Virginia Tech Honors Duncan with Emeritus Status
J. Michael Duncan, P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, was given the title of distinguished professor emeritus last month by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) Board of Visitors. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Duncan has made important contributions to geotechnical engineering through his work in soil shear strength and slope stability, seepage through soils, embankment dam engineering, and finite-element analysis methods for soil structures. He has been a consultant on several major geotechnical projects, including work on the Panama Canal and on the levee and flood control structures affected by Hurricane Katrina. A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1964, Duncan holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley. The title emeritus is conferred on retired professors and associate professors, administrative officers, librarians, and staff members who have rendered exemplary service to the university and who have been recommended for the honor by the university’s
president.
ACI Recognizes Hsu for Research On Reinforced Concrete
The American Concrete Institute (ACI) recently presented Thomas T. Hsu, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, with its Arthur J. Boase Award in recognition of his outstanding research contributions in the area of reinforced concrete. Hsu helped pioneer a machine for testing concrete panels. Dubbed the Universal Element Tester, the machine stands more than 15 ft (4.6 m) tall, weighs nearly 40 tons (36.3 metric tons), and contains more than 1 mi (1.6 km) of pipes to transport oil pressure to its 40 jacks. It is able to test large panel elements under varied controlled forces and is the only device in the world capable of performing comprehensive testing on reinforced-concrete panel elements. Experts have been using the data from these assessments to predict the behavior of entire structures that may be threatened by destructive forces, such as earthquakes. “Looking into the future, I chuckle when I tell my students that I’ve figured out pretty well the material laws for 1-D and 2-D actions and that it’s up to them to figure out the material laws in 3-D,” Hsu said last month in a press release. Hsu, who helped design and build the Universal Element Tester, has been a professor at the University of Houston for 27 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology, in China, and both a master’s degree and a doctorate in structural engineering from Cornell University. Established in 1971, the Arthur J. Boase Award is conferred on persons or organizations in recognition of outstanding activities or achievements in the field of reinforced concrete.
Adeli Receives Two Awards From Ohio State
Hojjat Adeli, Ph.D., Hon.M.ASCE, has been honored with two awards from Ohio State University—the 2007 Peter L. and Clara M. Scott Award for Excellence in Engineering Education and the 2007 Charles E. MacQuigg Outstanding Teaching Award. Adeli has more than 400 publications, including 11 books, to his credit, and he has served as the editor in chief of various scholarly journals, among them Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Integrated Computer-Aided Engineering, and the International Journal of Neural Systems. ASCE named him an honorary member in 2005 in recognition of his “wide-ranging, exceptional, and pioneering contributions to computing in civil engineering and extraordinary leadership in advancing the use of emerging computing and information technologies in civil engineering throughout the world.” That same year saw Adeli capture the Society’s Construction Management Award for his “development of ingenious computational and mathematical models in the areas of construction scheduling, resource scheduling, and cost estimation.” Adeli holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Tehran, in Iran, and a doctorate in civil engineering from Stanford University.
Standards Body Lauds Speck For Service
ASTM International has recognized Jeffrey F. Speck, P.E., M.ASCE, with its International Award of Merit and the accompanying title of fellow. According to ASTM International’s Committee C15, which deals with manufactured masonry units, Speck has brought “exceptional dedication, vision, and continuous practical contribution to testing standards and specifications . . . related to the manufacture and use of units of fired clay and shale, concrete, and sand-lime units.” Speck serves as a member at large on C15’s executive subcommittee and is also involved with the work of Subcommittee C15.03, which deals with concrete masonry units and related units. He has also been C15’s membership secretary and its recording secretary. Within Committee C09, which deals with concrete and concrete aggregates, he is the chair of Subcommittee C09.21, which concerns itself with lightweight aggregates and concrete. He is generous enough with his time to also serve on Committee C12, which deals with mortars and grouts for masonry units. The vice president of sales and marketing for Big River Industries, Inc., a manufacturing firm in Alpharetta, Georgia, Speck has extensive experience with materials testing and structural engineering design. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Michigan State University.
