Charles “Wick” Moorman has received one of the highest professional honors for an engineer: He is now a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

The academy announced 80 new members February 8 as well as 22 new foreign members.

According to an academy news release, Moorman was elected to membership “for leadership in the development of [a] computerized freight railroad tracking system in North America.”

Moorman, who earned a bachelor’s in civil engineering in 1975, recently retired as chairman and chief executive officer of Norfolk Southern. He started with one of the firm’s predecessor railroads when he was a co-op student at Georgia Tech.

“Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to ‘engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature,’” the release said, “and to ‘the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.’”

Moorman will be formally inducted into the academy in October. He joins other School of Civil and Environmental Engineering alumni who are already members, including G. Wayne Clough, BSCE 1964, MSCE 1965, and John Huff, BSCE 1968.

Moorman will speak at Georgia Tech in March. He is scheduled to deliver the spring 2016 Hyatt Distinguished Alumni Leadership Lecture 4 p.m. March 9 in the Engineered Biosystems Building. (Click for details and registration.)