Bio

Dr. Lawrence A. (Larry) Twisdale, Jr. received his B.S. in civil engineering in 1969, MCE in civil engineering in 1970 (both from NC State), and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. His early career included positions at Carolina Power & Light and the Research Triangle Institute. In 1982, he founded the Southeast Division of Applied Research Associates Inc. (ARA), which has become ARA’s largest office with more than 300 employees. Twisdale was a principal of the firm, served on the board for 30 years and retired in 2020.

He was the principal investigator on more than 150 projects during his career. Twisdale developed the TORMIS software that analyzes tornado-generated missile risk to nuclear power plant components. He led the 3D modeling and analysis of 40 nuclear plants in the U.S. and Canada. Twisdale also performed pioneering research on the vulnerability and reliability of hardened underground structures, initiating an ARA developed physics-based software tool in 1993 that has evolved into a widely used defense industry program. He led research projects on risk-based design for hurricane wind borne debris and hurricane loss mitigation of single-family residences. This research produced the first engineering-based insurance loss mitigation credit system, which has been applied to over 5 million Florida homes since 2002. He developed a reliability tool for field estimation of the “Best Available Refuge Area” for large facilities (such as school campuses) to mitigate casualty risk from hurricanes and tornadoes. Twisdale was the principal investigator for the development of the first-ever probabilistic engineering analysis to quantify “Tornado Wind Speed Risk Maps” for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Standard 7 (’22 and ‘28), which is used to quantify structural design loads.

Twisdale was nominated in 2019 for the ASCE “Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure.” He serves on the CCEE Industry Advisory Board, was elected to the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering (CCEE) Hall of Fame (HOF), and received the College of Engineering “Distinguished Engineering Alumni” Award. He has made gifts to the Lonnie Poole Golf Course (Hole #4) and the Varsity Tennis Programs. Twisdale initiated and raised over $250,000 for a “CCEE HOF Faculty Award” and endowed a scholarship fund for NC State’s Chi Chapter of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity. In 2025, he and his wife, Fran, made gifts totaling $4 million to CCEE to establish the first named department head position in the College of Engineering, as well as a second named Twisdale professorship in CCEE. He has executed planned gift agreements in support of CCEE graduate students, distinguished faculty, and risk/reliability research. The Twisdale Family CCEE Department Head is currently held by Jacqueline Gibson.