Fellows Elected
The following members were elected fellows of the Society in recent months. ASCE fellows are legally registered professional engineers or land surveyors who have made significant technical or professional contributions and have demonstrated notable achievement in responsible charge of engineering activity for at least 10 years following election to the ASCE grade of member. Fellows occupy the Society’s second-highest membership grade, exceeded only by honorary members.
Gary N. Durham, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is the president of Durham Geo Enterprises, Inc., of Stone Mountain, Georgia, which manufactures and distributes geotechnical and geoenvironmental equipment and instruments. Durham has practiced geotechnical engineering for 40 years, serving with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and working for electric utilities and in private practice. Since 1988 he has been involved in manufacturing products for various segments of the geotechnical industry. Early in his career with the Corps of Engineers he was the assistant chief of the Corps’s largest production testing fACIlity, and he was also involved in fieldwork related to levee safety and earthen dams in the Mississippi River region. In 1976 Durham joined Southern Company Services as the geotechnical engineer in the department working on the reconstruction of Walter Bolden Dam, which had failed several years earlier. While there, he developed a blended material to serve as an impervious core in the dam since local deposits were scarce. He also supervised the design of five major earthen dams. Durham has served as principal and president of two private practices, Ground Engineering, established in 1979, and Durham Geo Enterprises, established in 1994. He has also served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he has taught soil mechanics to engineering students. His current projects involve working with electrical and mechanical engineers in conjunction with software developers to develop products that satisfy the requirements of their geotechnical customers. Durham has been involved with ASTM International’s committee D18 since 1972, helping to develop standards associated with geotechnical testing and field characterization.
Corrado Gisonni, Ph.D., P.Eng., F.ASCE, is an associate professor in Italy at Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli and is well known throughout Europe for his work in urban hydrology and sewer system design. Research resulting from his collaborations with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich and from work sponsored by the government ministry in Italy in charge of universities and scientific research has led to significant advances in sewer hydraulics and scour control. Gisonni’s achievements include the hydraulic design criteria for sewer manholes in the presence of supercritical flow; an assessment of flood risks in certain parts of Naples, whose sewer network comprises more than 1,100 km of channels; and research pertaining to sediment transport in urban drainage systems. He has authored more than 50 research papers and is a coauthor of an Italian handbook on sewer system design. Gisonni also serves as a referee for ASCE’s Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering and Journal of Hydraulic Engineering and lends his time and expertise to a number of environmental organizations.
Ralph B.Y. Hwang, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor in the civil engineering department at California State University at Sacramento, where he has taught for 31 years. During this time he has advised and mentored more than 50 graduate students, and the more than $650,000 in funded research he has received has led to 22 papers and 154 technical reports. Hwang developed the sequence of steps in dam break inundation map preparation that was officially approved in California by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and incorporated into the state regulations for dam inundation mapping procedures. Hwang’s other accomplishments include developing seven stream flow simulation computer models for predicting stream flow from rainfall data in the watershed of California’s Russian River. He has also developed strategies and predictive models for sediment transport and stream flow simulations and since 1991 has carried out assessments of more than 145 large dams in California for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to determine maximum breaching outflows and resulting inundation maps under various dam break scenarios. Hwang is the author of Groundwater Hydrology, published in 1993. In addition to numerous teaching awards, he received the Outstanding Scholar Award in 2002, and in recognition of his 19 years as adviser to the Tau Beta Pi chapter at California State University at Sacramento he was honored with the Superior Service Award.
