March 2008
Volume 33, Number 3

Four years after releasing the first edition, asce held a press conference on February 19 at the National Academy of Engineering, in Washington, D.C., to formally present a new edition of Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century: Preparing the Civil Engineer for the Future. The work refines the goals, or “outcomes,” that students and young professionals are to attain if they are to become licensed and reach their full potential as engineers in the 21st century. It also states that, in addition to a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, students should pursue a master’s degree or earn 30 additional credits.

 “In 2025 civil engineers will serve as master builders, master environmental stewards, master innovators and integrators, master managers of risk and uncertainty, and master leaders in shaping public policy,” said David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE, the Society’s president, citing The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 at the press conference. (That report was prepared by the asce Steering Committee to Plan a Summit on the Future of the Civil Engineering Profession in 2025 and emerged from the Summit on the Future of Civil Engineering, a conference held in June 2006 in Lansdowne, Virginia.) “I will go so far as to say that technical expertise alone will be sorely inadequate to successfully practice engineering in the future as we envision it.” Mongan also said that by formulating the civil engineering body of knowledge, “[we] consider how the knowledge, skills, and attitudes can be taught, assessed, and supported throughout an engineer’s career.”

Jeffrey S. Russell, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, the chair of the Society’s Committee on the Academic Prerequisites for Professional Practice, stated that asce represented the civil engineering profession and therefore had an obligation to think about the future, prepare engineering students for their careers, and develop a body of knowledge that “is obtained through intensive academic education and training and real-world experiences.” He also explained that the new edition addresses the fact that the civil engineering body of knowledge cannot be obtained solely by means of an undergraduate degree. “Clearly the complexities confronted today on large civil infrastructure works are different than they were fifty years ago. Complexity is driving the need for change,” he said. Russell also mentioned that in 2006 the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) announced that it would change its model law in 2015 and would recommend that a bachelor’s degree plus a master’s degree or 30 additional credits be required for licensure. 

Stuart G. Walesh, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, an independent civil engineering management and education consultant and the only person to belong both to the body that authored the first edition and to the committee that produced the second, explained the differences between the two editions, focusing on the outcomes and the way in which attainment of the outcomes is gauged. While the first edition listed 15 outcomes, the new report sets forth 24 to add clarity and groups them into three categories: foundational, technical, and professional. To measure the achievement of each outcome, the committee chose to use the principles expounded in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, a work by the educational psychologist Benjamin S. Bloom (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1984) that outlines six educational achievement levels that, according to appendix F of the new body of knowledge report, “involve the recall and recognition of knowledge and the development of intellectual abilities and skills.” In other words, for each outcome there are six achievement levels, but civil engineers are not required to attain all six for each of the 24 outcomes. For example, with regard to communication, it is required only that a prospective engineer attain the fourth level, that is, that he or she be able to “integrate principles from effective communications into work products.” In contrast, in the area of professional and ethical responsibility, the aspiring engineer must attain the sixth level, meaning that he or she must “justify a solution to an engineering problem based on professional and ethical standards and assess personal, professional, and ethical development.”

Walesh explained that each level of achievement would be completed in one, two, or three ways: through an undergraduate degree, through a master’s degree or 30 additional credits beyond a baccalaureate, or through experience. “The bachelor’s degree is the foundation for all twenty-four outcomes,” he said, which means that at least one level of achievement is reached by means of undergraduate education.

The first four outcomes are foundational:

•  Mathematics;
•  Natural sciences;
•  Humanities;
•  Social sciences.

According to appendix J, which explains each outcome in detail, a broad understanding of the foundational outcomes is needed to reach Bloom’s third achievement level. Students, according to the report, must be able to solve problems and demonstrate the importance of each outcome “in the professional practice of engineering.” It is expected that all of the foundational outcomes will be realized through undergraduate education.

