America's Research-Active, Geotechnical Faculty Members: An Investigation of National Science Foundation Funding Trends

This paper is an investigation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding trends within America’s research-active tenured and tenure-track, civil engineering community from 50 major, doctoral-granting institutions, with 5 schools examined in detail. Important questions are raised as to how funding patterns relate to rank and sub-discipline within Civil Engineering, and whether there is a causal link with publication rates. The paper presents key parameters with respect to issues that may be critical for tenure decisions at some institutions. They include total average number of awards per individual, the size of those awards normalized by named participant, and how these values have changed over the past nearly 40 years. These issues are considered for Geotechnical Engineering in comparison to other subdisciplines within Civil Engineering. Funding breakdowns shows a higher reliance of Geotechnical engineers on traditional funding programs within NSF with a profoundly greater capacity to raise money at more senior levels, although these additional resources do not necessarily translate into increased journal publication rates.