Jiann-Wen Woody Ju, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and chair of the school’s civil and environmental engineering department. In his 20 years of university teaching, research, and professional service, Ju has made significant contributions to the fields of civil and mechanical engineering. He is credited with developing one of the earliest models for the stiffness of solids containing crack systems using fracture mechanics. Well known for his work in this area, he has applied his expertise to concrete structures and geotechnical issues. Ju has also developed continuum models for damage mechanics based on microcrack systems, and these models have been successfully used in investigating concrete and fiber composites. This work has aided the computational modeling of problems associated with the failure, dynamic response, and durability of these composites. Ju has served as the principal investigator on numerous research projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. armed forces, Caterpillar, Inc., and other groups. He has led or helped to organize more than 30 national and international symposia on civil engineering and engineering mechanics. In addition to his teaching and research and his work as a student adviser, Ju has published nearly 150 papers, has lent his expertise to forensic projects, and has done consulting work for engineering firms. In 2000 he established the Martin Rubin Scholarship at UCLA for civil engineering students. Ju’s numerous accolades for teaching and research include ASCE’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award, and Princeton University’s Alfred Rheinstein Faculty Award.
Philip G. King, P.E., F.ASCE, is the president of SynchroPile, Inc., of San Antonio. In his 25-year career King has managed a wide variety of engineering projects throughout Texas as well as in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Canada, and Alaska. From 1999 to 2003 he was the chairman of the ASCE Texas Section subcommittee that developed the document “Recommended Practice for the Design of Residential Foundations.” At present he is the chair of the ASCE Geo-Institute’s Shallow Foundations Committee. King has managed numerous geotechnical engineering studies for residential structures, and his work as a coinventor has been recognized with five separate U.S. patents—including the SynchroPile/SynchroPier Technology—dealing with pier and pile technology and storm-water separation systems. As a geotechnical consultant he has particular expertise in dealing with problems relating to the moisture condition and swell potential of under-slab foundation soils. In 2003 the Bexar chapter of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers named him engineer of the year.
Henry G. Landau, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, has more than 35 years of experience as a civil and environmental engineer and is the founder of Landau Associates, a leading geotechnical and environmental engineering firm in Washington State. Landau received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the City College of the City University of New York and master’s and doctoral degrees from Purdue University. He served as an engineering officer in Vietnam, has worked in consulting and construction, and has taught engineering at the University of Washington and in Brazil. One of the first geotechnical consultants to recognize that contaminated soils and groundwater require special interdisciplinary knowledge and services, he has been the principal engineer and project manager for four Superfund sites in Washington State, designing monitoring systems that have returned those sites to productive use. Landau has also performed site investigations and provided design recommendations for foundations, port and harbor developments, soil and groundwater remediation, and stabilization of soft sediments and landslides. His accolades include the Alumni Achievement Award in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. Landau has served as the chair of the science advisory board for Washington State University’s ecology department since 1991, earning him a commendation from the governor.
Luis E. Moura, P.E., G.E., F.ASCE, is the principal of Geotecnia, a firm he founded in 1996. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geotechnical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and is registered in California as a professional civil engineer and geotechnical engineer. Moura has 23 years of experience in geotechnical engineering, and his work has encompassed planning, design, construction, and forensic engineering in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout California. He has lent his services to more than 1,300 residential, commercial, industrial, and public works projects and has also provided constructability assessments, value engineering services, and expert testimony. In 1994 ASCE’s San Francisco Section recognized his contributions with the H.J. Brunnier Award, its highest service award. Moura has been active in the affairs of that section since 1990, serving as president of its Younger Member Forum and sitting on committees dealing with continuing education, geotechnical issues, and outreach efforts to high school students. The bimonthly technical workshop program dealing with geotechnical topics he established in now in its 13th year.
