Professor Lytton is a leading international figure in unsaturated soil research in pavements, infrastructure and residential construction. In 1967, he was awarded a PhD at the Texas A&M University and in 1968, a Post-Doctoral Fellowship of the National Science Foundation. He came to Australia to pursue research in unsaturated soils with the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in 1969 and 1970 under the direction of Dr Gordon Aitchison.

In 1976, he was promoted to Professor and Research Engineer in the Zachry Civil Engineering Department of the Texas A&M University. Since then he has received many awards and still holds the F. J. Benson Chair in Civil Engineering. In 1984, he was recognized for his work on foundations with the Everite Bursary Award by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of South Africa. Professor Lytton’s research interests are in the general area of geomechanics, construction materials, climatic effects, pavements on reactive clays, non-destructive testing techniques, design of unsaturated earthquake constitutive testing and modelling, the role of surface energy (Gibbs Free Energy) components on adhesive and cohesive bond energy and the development of investigative methods using reflected ground penetrating radar.

Professor Lytton has published over 200 papers in refereed journals and is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering and numerous associations and national committees, advisory boards and is founding member of the International Society of Asphalt Pavements.