and Construction Resource Management in the 1950s to 1970s played a critical role in defining a new field within civil engineering that focused on transforming management issues in the construction industry—so much so that Shaffer is credited in many circles as the "founder" of Construction Engineering Management Systems. In 1968 the U.S. Army, following WWII, decided to build a major laboratory dedicated to Construction Engineering Management and related systems, denoted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) in Champaign. Upon its dedication, Shaffer was appointed the first Technical Director of CERL in 1969 and led CERL until the early 1990s. His vision, leadership, dedication, and contributions in research, education, and practice (both in the civilian and military applications) helped define the current Construction Engineering and Management field. Built upon a long history of excellence in research, education, and service to the industry, the Construction Group continues to contribute to the construction domain in many fields, as for example field data collection, productivity improvement, construction process simulation, data mining, project planning, multi-objective optimization, and safety. Other relatively recent studies have focused on highway work zone optimization, collaboration, emergency response, public and private partnership, cost analysis, building information models, and with the U.S. Army CERL laboratory in Champaign, sustainable construction methods. Such research efforts help lead to up-to-date instruction in the classroom. A footnote is in order here. In 1962-63, Professor
1971
The graduate degrees in Sanitary Engineering change to Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering.
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