accomplishments has been the development of a website on ancient water technologies, http://ancientwatertechnologies.wordpress.com.
In 1999 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of Civil
Engineering Alumni Association at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He
is Lifetime Member of ASCE. In 2014 he received the ASCE Julian Hinds Award and the Prince
the Warren A. Hall Medal presented by the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR)
and was also elected Fellow of the International Water Association in 2015. In 2016 he was
inducted into the Academy of Civil Engineers of the Missouri University of Science and
Technology (MUST). In 2016 he received the ASCE Ven Te Chow Award.