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MPC Region Info
Meet Our Researcher

John Rice, Ph.D., P.E.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
Associate Professor
Phone: (435)797-8611
john.rice@usu.edu

Dr. Rice received his Bachelor's degree in Geology from Humboldt State in 1984, his Master's degree in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical) from Utah State in 1988, and his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical) from Virginia Tech in 2008. Prior to his career in academia, Dr. Rice had more than 16 years of professional experience (from 1988 to 2004) working as a geotechnical consultant in the Oakland, California office of Woodward-Clyde Consultants and the Pleasanton, Santa Rosa, and Sacramento, California offices of Kleinfelder. In the latter portion of his consulting career, he worked extensively on the levee systems in the Sacramento area and was responsible for the investigation, assessment, and design of a number of levee seepage and stability mitigation projects. In 2004 he started his Ph.D. studies at Virginia Tech where he studied the long-term performance of seepage barriers in dams. Currently, as an Associate Professor at Utah State University, he performs research in the areas of reliability-based analyses of internal erosion potential and laboratory modeling of internal erosion mechanisms. Much of his research is designed to provide information used in quantitative assessments for risk assessment in dams and levees. He has developed the Earth Structures Laboratory at USU, a laboratory specifically for modeling internal erosion mechanisms in dams, levees and their foundations.

Research Projects

NDSU Dept 2880P.O. Box 6050Fargo, ND 58108-6050
(701)231-7767ndsu.ugpti@ndsu.edu