Dr. David Pittman, director of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, has been chosen for the 2021 Director of the Year award by the Federal Laboratory Consortium.

“This national award is truly a testimony to your outstanding efforts — and I am honored to receive it in that spirit,” Pittman told ERDC employees via email. “I am so proud to lead such a team.”

Each year, the FLC Awards Program recognizes federal laboratories and industry partners for outstanding technology transfer achievements through 11 award categories. The FLC Laboratory Director of the Year award honors directors who have made “maximum contributions to support technology transfer activities in their organizations.”

Pittman began his ERDC career in 1983 as a research civil engineer in the Pavement Systems Division of the Geotechnical Laboratory, now known as the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory. After a three-year stint as a civil engineering professor at Auburn University, Pittman returned to serve as chief of GSL’s Airfields and Pavements Division, and eventually director of the laboratory. 

Pittman, who became ERDC director in March 2017, is no stranger to this award — he also received it in 2011 as director of the GSL.

“ERDC has been honored to receive other prestigious FLC awards over the past 20 years at an organization, project, team and individual level,” Pittman said. “This award is just one more example of ERDC’s sustained level of excellence over time.”

Chartered in 1986, the FLC is a network of more than 300 federal laboratories across the country. Its mission is to provide tools, services and educational resources that reflect the latest science and technology legislation through the most current technological platforms of the time.

Pittman shares the FLC Laboratory Director of the Year 2021 distinction with Dr. Brian Anderson of the National Energy Technology Laboratory and Dr. Walter G. Copan, formerly of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.