The Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame’s 2025 Class has a strong component from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), with university President Ray Watts, M.D., and Engineering Professor and Chair Emeritus Fouad Fouad, Ph.D., among the inductees.

Watts and Fouad were formally inducted during a ceremony at Ross Bridge Resort in Birmingham on February 22, 2025.

Watts, a Birmingham native, earned his bachelor’s degree with honors in electrical engineering in 1976 before going on to medical school at the Washington University School of Medicine. He completed a neurology residency, medical internship, and clinical fellowships at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a two-year medical staff research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

He returned to UAB in 2003 as the John N. Whitaker Professor and Chair of Neurology and was named Senior Vice President and Dean of Medicine in 2010. He served as President of the Health Services Foundation (UAB School of Medicine Faculty Practice Plan) for five years before being named dean.

Watts became UAB’s president in 2013, and he is now the university’s longest-serving president. His induction bio on the AEHOF website describes his decade-plus tenure as an era when “UAB has made unprecedented strides in all pillars of its mission, including record enrollment and greater access to higher education for first-generation students; the most  successful era of research funding in the university’s history; accelerated commercialization and economic development efforts; advancements in patient care and precision medicine; and construction of key new facilities.”

Among the facilities constructed during Watts’ tenure is the Gorrie Hall, which will be the new home of the School of Engineering when it opens this spring. Gorrie Hall is the final phase of the $150 million Science and Engineering Complex.

Fouad Fouad joined the UAB School of Engineering faculty in 1981, and he served as chair of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering for 25 years before his retirement in 2021. He is currently the chief scientist and director of research and development at Valmont Industries, Inc.

Joining Watts and Fouad at the induction ceremony were Jeff Holmes (left), dean of the UAB School of Engineering, and Avinash Unnikrishnan (right), chair of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. Photo by Dianne GilmerRegarding his decades as an educator at UAB, the AEHOF bio praises Fouad for how his “40 years of teaching structural engineering at UAB has played a significant role in developing the State’s engineering workforce.  He taught and mentored hundreds of individuals who now work in the engineering industry.  Dr. Fouad was an innovator, creating courses for new materials and emerging design techniques, and ultimately creating three fully online engineering master’s programs that continue to develop the State’s engineering workforce.” 

Fouad’s research and innovations in the areas of structural engineering and transportation are among the many accomplishments that led to his induction. Specifically, the AEHOF cites his development of centrifugally cast prestressed concrete poles, for which he was awarded seven patents. It also cites his work in the transportation industry, which resulted in economic savings and safer structures across Alabama’s highway system.

Although he retired from UAB in 2021, Fouad continues to contribute to a project he helped start in 2020, leading the “Built Environment” team for the UAB Grand Challenge “Live HealthSmart Alabama” (LHSA). The main objective of this initiative is to improve the State of Alabama‘s health rankings through changes in Policy, System, and Built Environment, with the ultimate goal being to develop healthy communities and workforce to improve the quality of life of Alabama residents and our State economy. 

For more about the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame, visit https://engrhof.org/