In contrast to the foundational outcomes, the levels of achievement that are required for the technical outcomes will rely on some combination of an undergraduate degree, a master’s degree or 30 additional credits beyond a baccalaureate, and experience. In some cases all three will be necessary. The 11 technical outcomes are as follows:

•  Materials science;
•  Mechanics;
•  Experiments;
•  Problem recognition and solving;
•  Design;
•  Sustainability;
•  Contemporary issues and historical perspectives;
•  Risk and uncertainty;
•  Project management;
•  Breadth in civil engineering areas;
•  Technical specialization.

With respect to design and technical specialization, the prospective engineer is required to achieve the sixth level in Bloom’s taxonomy. It is believed that, in the area of design, a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering should enable the civil engineer to reach the first five levels: (1) define engineering design, (2) describe the engineering design process, (3) apply the design process to meet a well-defined set of requirements and constraints, (4) analyze a system or process to determine requirements and constraints, and (5) design a system or process to meet the desired needs within realistic constraints. The sixth level, which requires the engineer to “evaluate the design of a complex system, component, or process,” is to be achieved through experience.

“Advanced technical knowledge and skills beyond [those] included in the traditional four-year bachelor’s degree are essential to attaining the body of knowledge necessary for entry into the professional practice of civil engineering,” according to the report. A bachelor’s degree will enable a prospective engineer to attain only the first achievement level, that is, to “define key aspects of advanced technical specialization.” Achieving the next four levels for this outcome—explaining key concepts, applying specialized tools to solve problems, analyzing a complex system, and designing in an innovative way—will require the individual to obtain a master’s degree or earn 30 additional credits. Achieving the sixth level, which will mean that the prospective engineer can “evaluate the design of a complex system or process, or evaluate the validity of newly created knowledge or technologies in a traditional or emerging advanced specialized technical area appropriate to civil engineering,” will come through experience.

Many of the other outcomes in the technical category, including sustainability, contemporary issues and historical perspectives, risk and uncertainty, and project management, are to be attained by combining a bachelor’s degree with experience. In each of these areas the prospective engineer must be able to analyze, formulate, and solve problems in a professional context.

Walesh noted that experience appears in approximately two-thirds of all the outcomes. All nine of the outcomes that are listed in the professional category are to be attained through a combination of a bachelor’s degree and experience. They are as follows:

•  Communication;
•  Public policy;
•  Business and public administration;
•  Globalization;
•  Leadership;
•  Teamwork;
•  Attitudes;
•  Lifelong learning;
•  Professional and ethical responsibility.

The professional and ethical responsibility outcome is the only one in the professional category that requires engineers to reach the sixth level of the taxonomy; communication and lifelong learning require engineers to reach the fifth level, meaning that they must “plan and execute the acquisition of required expertise appropriate for professional practice.”

“The beautiful thing about an outcomes approach is that we can establish very high expectations—very high performance standards—while not prescribing how to do it,” Walesh said. He also called attention to a new chapter in this edition that provides guidance to educators, students, interns, and practicing engineers in imparting and acquiring the civil engineering body of knowledge. “We have found that this concept of the body of knowledge is something that brings academics and practitioners together,” he said.

In addressing faculty members, chapter 4 says that “the future of civil engineering is dependent upon you and your colleagues.” Like the first edition, the new report stresses that faculty members are to be scholars and effective teachers, are to possess practical experience, and are to be positive role models.

The chapter counsels students to review The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025, avail themselves of campus resources to meet curricular and extracurricular challenges, participate in campus organizations, explore the possibility of participating in international study programs, seek work experience relevant to their studies, prepare themselves for a constantly changing world, and find employers that will help them move their careers forward after they graduate.

Engineer interns are advised to “assume primary responsibility for [their] personal and professional development,” continue their education through lifelong learning, move systematically toward licensure, and develop an ability to work within teams in order to solve the complex problems of the future. The report also exhorts interns to serve as volunteers in community and professional organizations and warns them not to become pigeonholed by gaining only one type of experience. “Experience is wonderful, but too much of one kind of experience could diminish your rate of personal and professional development,” it states. To avoid this, it suggests that interns set goals and seek out tasks that can help them achieve those goals.

