John W. France, P.E., D.GE, D.WRE
National Leader, Hydropower, Dams, and Levees Technical Practice Network
AECOM
John W. France, PE, D.WRE is a registered professional engineer employed by AECOM as a National Leader for the Hydropower, Dams, and Levees Technical Practice Network. He received BS and MS degrees in civil engineering from Cornell University. Mr. France has 42 years of consulting engineering experience, during which time he has worked on hundreds of civil engineering projects. For the past 34 years his professional career has been focused on dam engineering and dam safety services. During his career, Mr. France has been involved in various capacities in evaluating and remediating stability issues for earth dams. He has written technical papers on the topic, and he coordinated a special seesion on shear strength selection for stability analysis at the Dam Safety 2015 Conference. He has been an instructor for ASDSO’s previous stability analysis course in 2014 and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ courses on embankment dam design.
Tiffany E. Adams, Ph.D., P.E.
Geotechnical Engineer
AECOM
Tiffany Adams, Ph.D., P.E. is a registered professional engineer and techncial specialist in AECOM's Water Business Unit in Denver, Colorado. She received her PhD degree in civil engineering with geotechnical focus from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2011. Ms. Adams has over 19 years of engineering experience in consuting and research with a focus on stability evaluation and deformation modeling. She has extensively used limit equilibrium and finite element programs like UTEXAS, SLOPE/W, FLAC and SEEP/W for a wide variety of engineering applications including factor of safety and failure mode analyses, seepage analysis, and dynamic deformation analyses of dams and she was a presenter at a special session on shear strength selection for stability analysis at the Dam Safety 2015 Conference.
John Rice, Ph.D., P.E., G.E.
Associate Professor
Utah State University
John Rice, Ph.D., P.E., G.E. is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering program at the Utah State University at Logan, Utah. Dr. Rice received his PhD in 2008 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University specializing in geotechnical engineering. He is a registered geotechnical engineer in California since 1999 and registered civil engineer in California since 1993. Prior to his career in academia, Dr. Rice worked for more than 16 years as a geotechnical consultant in California including extensive work on the Sacramento levee system. Dr. Rice’s teaching record at Utah State University includes “Seepage, Slope Stability, and Design of Dams and Levees,” “Ground Improvement,”"Advanced Shear Strength of Soils," and “Foundation Analysis and Design.” He was also a co-instructor with Dr. J. Michael Duncan at Virginia Tech from 2006 to 2007 for graduate-level classes related to seepage, slope stability of earth embankments. In 2013 he was awarded the Engineering Educator of the Year Award by the Utah Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
