Manjriker Gunaratne, PhD, is professor and chairman of civil and environmental engineering at the University of South Florida, Tampa. He earned a BS in engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and the MASC and PhD degrees in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. He has authored/coauthored over 40 research papers that have been published in a number of peer-reviewed international journals. In addition, he has made a number of presentations at various national and international forums in geotechnical and highway engineering.