Chapter 4 also has advice for practition-ers: “You should understand that, while attending to your various responsibilities, you can also help the intern continue his or her learning process in preparation for the licensing examination.” The chapter goes on to state that practitioners should create a professional development program that could include meetings, seminars, mentoring sessions, opportunities to gain new experience, participation in professional societies, and periodic reviews of goals. The practitioner should encourage interns to gain new types of experience, should carefully explain the technical and nontechnical needs of the client or stakeholder to their interns, should support licensure and encourage activity in the community and in professional societies, and should set an example in their professional behavior.

Kenneth Fridley, Ph.D., M.ASCE, the vice-chair of the committee that produced the new edition and the head of the civil and environmental engineering department at the University of Alabama, concluded the presentation portion of the press conference by describing how the University of Alabama has changed since restructuring its civil engineering curriculum to reflect the goals set forth in the first edition of the body of knowledge report. He noted that enrollment has increased by 130 percent, which has added 300 undergraduate students to the program. Moreover, ACT scores have increased by nearly two full points despite the increase in students.

Fridley stated that a group to be called the Body of Knowledge Educational Fulfillment Committee, which will have 11 full members—each from an institution of higher learning—and 25 corresponding members, will monitor developments during the next few years. It will document how educational programs are incorporating the report’s recommendations into their curricula and will report on successful as well as unsuccessful endeavors to fulfill the formal educational requirements. “We are very excited about the challenges in front of us and hope to see more of our young engineers successfully face those challenges,” he said.

In addition to Russell, Walesh, and Fridley, the committee included Richard O. Anderson, P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, the committee chair and a principal engineer for Somat Engineering, which is headquartered in Detroit; Anirban De, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, an assistant professor in the civil engineering department at Manhattan College; Decker B. Hains, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, an assistant professor at the United States Military Academy; Ronald S. Harichandran, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, the chair of the civil and environmental engineering department at Michigan State University; Peter W. Hoadley, Ph.D., P.E., A.M.ASCE, a professor of civil engineering at the Virginia Military Institute; Manoj K. Jha, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, an associate professor of civil engineering at Morgan State University; David A. Lange, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois; Melanie L. Lawrence, a.m.asce, an engineer for Leonard Rice Engineers, Inc., of Denver; Timothy F. Lengyel, P.E., M.ASCE, a project engineer with Winzler & Kelly Consulting Engineers, of San Francisco; Daniel R. Lynch, Ph.D., m.asce, the MacLean Professor of Engineering Sciences at Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering; Robert E. Mackey, P.E., M.ASCE, a principal engineer with S2L Inc., of Maitland, Florida; and John M. Mason, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, the associate dean of graduate studies, research, and outreach at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Engineering.

To download a copy of the new edition, visit www.asce.org/raisethebar.

—Brett Hansen

Foundational Outcomes - pdf
Technical Outcomes - pdf
Professional Outcomes - pdf

Richard Tomasetti, P.E., M.ASCE, the chairman of Thornton Tomasetti, Inc., of New York City, addressed engineers, faculty members, and students on February 15 at Lehigh University in delivering the 2008 lecture in the university’s Fazlur Rahman Khan Lecture Series.

In a talk entitled “Engineering of Major Architecture, Then and Now,” Tomasetti compared the master builders of the past with the teams of architects, engineers, contractors, and others who must work together successfully to design and construct today’s complex structures.

Tomasetti explained how the master builders of the Renaissance and the centuries immediately preceding it integrated the three concepts of art, architecture, and engineering. “We have come a long way now, but I think we are seeing a rebirth of this integration of at least architecture and engineering—and art on occasion—through the collaborative master team,” he said. Unlike the master builder, however, this collaborative team employs a variety of sophisticated tools made possible by computer technology, he asserted.

