Rick Deschamps, Ph.D., P.E., vice president of Nicholson Construction Company, has been selected as the 2025–2026 Traveling Lecturer. Known as a giver of advice and solver of problems, Deschamps will travel and present a series of lectures to university students, professional groups and industry associations. He is available, on request of DFI, to present lectures September 1, 2025 – August 31, 2026.
The Traveling Lecture program promotes the field of geotechnical engineering and deep foundation construction by encouraging students to explore a career in the deep foundations industry, providing information on topics of interest to members of the industry and raising awareness of how DFI and its activities support the industry.
Deschamps received his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in civil engineering at the University of South Florida, and his Ph.D. from Purdue University studying under Professor Jerry Leonards, Ph.D. Deschamps worked for the geotechnical consultant Dames & Moore in Tampa between his master’s and Ph.D. and then joined the civil engineering faculty at Purdue, where he did research on pile foundations, constitutive modeling and slope stabilization. In 1996 he received the Harold Munson teaching award from Purdue. Deschamps joined FMSM Engineers in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1999, where his focus was on numerical modeling for design of remediation systems for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer dams. In 2004 he joined Nicholson Construction. Since that time, he has led Nicholson’s design team in development of competitive design-build and value engineered geotechnical solutions for projects throughout the U.S. In 2014 he received the ASCE Wallace Hayward Baker Award.
Following are the topics available for the 2025–2026 traveling lecture series:
- A. Leonards Memorial Lecture: Application of Innovative Geotechnical Solutions
- Emergency Repair of Fountain Slide to Maintain CN Rail Service
- Limitations in the Back Analysis of Shear Strength from Failures
- Emergency Repair of Wanapum Dam
- Remediation of Prairie du Sac Dam
- Emergency Repair of I-65 Bridge over Wildcat Creek
- Block 76 (City Creek Center) Excavation Support and Lessons Learned
Learn more about the program, available topics and request the lecturer at dfi.org/events/lectures/dfi-traveling-lecturer.