Dr. J. Darrin Holt, PE

Dr. Darrin Holt (NCSU ’88 ,’90, ’94) was a founder and principal/co-owner of FDH Engineering, Inc and FDH Inc. in Raleigh from 1994 to 2015. Since 2015 he has served as a consultant to FDH Infrastructure Services, LLC in research and nondestructive testing (NDT), vibration monitoring and measuring, finite element analyses, experimental design, and theoretical and applied computational mechanics. Dr. Holt has been a long-time supporter of the Paul Zia Distinguished Lecture Series.

For more than 30 years Dr. Holt has been at the forefront of research and bringing to practice methods of advanced digital signal processing techniques and field testing procedures for evaluating the condition of steel, concrete, and timber members in various structural systems. He is an original pioneer and co-developer in the application of dispersive wave propagation (DWP) methods to nondestructive pile foundation testing. His work has also led to the award of three U.S. patents involving Mapping Methods for Foundations (U.S. Patent 7548192) and for determining tensions in rods and anchor rods (U.S. Patents 8096195 and 8176800)

Dr. Holt researched and implemented the use of many NDT procedures for the identification of steel reinforcement and anchor rod tensions in concrete members in dams managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as ground penetrating radar (GPR) and structural scanning methods for locating underground tanks, piping, concrete reinforcement. His innovative work has been applied to highway bridges, dams, telecommunications towers, and other structures managed by federal and state agencies as well as private industry. Dr. Holt has authored field procedural and data analysis manuals for the Federal Highway Administration and other organizations and has numerous technical publications. He has also served as a visiting lecturer in engineering mechanics at North Carolina State University and has trained many engineers and technicians in the use and implementation of unknown foundation investigations. Dr. Holt is a licensed professional engineer in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Outside of his engineering interest he has served for 37 years as a professionally trained firefighter and first responder in all ranks from Captain to Fire Chief, and currently serves as a Deputy Fire Chief for Northern Wake Fire Department in Wake County, NC.