Michael S. Brackin is an Principal Engineer for Beason Brackin & Associates, LLC in Bryan, Texas and an Assistant Lecturer for the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.  Dr. Brackin is a licensed Professional Engineer with the state of Texas (No. 115516).  He holds Doctorate of Philosophy, Master of Science, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University.  Dr. Brackin is specialized in the field of architectural glass design, roadside safety, physical security, and computational mechanics.

Dr. Brackin previously served as an Assistant Research Engineer for Texas A&M Transportation Institute's (TTI) Roadside Safety and Physical Security Division.  Dr. Brackin began his tenure with TTI studying heavy vehicle impacts with bridge piers and abutments through the use of finite element analyses under TTI's Center of Excellence for Transportation Computational Mechanics.  Dr. Brackin worked with other TTI researchers to develop guidelines for the design of bridge piers for heavy-vehicle collisions. His research on this topic culminated in revisions included in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) LRFD Bridge Design Specifications.

More recently, Dr. Brackin has been actively involved in the design, analysis, development, and evaluation of roadside safety appurtenances and physical security barriers using basic mechanics, statics, dynamics, finite element analyses, and full-scale crash testing.  Dr. Brackin has contributed to the design and analysis of several roadside safety appurtenances including concrete median barrier systems, guardrail end treatments, guardrail tension anchors, wire rope median barrier anchors, work-zone barriers, and energy absorbing crash cushions.  Additionally, Dr. Brackin has contributed to the design and analysis of several physical security devices including wedge barriers, wire rope perimeter fences, bollards, and anti-ram retaining walls. 

Dr. Brackin has witnessed or been involved with in excess of 600 full-scale vehicular crash tests during his career.  Dr. Brackin has extensive experience in analyzing crash test data. He has performed dynamic analyses to determine design guidelines for loads imposed on structures during collisions by passenger, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles.  Most notably, Dr. Brackin was the lead author for ASTM F3016 titled “Standard Test Method for Surrogate Testing of Vehicle Impact Protective Devices at Low Speeds”, a standard designed to help protect pedestrians and storefront patrons from errant vehicle intrusions.