Ethics for the Practicing Engineer - An Introduction

Ray W. James, P.E., holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Texas. He is an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering with research interests primarily in the area of highway bridge engineering. He served as Assistant Dean for Student Services in the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University 2005-2012, and he is presently Associate Head of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering. In addition to teaching mechanics and structural engineering courses, as the holder of the Bovay Faculty Fellowship, he is the College of Engineering’s course coordinator and regularly teaches a course titled Engineering and Ethics which is required of all engineering majors at Texas A&M. Dr. James has participated in and led College of Engineering study abroad programs in France and Germany.

A registered professional engineer in Texas, Dr. James has authored or co-authored more than 25 publications and is a Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He won the Arthur M. Wellington Prize from ASCE in 1988 and the Charles W. Crawford Service Award from the College of Engineering in2009. He is a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Gamma Tau engineering honor societies. He is a co-author of the 5th edition of Engineering Ethics—Concepts and Cases, the author of a chapter on “Ethics and Business Practices” for Kaplan’s Fundamentals of Engineering—FE/EIT Exam Preparation, 18th ed., and has developed and offered commercial short courses on engineering ethics to professional societies and corporate clients in Texas, Louisiana, and Qatar.