[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 171 (Wednesday, November 18, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11487-S11488]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                    TRIBUTE TO DR. JAMES R. HOUSTON

 Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, Dr. James R. Houston of the U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers will soon retire with over 38 years of service. 
He is a member of the Senior Executive Service, SES, and is the First 
Director of the Corps' Engineer Research and Development Center, ERDC. 
His accomplishments and dedication to the Corps of Engineers' 
laboratory community and the Army are exceptional and will have a 
significant and long-lasting positive impact on this Nation.
  After serving as a private in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dr. 
Houston began his Army civilian career as a physicist studying 
explosion-generated wave effects at the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways 
Experiment Station, WES, in Vicksburg, MS. At WES he calculated harbor 
oscillations and devised a numerical model to determine the inundation 
limits of tsunamis in the Hawaiian Islands. In 1978, he earned his 
Ph.D. from the University of Florida and in 1981 received an Army R&D 
Achievement Award for improved methods for numerically simulating 
tsunami propagation and interaction with nearshore regions. In 1983 he 
was promoted to chief of the research division in the Coastal 
Engineering Research Center where he researched numerical modeling of 
coastal processes and tsunami flood level predictions.
  In 1986 he became the SES director of the Coastal Engineering 
Research Center, CERC, and with the combining of CERC and the 
Hydraulics Laboratory in 1997, he became the director of the Coastal 
and Hydraulics Laboratory, CHL. In these assignments, he oversaw 
research programs in coastal and hydraulic engineering, oceanography, 
coastal geology, dredging, and numerical modeling of hydrodynamics and 
sediment transport. Under his leadership, CHL became the largest 
coastal and hydraulics engineering laboratory in the world.
  In 2000 he became the first director of ERDC and in 2006 became dual-
hatted

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as the Director of Research and Development and Chief Scientist of the 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In that latter capacity he advised the 
Commanding General of the Corps on matters of science and technology 
and developed research and development policy for the Corps.
  The ERDC research that he led has made an enormous difference in the 
global war on terrorism, GWOT. He led ERDC to be the 2002 Army Research 
and Development Organization of the Year in recognition of successful 
modeling of the physics of blast/structure interaction and development 
of structural-hardening technology for retrofitting buildings to 
withstand terrorist attacks. The Pentagon wedge that was hit on 
September 11 had just been structurally hardened using this technology, 
and ERDC's technology was credited with saving hundreds of lives on 
that tragic day. As a result of his support of GWOT, the Secretary of 
the Army awarded him the Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service, 
and the U.S. Army Engineer Regiment awarded him both its Bronze and 
Silver deFleury medals.
  Under his leadership, ERDC won the Army Research and Development 
Organization of the Year five times: 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009. 
This is an unprecedented performance accomplishment in the history of 
the Army's laboratory of the year competition.
  Dr. Houston led countless water resources research efforts such as 
that for the Los Angeles County flood-control project that produced 
savings of over $200 million. In 2004, the ERDC won the prestigious 
White House Closing-the-Circle Award for research on environmental 
stewardship. Under his leadership, the ERDC developed integrated 
biological, chemical, and ecological control technologies to combat 
nonindigenous aquatic plants, resulting in annual savings of $50 
million.
  Dr. Houston has been a champion for outreach programs to foster a 
diverse workforce and supported educational outreach activities in 
civil engineering, environmental quality, and computer science. He 
provided research experience for college students from Historically 
Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions, HBCU/MI. During 
his tenure ERDC annually led the Army in meeting its HBCU/MI 
contracting goal.
  He has published over 130 technical reports and papers, and he has 
received numerous honors and awards including Phi Beta Kappa; Phi Kappa 
Phi; SES Distinguished Presidential Rank Award; two SES Meritorious 
Presidential Rank Awards; Army R&D Achievement Award; Army Decoration 
for Exceptional Civilian Service; Army Commendation Medal; two Army 
Meritorious Civilian Service Awards; Silver Order of de Fleury Medal; 
Bronze Order of de Fleury Medal; Eminent Speaker for 1993 from the 
Institution of Engineers, Australia; 1997 National Beach Advocacy 
Award; and the 2003 Morrough P. O'Brien Award from the American Shore 
and Beach Preservation Association.
  Dr. Houston's career with the Corps of Engineers has been marked with 
unprecedented accomplishments and is a superb legacy. His exceptional 
leadership qualities and technical eminence are in the best tradition 
of the Corps. He is a consummate professional whose performance in over 
38 years of service has personified those traits of competency and 
integrity that our Nation has come to expect of its senior civilian 
leaders. We wish him and his family all the best.

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