Building at Colorado State’s Engineering Research Center to be Dedicated for Former Professor on Aug. 27

Colorado State University’s College of Engineering and the Department of Civil Engineering will name the main building at the Engineering Research Center the Daryl B. Simons Building on Saturday, Aug. 27, as part of a host of activities honoring the former civil engineering professor’s life.

Events begin with a building dedication at 2 p.m. at the Engineering Research Center at the west end of Laporte Avenue with comments scheduled by Provost and Senior Vice President Anthony Frank; Ray Chamberlain, former president of Colorado State; and Sandra Woods, interim dean of the College of Engineering. A celebration of Simons’ life will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the North Ballroom of the Lory Student Center, followed by a reception and dinner.

Simons, who died in March, was the first associate dean for research at the College of Engineering. In his 18 years there, annual research funding for the college jumped from $100,000 to more than $20 million. He had an international reputation in watershed management and river mechanics and sedimentology, working on every major river system in the world.

"Daryl B. Simons was an extraordinary engineer and college professor who solved problems of river degradation and pollution around the world for more than 50 years," said Neil Grigg, a civil engineering professor at Colorado State who was one of Simons’ graduate students. "In addition to his practical work, which helped reduce flooding and open rivers to navigation and other uses, he was a mentor to a new generation of engineers from about 50 countries, and his guidance will be felt in better water systems around the world."

The Daryl B. Simons Building at the Engineering Research Center, which is based at Colorado State’s Foothills Research Campus, features research on hydrology, hydraulics, lasers, optics, materials, plasmas, groundwater, wind engineering, structural engineering and environmental issues, among others.

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