J. Erik Loehr is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Interim Director of Research for the College of Engineering. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Civil/Geotechnical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior joining the MU faculty in 1998, Dr. Loehr held positions as a Field Instrumentation Engineer at the Superconducting Supercollider site in northern Texas, Assistant Estimator for earthwork construction, and construction quality control technician for general civil engineering projects.
Dr. Loehr specializes in evaluating the stability and performance of geotechnical structures (earth slopes, foundations, dams, earth retention systems, and tunnels), large-scale laboratory modeling and full-scale field evaluation of geotechnical engineering problems, and computer applications and reliability-based design in geotechnical engineering. He has performed research for agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Missouri Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration as well as for a number of private contractors and companies. Total funding received for these projects is in excess of $2 million. His recent research projects include development and evaluation of techniques for using recycled plastic reinforcement for stabilization of surficial slope failures, large-scale laboratory and numerical evaluation of reticulated micropile systems for slope stabilization, development of a constitutive model to predict the behavior of fiber-reinforced soils, application of asset management principles to geotechnical engineering systems, reliability-based design of earth slopes and retaining structures, and application of Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) to earth slopes. He has published over thirty technical papers on the results of his research in addition to numerous technical reports. Many of these articles appear in the leading scholarly journals and conference proceedings in his field.
Dr. Loehr is an active member of several professional organizations including the ASCE/Geo-Institute, the International Association of Foundation Drilling (ADSC), the Deep Foundations Institute (DFI), the U.S. Universities Council on Geotechnical Education and Research (USUCGER), the International Society for Micropiles (ISM), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). He is a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, the MU College of Engineering Junior Faculty Research Award, the MU Excellence in Education Award, and the 2004-2005 Chi Epsilon Central District Excellence in Teaching Award and is a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the MU College of Engineering. He is also a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Missouri.