To illustrate the concept of integrating art, engineering, and architecture, Tomasetti discussed such treasures of antiquity as the Parthenon and the Pantheon. He pointed out that even though the builders of the Parthenon did not have knowledge of vaulted ceilings or concrete, their work stands as a “great example of integrating art, architecture, and engineering.” The Pantheon, in Rome, is another good example, according to Tomasetti, who believes that the architectural elements in the structure’s famous dome as well as the lighter type of concrete invented by the Romans were used to alleviate some of the lateral thrust at the dome’s base. He also pointed out that to compensate for these lateral loads, the base was much thicker than the top of the dome.

The next example that Tomasetti cited was the dome that was constructed in the 15th century by Filippo Brunelleschi as part of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore.

runelleschi, Tomasetti contended, must have intuitively understood that he would have tension in the bottom, so by using “a Lincoln Logs approach” he was able to design a strong ring out of wood and sandstone to take the tension. The dome itself is not a true dome, Tomasetti explained; rather, it is pointed at the top, which alleviates some of the tension at the dome’s base. “You have an integration of art, architecture, engineering, and construction technology, all being guided by one mind, as opposed to the team approach,” he explained.

Tomasetti cited other examples, including the breathtaking Hagia Sophia, in I˙stanbul, Turkey, the first time that a dome was placed on square columns and walls, and the United States Capitol, in which a portion of the structure’s flat ceiling was replaced with a dome, a process that required engineers and architects to develop unusual load paths, according to Tomasetti.

Switching the focus to the present, Tomasetti called attention to the role that speed of construction plays in the design and construction of such large and complex projects as stadia. To realize these projects, the engineer and the contractor must work together, he said. “We typically separate what the engineer does [from] what the contractor does. You can’t do that on stuff like this. You have to think from the very beginning as an engineer why and how this structure is going to be built and how you can help with your design to expedite building. That is what separates the really good engineering from the mediocre engineering,” he said.

Tomasetti also discussed how glass, which historically has been primarily an architectural feature that has to be placed on a rigid structure and isolated from the structural elements, now figures in the idea of “engineered transparency.” As examples, he described structures where the glass facades are held in place only by what he called “point supports,” as well as by flexible pads. In the future, “you may not be able to differentiate between what part of the building was part of the structure engineering and what part is architecture,” he predicted.

The responsibility of the individuals involved in large and complex engineering projects also has changed over time, Tomasetti explained. Project teams today are composed of many people, including project managers, construction managers, architects, and engineers. The leader of these teams is selected by the owner, the choice depending on the type of project. The owner may choose the architect if the project involves a high level of design. Alternatively, if the project is more industrial in nature, the owner may opt for the contractor or the engineer, Tomasetti said.

In addition to the responsibilities of the project team and its leaders, Tomasetti pointed out that technological advances have facilitated the integration of architecture, engineering, and construction. He recounted his experience using the modeling software Xsteel for Chicago’s Soldier Field; the software enabled the engineer and the fabricator to use the same three-dimensional model, thus eliminating the potential for mistakes. He also noted that a project in Brooklyn, New York, designed by the architect Frank Gehry is being completed almost entirely using three-dimensional modeling, with paper relegated to a very small role.

Tomasetti also discussed the necessity of an integral approach on the part of architects, engineers, and others in such complex structures as high-rises. Here he focused on the Chicago Spire, a structure currently under construction that embodies the vision of the architect Santiago Calatrava. The tower’s spiral shape “looks like a structural engineer’s nightmare,” Tomasetti said, owing to its curved and twisting facade. The twisting, however, has been innovatively addressed by means of cantilevers that are supported by structural columns that “are perfectly straight and perfectly symmetrical,” he explained.

The spire’s twisting facade also helps reduce accelerations caused by the wind, Tomasetti noted. He said that a model of the structure underwent several wind tunnel tests, part of a process that the architects and the engineers used to create a facade that would minimize the wind forces on the building.

