Academy of Distinguished Alumni
William J. Dunlay Ph.D., LM.ASCE
Inducted to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni on
William Dunlay received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley in 1974, after having received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from Penn State in 1965 and 1970, respectively. Following graduation, he joined the faculty in Civil Engineering at UT Austin (1974-76) and then at UPenn (1976-78). He then joined the airport planning practice of Peat Marwick Mitchell (PMM), which later became Leigh Fisher Associates and was acquired by Jacobs Engineering, where he became Principal in 1987 and from where he retired, first in 2003 and again in 2017 to start WJDunlay Consulting. From 2003-2005 he was also affiliated with UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies where he played a leading role in the aviation research program.
Dr. Dunlay is recognized as one of the leading experts in airfield and airspace planning, both nationally and internationally. He has been one of the leaders of research leading to the development of methods for evaluating airfield and airspace capacity that are in use today in airport planning and operations worldwide.
Dr. Dunlay’s accomplishments and stature have been recognized by numerous awards, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Robert Horonjeff Award and the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Francis X. McKelvey Award. Among his many distinguished appointments, he served on several National Academies Expert Panels, and as Chair of the ASCE Air Transport Division and its Airport Planning Committee.
Dr. Dunlay has been a strong supporter of UC Berkeley’s CEE in many ways. During his tenure at PMM and Leigh Fisher, many Berkeley CEE students were hosted with internships and a grant to support air transportation students at Berkeley was established. During his tenure at Berkeley, he contributed to the teaching and research program in air transportation engineering, and in 2004-2005 served as Chief Blending Architect (CBA) at NASA Ames Research Center responsible for integrating and evaluating the various concepts proposed for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).