Faculty Emeriti

Tomasz Arciszewski retired from George Mason University in 2014 after 21 years of vibrant contributions to the department. Retirement from Mason allows him to devote his full energy to his interests in engineering education and inventive engineering.

Arciszewski earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in structural engineering in 1970, and his Ph.D. in 1975, from the Warsaw University of Technology. Before joining Mason in 1994, he was a member of the faculty at Wayne State University for 10 years. Prior to 1984, he held teaching positions in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nigeria, and in the Department of Metal Structures at the Warsaw University of Technology.

Arciszewski’s formal academic background was in the area of structural engineering and mechanics with hands-on design experience in steel space structures and in general structural engineering in Poland and Switzerland. During his academic career he became increasingly interested in inventive engineering, knowledge acquisition, visual thinking in inventive design, and education. His signature courses on inventive engineering attracted graduate and undergraduate students from across the Volgenau School of Engineering, and his expertise in these areas took him around the globe, lecturing and inspiring new initiatives in a host of foreign universities. 

Arciszewski was also involved in initiatives launched by the American Society of Civil Engineering in computing, and in 2004 received the ASCE Computing Award and in 2006 the Intelligent Computing in Engineering Award from the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering.

In 2009, Michael Bronzini retired from his position as Dewberry Professor and Chairman of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering. He now holds the status in the department as the first Dewberry Chair Professor Emeritus.

Bronzini’s career focused on transportation systems, including remote sensing applications, freight transportation data, national transportation networks and inter-modal systems, inland waterways, and transportation system security. His past positions include: Director of the Center for Transportation Analysis at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Professor and Head of Civil Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University; Director of the Transportation Center and Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Tennessee.

Sharon deMonsabert retired from Mason in 2012 and was honored with emerita status in recognition of her service to the university.

In her nineteen years as a faculty member, deMonsabert taught widely in both environmental engineering, and technical entrepreneurship. She was an active adviser of undergraduates both in the classroom and in extracurricular activities.  She was an early mainstay of the environmental engineering graduate program, and her 2008 paper “How to Include Economic Analysis in TMDL Allocations?” published by the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Water Resources and Management was awarded their Best Practice Paper for that year. In recognition of her leadership in sustainable concepts in education and engineering, deMonsabert served as the Provost’s Fellow for Sustainable Curricula for two years.

Deborah J. Goodings retired in 2025 from her position as Associate Dean of Graduate Academic Affairs for the College of Engineering and Computing and Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering at George Mason University. She is now Dewberry Professor Emerita. 

Goodings was recruited to George Mason University in 2009, where she held the endowed Dewberry Chair of Civil Engineering and chaired the thriving Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering. From 2015 to 2018, she was detailed from the university to the U.S. National Science Foundation to be the Director of the Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation Division in the Engineering Directorate, where she was responsible for groundbreaking fundamental research investments of close to $1 billion. When she returned to George Mason University, she was appointed to be Associate Dean of Graduate Academic Affairs. In that role, she integrated her experience in research leadership with the pressing need to educate a nimble and tech-enabled workforce across all disciplines of graduate education. 

Prior to her tenure at George Mason University, she served as a Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Maryland, where she pursued extreme-event geotechnical research, as well as teaching and service. In addition, she co-founded the Master of Engineering and Public Policy program and, with her students, launched the university’s transformative chapter of Engineers Without Borders. On her departure from the University of Maryland, she was honored with the creation of the endowed Deborah J. Goodings Professorship in Engineering for Global Sustainability and was awarded emerita faculty status.

Over her career, she held leadership positions in research and professional organizations, serving also on institutional visiting and review committees both in the United States and Canada. Her career accomplishments were also recognized with external awards from the Department of the Army, the National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board, Cambridge University, the U.S. Universities Council on Geotechnical Engineering Research, and Professional Engineers Ontario.

Professor Goodings earned her BASc in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto and her PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from Cambridge University.  She is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a registered Professional Engineer.

Professor Mark Houck’s teaching and research was driven by questions about society’s relationship with the environment and how the relationship is (1) fundamental to its success; (2) complex; (3) widespread, often with impacts not just locally but regionally, nationally or globally; and (4) constantly changing with enormous short-term and long-term benefits and costs that may be in conflict.

Houck’s scholarship combines mathematics, science, and computing to analyze environmental problems and explore novel solutions. His work aims to address today's complex, large-scale, messy, and enormously costly environmental problems for the benefit of society.