To maximize the stability of the spire’s core, Tomasetti said that outriggers connect the core to the outer columns. On the majority of tall buildings, he noted, “most outriggers go all the way through the core, which is a nightmare for the mechanical and electrical engineer. That is not playing nice if you are into integration of architecture and engineering; that is playing nasty.” In contrast, the outriggers on the Chicago Spire connect to large rings located at its core.

After citing several other works illustrating the integration of engineering and architecture in tall buildings, Tomasetti concluded by saying, “In today’s global economy, you not only have to have an understanding of everybody else’s disciplines, but you see the success in these projects always comes down to how the engineering and the architecture were integrated.” He counseled students not to focus on particular disciplines but rather to widen their “scope of thinking” to better understand others’ disciplines.

—Brett Hansen

At this writing, I have just returned from asce regional leadership conferences in Las Vegas, Baltimore, and Austin, Texas, where I was struck by the many questions raised about asce Policy 465 (“Academic Prerequisites for Licensure and Professional Practice”), as well as about the new edition of our body of knowledge report, Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century: Preparing the Civil Engineer for the Future. In connection with the latter, questions are also being asked about changes being made by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) that will require aspiring professional engineers to supplement their bachelor’s degree with a master’s or 30 additional credits. I must say I am pleased to see our members—in all categories—taking a personal interest in this topic and stepping up to express their views and to pose questions to our leadership. Everyone who takes a close look at the issue and examines how it might affect his or her life personally is truly helping us to shape our profession for the future.

asce released the new edition last month at a special event in Washington, D.C., at the National Academy of Engineering (see the article on page 1). The report underscores asce’s active support for higher educational standards for engineers, an initiative launched by our Board of Direction in 1998 with the adoption of Policy 465. Through our Committee on the Academic Prerequisites for Professional Practice (CAP3), we have worked tirelessly to define the body of knowledge required for entry into civil engineering at the professional level. asce has produced the new report to address questions and suggestions raised by stakeholders in response to the first edition.

ASCE’s Policy 465 is a profound statement recommending a reconstruction of the academic foundation for professional practice. The body of knowledge also includes experience gained in accordance with technical and professional practice guidelines that provide flexibility for a wide range of roles in engineering. The quest to define the body of knowledge derives from the view that a bachelor’s degree alone will not provide the necessary preparation for professional practice in the future. Policy 465 (refined in April 2007) states that acquiring the body of knowledge will call for a master’s degree or approximately 30 additional graduate-level or upper-level undergraduate credits. (For the latter, the courses may be offered by agencies or professional societies.)

The group that produced the new report—CAP3’s Body of Knowledge Committee—began its work by reviewing the 15 goals (“outcomes”) set forth in the first edition. It also drew on reports prepared by the National Academy of Engineering and on The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025, a report released last year that grew out of an ASCE conference held in 2006—Summit on the Future of Civil Engineering. A significant change in the second edition is that the outcomes have been increased from 15 to 24. The goals fall into three categories: foundational, technical, and professional. The members of the Body of Knowledge Committee applied the principles set forth in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, a work by the educational psychologist Benjamin S. Bloom (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1984) that outlines six educational achievement levels. The taxonomy is widely used in the academic community as the means of gauging cognitive levels of achievement. For each outcome in the new report, a level of achievement is specified that an individual must attain before he or she may enter professional practice.

asce recently formed a new entity—the Body of Knowledge Educational Fulfillment Committee—to focus on curricula that will satisfy the recommendations of the new body of knowledge report. This new group is working to assemble a community of scholars interested in civil engineering education reform. It will document how programs are incorporating the body of knowledge into their curricula and will compile a list of practices that have proved to be effective in meeting the formal education requirements of the new report.

