2010 Honorary Degree
Christopher B. Burke
Doctor of Engineering
Christopher B. Burke has distinguished himself as an entrepreneur and leading expert in hydraulics and hydrology engineering.
He founded Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd., now the Burke Group, in 1986. The Burke Group includes about nine companies and 400 employees in Indiana and Illinois. The firm provides civil, municipal, traffic, construction, water resource, environmental, structural, and mechanical engineering services. In 2005, Engineering News Record recognized CBBEL as one of the Top 500 engineering firms, ranking the company at 151.
Burke earned three civil engineering degrees at Purdue: a bachelor's degree in 1977, a master's degree in 1979, and a doctorate in 1983. A recognized expert in water resources, he has managed more than 500 municipal engineering projects, watershed studies, stormwater management studies, and channel modification projects. He maintains his connection to academia as an author and as an instructor on water resources at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Burke's contributions to his profession have been recognized with many awards. Among them are: the National Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award and Civil Engineer of the Year Award, both from the American Society of Civil Engineers; the Charles Ellet Award from the Western Society of Engineers; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management.
His talent and business success have given Burke the means to make a difference for his employees, community, and alma mater. He has led his employees in corporate responsibility, with hands-on projects such as a recent woodland restoration cleanup during Earth Day, and he has supported numerous community causes on behalf of the Burke Group.
At Purdue, Burke established the Burke Hydraulics and Hydrology Research and Teaching Laboratory, the Burke Undergraduate Hydraulic Laboratory, and the Christopher B. Burke Professorship. He also has been involved as a sponsor of Chi Epsilon and ASCE student chapters for more than a decade.
For his contributions to his profession and to his alma mater, Purdue honored Burke with the Purdue Engineering Alumni Association President's Lifetime Award in 2001, the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award in 1998, and the Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Award in 1995.
He is a member and leader in many professional affiliations and currently serves on the board of the The Wetlands Initiatives and The Conservation Foundation. He is active on the Professional Advisory Council and Dean's Committee for the University of Illinois at Chicago's Department of Civil Engineering and Purdue University's Civil Engineering Advisory Council. He provides leadership to the Purdue President's Council Leadership Board as vice chair.
Burke and his wife, Susan, an alumnus of Purdue's College of Liberal Arts, reside in Naperville, Ill., where they raised three Boilermakers - alumna Megan, current student Edmund, and incoming freshman Christina - and Kevin who is attending the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
