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Bill Hitchcock
Bill Hitchcock teaches the Critical Infrastructure course in the graduate Certificate in Homeland Security program at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service
Listen to a public radio interview with Bill Hitchcock.
After earning a BS from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1971, Dr. Hitchcock served five years in the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1976 he resigned his commission and entered graduate school in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University where he earned a Master of Engineering in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1980. He specialized in Structural Engineering and his Dissertation was entitled, "A Closed Form Solution for the Interlaminar Shear Stresses in Laminated Curved Beams".
While attending Texas A&M Hithcock was a full-time lecturer. He taught classes in Engineering Economics, Mechanics of Materials, Materials Testing, and Project Management. He also taught Engineering Statics and Dynamics four nights a week at Blinn College.
In the summer of 1980 Dr. Hitchcock began his business career rising from the level of associate in an engineering consulting firm to senior executive positions at a number of the country's largest natural gas and electric utilities.
Throughout his career Hitchcock has been deeply involved in the development of leading edge energy-related technologies and the conceptualization and construction of large energy projects. From 1999 to early 2001 as President and CEO of CAES Development Company, he managed the startup of the first large-scale compressed air energy storage power generation company in the United States. The plant was certificated for a capacity of 2,700 Megawatts, sufficient to serve more than 1 million homes. In 2001 he helped form a Board of Directors and raise common stock equity for an emerging Waste-to-Energy company with technology that can economically burn municipal solid waste while meeting the highest environmental clean air standards of any industry in the United States today. The technology has other exciting applications. For example, it can be used to build small coal burning plants suitable for providing electricity or steam to industry or stand alone entities, such as university campuses or large government facilities. Hitchcock remains an active member of the Board of Directors.Dr. Hitchcock has always tried to provide service to the communities in which he lives. While living in Michigan he served on a private sector economic development advisory panel for Governor Engler called "Michigan First" and was active as a Director of the Midwest Gas Association. He recently served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Harris County Texas Municipal Utility District Number 191. In all of these endeavors Hitchcock has been deeply involved in the detailed design, construction and financial arrangements.
Dr. Hitchcock returned to Texas A&M University in the spring of 2004. He taught undergraduate and graduate level special topics courses in Project Management for Engineers with emphasis on the project development process. He has since taught core curriculum courses including Civil Engineering Project Management (CVEN 349), Engineering Project Estimating and Planning (CVEN 473), and Mechanics of Materials (CVEN 305). During the fall of 2004 Hitchcock began developing a course syllabus and course materials for the Critical Infrastructure Protection course at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service. In June of 2005, he accepted a Professor of Civil Engineering position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham with the expectation that he would development a nationally recognized construction management program and stimulate research related to critical infrastructure protection technology. He also continues his relationship with the Bush School.
Dr. Hitchcock and his wife, Susie, have 3 grown children and currently live in Birmingham, Alabama.