Gregory Rulifson

Greg Rulifson joined the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering as Director and Professor of Humanitarian Engineering in June 2025. In this role, Dr. Rulifson teaches Projects with Underserved Communities, and a new course tentatively titled ‘Humanitarian Engineering for Social and Environmental Responsibility’ in addition to the Humanitarian Engineering Seminar. His other responsibilities include managing relationships with international community partners, developing collaborations on the UT campus, and fundraising for projects among others. 

He came to the University of Texas at Austin from Washington, D.C., where he worked as the Senior Humanitarian Sustainability Advisor in the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He worked to reduce the amount of waste plastic in crisis communities, quantify the emissions associated with humanitarian assistance, and developed an enduring platform for collaboration between donors and humanitarian organizations (the Joint Initiative). He started with USAID as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in 2019. 

Before USAID, Greg was a Teaching Professor in the Division of Engineering, Design, and Society at the Colorado School of Mines. He has worked on projects in Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Djibouti and advised on dozens of other disaster risk reduction and community development projects around the world. He also was employed as a structural engineer in Berkeley, California. He earned his doctorate at the University of Colorado Boulder, his master's at Stanford University, and his bachelor's from the University of California, Berkeley, all in Civil Engineering. 

When not in the classroom, office, or traveling for a project, you may find Greg running a trail, swimming in a lake, or kicking around a soccer ball.