David J. Nash, P.E., F.ASCE, is currently the president of Dave Nash & Associates, LLC, of Birmingham, Alabama. Before entering the private sector he had a distinguished navy career as a commissioned civil engineer, serving as commander on several multimillion-dollar projects. His career has given him considerable experience and expertise in program management, fACIlity design, construction, and maintenance. His hands-on experience at all program and project levels has led to success with multimillion-dollar complexes and multibillion-dollar infrastructure reconstruction programs. Nash provided program, construction, financial, and acquisition management services for an annual $2-billion U.S. Navy global construction program that included industrial fACIlities, housing, utilities, airfields, and transportation. In 2003 he served as director of program management in Iraq, managing an $18.4-billion reconstruction budget, the largest reconstruction program ever attempted by the U.S. government outside its borders. Nash’s accomplishments were recognized with an honorary doctorate in civil engineering in 2005 from the Indiana Institute of Technology, where he earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering in 1965. He also earned a master’s in financial management from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1977. His accolades include ASCE’s Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research in 2001 and its John I. Parcel–Leif J. Sverdrup Civil Engineering Management Award in 2004, and the Society of American Military Engineers honored him with its Golden Eagle Award in 2005.
Peter G. Nicholson, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, has been a leader in the engineering community on both local and national levels through teaching, consulting, research, civic duties, and volunteer efforts. Nicholson has been the senior geotechnical engineering faculty member at the University of Hawaii at Manoa for the past 15 years and has demonstrated his expertise by being at the forefront of research into earthquake engineering in Hawaii. In particular, he has focused on the response and behavior of residual and calcareous soils and the stabilization of tropical soils through the use of commercially available and industrial waste by-products. After receiving the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Faculty Award in 1991 and the University of Hawaii Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching in 1993, he worked over the following decade to expand the geotechnical curriculum in both the undergraduate and graduate programs and was named graduate chair of the department in 2003. Nicholson has long been active in the profession through his consulting activities in the areas of design, inspection, and assessment of earth slopes, dams, and levees in Utah and California. He has also carried out pioneering research on engineering with tropical and residual soils. He has consulted on the state level as well, helping to review and recommend better legislative mandates for dam safety after the 2006 failure of the Kaloko (Ka Loko) Dam, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Within ASCE Nicholson has held several officer positions in the Hawaii Section, serving as president in 1998. He has also served the Society on the national level through committee work in the Geo-Institute and as the leader of a team that issued a report on the failure of the levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
James L. Wilton, P.E., F.ASCE, is an engineering consultant specializing in the design and construction of subsurface structures. Throughout his career, which began in 1950, he has contributed significantly to the state of the art in the design of excavation support systems for deep retained excavations, particularly in the downtown areas of San Francisco; Oakland, California; and Washington, D.C. The ground support systems he has designed for cut-and-cover subway construction in highly urbanized areas have contained original structural features, and the construction techniques he has specified remain in use today. His adaptations of equations from theoretical soil mechanics also have been valuable. In 1987 his contributions were signalized with the Golden Beaver Award for Engineering Achievement. His earlier work involved the design of special plant and equipment for such heavy civil engineering projects as dams and tunnels. In working in northern California on the Trinity Dam project in the late 1950s, he designed what is believed to be the first truly successful belt conveyor system for the construction of a major dam. In 1962 he supervised the construction of the Mangla Dam, in Pakistan, involving at the time the largest aggregate plant ever built for a construction project. Wilton’s consulting work has taken him to Venezuela, Egypt, Australia, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, India, Pakistan, and New Zealand, as well as across the United States, and he has served on 18 dispute review boards. He earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Stanford University and is the author of the section dealing with cut-and-cover tunnel structures in the Tunnel Engineering Handbook.
Fellow applications may be obtained from ASCE’s world headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, by calling (800) 548-2723 or, from outside the country, (703) 295-6300 or by e-mailing memapp@asce.org. Applications for fellow status are also available in PDF format at www.asce.org/membership/fellowgrade.cfm. Applicants using the PDF format must request reference forms and return envelopes from ASCE through one of the contact points listed above. Completed applications are considered at the monthly meetings of the Society’s Membership Application Review Committee (MARC), which elects qualified candidates to the fellow grade. Questions regarding the fellow guidelines or application process (including waiver of guideline inquiries) should be directed to Curtis Nunley, the staff liaison to the MARC, at one of the contact points above.