Gary Durham, Ph.D., president of Durham Geo-Enterprises in Stone Mountain, Ga., has received the Award of Merit from ASTM International Committee D18 on Soil and Rock. The D18 committee honored Durham for his outstanding service to the committee in standards development, publications and committee operations. The Award of Merit is the highest ASTM recognition for individual contributions to standards activities.

Durham lives in Snellville, Ga.

Currently a D18 vice chairman, Durham has led a number of D18 groups and works on several subcommittees; he has been involved with the development of several standards and has taken an active role in managing the committee for many years. Durham has also contributed papers to ASTM symposia and co-edited two ASTM Special Technical Publications. For his contributions to the committee, Durham previously has been recognized with the Woodland G. Shockley Memorial Award, a D18 Special Service Award, a D18 Standards Development Award and a D18 Technical Editors' Award.

In addition to his membership in ASTM International, Durham is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Durham was a practicing geotechnical engineer for the first 22 years of his career. Since 1987 he has held leadership roles in companies that manufacture and distribute geotechnical testing equipment and instrumentation.

A graduate of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa with a B.S.C.E., Durham earned his M.S.C.E. from Mississippi State University in Starkville, his Ph.D. in civil/geotechnical engineering from Oklahoma State University, and his M.B.A. from the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Release #7692