As you may know, the ncees voted in 2006 to change section 130.10 of its model law to encourage states to require additional education for licensure, an action strongly endorsed by asce. (See “ncees Vote Advances Implementation of asce’s Policy 465,” ASCE News, October 2006, page 1.) As part of a “model,” the change is not binding on the 56 jurisdictions, as each jurisdiction determines its own licensing laws. asce is working to provide grassroots advocacy at the state level in support of the model law, an ambitious undertaking and a long-term process. Supported by our government relations staff, asce is working hard to help modify requirements in all jurisdictions. Given the challenge of defining rules to support the new model law, late last year the ncees established a group called the Bachelor’s +30 Task Force to define approved credits and course providers and to propose rule revisions that would be consistent with the requirement to supplement a bachelor’s degree with 30 additional credits.

This ncees task force will work on this complex issue for at least two years, and those interested will be able to track its work by visiting www.ncees.org/licensure/licensure_exchange/.

Some of us will not be around to actually see all of these changes come to fruition, because the process of persuading each state—one at a time—to change its rules regarding the educational preparation of engineers may take decades. But as we examine the details of this topic today, we are working hard to make sure we shape the outcome in a way that will truly benefit our profession and society as a whole in the long run.

I am especially pleased that asce continues to explore a variety of paths that would enable an aspiring engineer to acquire the body of knowledge. asce wishes to attract individuals to the profession from nontraditional routes while ensuring that they still possess the requisite skills and knowledge.

The civil engineering and other leaders who convened in Virginia for the Summit on the Future of Civil Engineering had a broad range of backgrounds, and they took full advantage of this diversity in defining a global vision for the future of our profession. The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html) sees a very different world for civil engineers in 2025, when they will be entrusted by society to create a sustainable world and enhance the global quality of life by acting in the following capacities:

• Planners, designers, constructors, and operators of society’s economic and social engine, the built environment;
• Stewards of the natural environment and its resources;
• Innovators and integrators of ideas and technology encompassing the public, private, and academic sectors;
• Managers of risk and uncertainty arising from natural events, accidents, and other threats; 
• Leaders in the public policy arena in matters affecting environmental and infrastructure policy.

The new edition of the body of knowledge report advises students to carefully read The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025. It also exhorts them to actively participate in campus organizations, explore international programs, seek relevant work experience, be solicitous in safeguarding their reputations, prepare for an ever-changing world, and find the right first job. Moreover, it counsels engineer interns to take charge of their careers, continue their education, pursue licensure, and consider volunteering in their communities.

In The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025, the term “master” implies that individuals will possess valuable knowledge, skills, and attitudes acquired as a result of education, experience, and achievement. The individuals within our profession who possess these characteristics will be able to serve society by devising solutions to meet current needs while helping to ensure a viable future.

I recall a story told by Stuart G. Walesh, Ph.D., p.e., Hon.m.asce, about a conversation he had with a high school senior who was looking into various professions, among them medicine, engineering, law, and business. She asked how many years were required to earn an engineering degree. When he told her, she replied, “If it only takes four years, it can’t be worth much.” While some individuals may view the new requirements as taking too long and being too rigorous, I believe that most young people see more formal education as the appropriate preparation for joining the engineering profession of the future.

—David G. Mongan, p.e., f.asce

Forensic Engineering Council To Be Formed in India

Members of ASCE’s Technical Council on Forensic Engineering (TCFE) attended the inaugural Indian International Conference on Forensic Engineering, which was held in Mumbai (Bombay) December 6–9. In conjunction with the conference, meetings were held to discuss the formation and organization of India’s Forensic Engineering Council. These meetings saw substantial input by TCFE members, who surveyed the 25-year history of the ASCE council in addressing the India council’s organizing committee.

The conference was organized by the India chapter of the American Concrete Institute and was supported by, among other groups, ASCE and the United Kingdom’s Institution of Civil Engineers. Delegates from more than 40 countries attended the conference, including the six members representing the TCFE, namely, Norbert Delatte, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, who chairs the council’s Executive Committee; Kimball Beasley, P.E., M.ASCE; Kenneth L. Carper, M.ASCE; Shen-En Chen, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE; Michael Drerup, P.E., M.ASCE; and Clemens Rossell, M.ASCE.

