engineering

G. Wayne Clough

G. Wayne Clough is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand G. Wayne Clough rather than just read about it. In short: Gerald Wayne Clough (; born September 24, 1941) is an American civil engineer and educator who is President Emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. A graduate of Georgia Tech in civil engineering, he was the first alumnus to serve as President of the Institute.

Key takeaways

G. Wayne Clough belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect G. Wayne Clough to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of G. Wayne Clough from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gerald Wayne Clough (; born September 24, 1941) is an American civil engineer and educator who is President Emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. A graduate of Georgia Tech in civil engineering, he was the first alumnus to serve as President of the Institute. The Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, which officially opened its doors in August 2011, is named in his honor. Clough has garnered many other awards and honors, including the title of President Emeritus, two Norman Medals, eight honorary degrees, and membership in the National Science Board.

Personal life and education Clough was born on September 24, 1941, in Douglas, Georgia, the youngest of three children born to Daniel and Bessie (née Johnson) Clough. Clough's parents ran the local ice and coal plant. After electricity spread to south Georgia, the family moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Clough attended City High School. Clough also met his future wife, Anne Olivia Robinson, during this time. They have two children, Eliza and Matthew. Clough entered Georgia Tech in 1959 and earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1964. While an undergraduate at Georgia Tech, Clough participated in the cooperative education program, and was, against his wishes, a surveyor for a railroad company. Clough was a member of Georgia Tech's chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, and lived in their fraternity house on North Avenue for half a year. Clough originally planned to receive only a bachelor's degree; however, the faculty encouraged him to pursue a graduate degree, so he continued his education and received his master's degree in civil engineering in 1965. In 1969, Clough received a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, with the thesis "Finite element analyses of soil-structures interaction in U-frame locks".

Research After earning his doctorate, Clough began his academic career as an assistant professor at Duke University in 1969. He joined the faculty at Stanford University in 1974 first as an associate professor and then later as full professor. In 1982, he joined the faculty of Virginia Tech as a professor of civil engineering and served as head of their Department of Civil Engineering for seven years. In 1990, Clough became dean of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering. Clough continued his research and instruction of graduate students at Virginia Tech in addition to his administrative responsibilities. Clough's research focused on geotechnical engineering, including earthquake studies, numerical analysis, soil structure interaction, in-situ testing, and underground openings. In 1993, he became provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Washington. Clough cofounded the United States Universities Council of Geotechnical Engineering Research (USUCGER), and served as the organization's first president during 1993.

President of Georgia Tech

On September 1, 1994, Clough became the first Georgia Tech alumnus to serve as the President of the Institute, succeeding John Patrick Crecine, and was in office during the 1996 Summer Olympics. In 1998, he separated the Ivan Allen College of Management, Policy, and International Affairs into the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and the College of Management, which he returned to independent status. This separation was a major organizational change that built upon the large (and controversial) reorganization of the institute by Clough's predecessor. Tech also received the Hesburgh Award for support of undergraduate teaching and learning, and the Institute's U.S. News & World Report rankings steadily improved.

Clough's tenure was especially focused on a dramatic expansion of the Institute; more than $1 billion was spent on projects to expand or improve the campus. These projects included the completion of several west campus dorms, the manufacturing complex, 10th and Home, Technology Square, The Biomedical Complex, the Student Center renovation, the expanded 5th Street Bridge, the Aquatic Center's renovation into the Georgia Tech Campus Recreation Center, a new Health Center, the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, and the Nanotechnology Research Center. Clough also spearheaded research opportunities for undergraduate students, later known as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), the creation of an International Plan, and the creation of a fund to make Georgia Tech more affordable for low-income students (the G. Wayne Clough Georgia Tech Promise Program). The students of Georgia Tech affectionately dubbed him "Funk Masta G. Wayne" during his presidency due to the expansion and growth he encouraged in urban Atlanta, and he was generally known to have a warm and friendly disposition and a distinctive beard. In 2006, members of Georgia Tech's college Republican club sued Georgia Tech, aided by the Alliance Defense Fund, in a case known as Sklar v. Clough that lasted until April 2008. The students won this case and Georgia Tech was forced to drop their speech code which was deemed unconstitutional and pay the defendants court costs. Clough stepped down after almost fourteen years as President on July 1, 2008, which he previously announced in an email to students and staff on March 15, 2008.

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with G. Wayne Clough

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what G. Wayne Clough claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to G. Wayne Clough before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about G. Wayne Clough ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of G. Wayne Clough

In research: G. Wayne Clough appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses G. Wayne Clough in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: G. Wayne Clough is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, American civil engineers, Duke University faculty, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for G. Wayne Clough outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study G. Wayne Clough in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what G. Wayne Clough means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain G. Wayne Clough out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is G. Wayne Clough in simple terms?

Why does G. Wayne Clough matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study G. Wayne Clough?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on G. Wayne Clough.