Establishing the new committee was one of the objectives of the conference. The others included raising awareness of the proper use of forensic engineering, incorporating the latest knowledge, and setting goals for improvement. Further collaborations between the new council and the TCFE are anticipated as the Indian body becomes more firmly established, according to Carper. “The community of forensic engineers will play a vital role in India’s development as the lessons learned from successes and failures are formally integrated into engineering practice through their efforts,” he says.

Donors Help Engineers Without Borders–USA Win Online Challenge

In the final nine days of the six-week America’s Giving Challenge, Engineers Without Borders–USA (EWB-USA) galvanized its local chapters and garnered enough donations to win first place. In addition to the $60,655 raised through 2,979 donations, EWB-USA will receive $50,000 from the magazine Parade and the Case Foundation, the sponsors of the challenge. In February ASCE and EWB-USA called upon their members and colleagues to contribute.

“Winning America’s Giving Challenge has energized the staff, the board, and thousands of members and friends of Engineers Without Borders–USA. The Giving Challenge inspired so many people to give,” said Heidi Dormody, EWB-USA’s director of development, in a press release. She explained that student members handed out flyers in their college towns instructing people how to make donations online and that the board members and staff sent e-mails to everyone listed in their address books. As she explained, it took just “nine days from when we first read about the challenge in Parade magazine.”

The competition, which ran from December 13, 2007, to January 31, asked individuals to champion their favorite charitable cause by creating an online charity badge, or “widget,” that featured a link to the donation Web site, a blurb about the charity, and tools that would enable those receiving the badge to share it with others via e-mail, blogs, social networking sites, or other Web pages. It also tracked the number of donors and the total amount donated. According to a press release, the competition “was designed to encourage the charitable use of social networking and Web 2.0 tools and to empower individuals to fund-raise and build networks of caring people around the organizations and issues they care about most.”

EWB-USA is one of four national winners, each of which will receive a $50,000 award. Four globally oriented charities also will receive that amount. “Our members just amaze me, said Cathy Leslie, the executive director of EWB-USA, in a press release. “It made each of us realize how many people were willing to support us if we only asked.”

Past President Henry Attends Engineers Week Event in Washington State

Last month governors throughout the country signed proclamations formally recognizing Engineers Week, February 17–23. In Washington State, William P. Henry, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, a past president of ASCE, attended the signing on February 6 of the state’s Engineers Week proclamation by Governor Chris Gregoire. Gregoire stated at the signing that more individuals need to become involved in engineering and that students should be encouraged to study science and math to prepare themselves for the “interesting, rewarding, and fulfilling profession of engineering.”

Other states also signed Engineers Week proclamations or enacted legislation. Alaska’s proclamation, signed by Governor Sarah Palin, stated that “engineers are encouraging our young math and science students to realize the practical power of their knowledge and to pursue careers in engineering. . . . We will look more than ever to engineers and their knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of the future.” In California, Alex Padilla, a state senator, presented a resolution recognizing Engineers Week to the state senate on February 7. The resolution, which was unanimously adopted, emphasized math and science education and called attention to the important roles played by teachers and such groups as California’s Engineering Liaison Council, a nonprofit organization that works with public and private engineering organizations and elected officials.

Engineers Week, established in 1951 by the National Society of Professional Engineers, features activities designed to foster an interest in engineering, science, and technology among students at all grade levels. ASCE has actively supported the program’s activities and has encouraged children and families to explore engineering through, for example, the PBS series Design Squad and the outreach program built around the Curious George series. The Society also organizes Family Day, an annual event in Washington, D.C., at the National Building Museum featuring activities that in addition to arousing an interest in math, science, and engineering are just plain fun.

The Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI), established by asce this year, will be bestowing a new award, the Mindlin Medal. The new institute hopes to become the prEMIer organization for those concerned with engineering mechanics by effectively serving the needs of practition-ers worldwide. It will also promote both research and the application of scientific and mathematical principles to address a broad range of new and existing engineering and societal problems. The EMI has 14 technical committees addressing a variety of advanced topics and is also responsible for the highly regarded Journal of Engineering Mechanics. Its Inaugural International Conference will be held in Minneapolis May 18–21. For additional information about the conference, visit www.cce.umn.edu/conferences/em08/. For more information about the EMI, the Web site is www.engineeringmechanicsinstitute.org.

ASCE's Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI), in cooperation with the California Office of Emergency Services and the Applied Technology Council, sponsored a training event in Las Vegas on February 7 called the Postdisaster Safety Evaluation Workshop. The event was held just before a multiregional leadership conference. Attendees learned procedures that will help them assess the safety of buildings and other facets of infrastructure in the wake of natural and man-made disasters. To meet demand, the CCI will be holding another workshop. It will be on May 12 in Honolulu and will be held in conjunction with the Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s World Environmental and Water Resources Congress. For more information about the congress, visit http://content.asce.org/conferences/ewri2008/.

Take an opportunity to nationally recognize one of your fellow members. asce and asfe are seeking nominations for the 2008 Professional Practice Ethics and Leadership Award. The award recognizes an engineering leader for a particular accomplishment or for lifetime achievements that demonstrate a commitment to ethical principles and sound leadership in professional practice or public service. The individual must be a licensed professional engineer, must not have served on ASCE’s Board of Direction or ASFE’s Board of Directors within the past five years, and must not be a previous recipient of the award. There is no membership requirement for nomination. The recipient will be presented with a certificate and an honorarium. For further information and downloadable forms, visit www.asce.org/pressroom/honors/ppethics_leadership_award.cfm. Please e-mail nominations to awards@asce.org by June 1. Paper nominations must be received by ASCE by June 1; the mailing address is Honors and Awards Program, ASCE, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4400.

ASCE is collecting salary data for the 2008 Engineering Income and Salary Survey. Each year we encourage members to take five minutes to visit www.asce.org/salaries and enter their salary information. Your participation will ensure that the survey continues to offer accurate data for 35 engineering disciplines. Moreover, you will receive a complimentary electronic report with the salary information pertaining to your level and region. The survey gives you compensation data broken down by such fields as licensure, length of experience, location, and engineering grade. It will also help you set the compensation benchmark for your organization. Join the more than 20,000 civil engineers who have entered their data. Please endeavor to participate by March 31.

The Building Security Council (BSC) is reviewing numerous proposals that it has received for rating review consultants, who will evaluate documentation submitted by the council’s customers to assess compliance with its rating system. The consultants will play an important role in the BSC’s rating program, formally known as the Promoting Logical Unified Security (PLUS) program. This program has been approved as an antiterrorism technology by the Department of Homeland Security under the Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002. The BSC intends to debut plus this month. For more information, visit www.buildingsecuritycouncil.org/home.html.
 
The American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE) will hold its annual induction ceremony for diplomates on May 13 in Honolulu. The event will form part of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s World Environmental and Water Resources Congress. The ceremony will honor diplomates from the fall of 2007 and the spring of 2008 and will also pay tribute to two honorary diplomates: Asit K. Biswas, Ph.D., from the Third World Centre for Water Management, in Mexico; and Rafael L. Bras, Sc.D., P.E., F.ASCE, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Moreover, the AAWRE will be conducting three engineering ethics sessions during the week of the congress. For more information about the congress, visit http://content.asce.org/conferences/ewri2008/. For additional information about the aawre, visit www.aawre.org/index.cfm.

At ASCE’s leadership conferences this year, nearly 1,000 individuals from the Society’s regions, sections, branches, younger member groups, and student chapters and clubs gathered for an opportunity to develop their leadership skills, gain a better understanding of the operations and resources of ASCE, and network with their peers. The conferences, which included workshops for section and branch leaders, for student chapter leaders, and for those leading younger member groups, were held in January and February in Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Austin, Texas. The attendees benefited from the interchange of ideas as they discussed common issues and concerns both in separate groups and in plenary sessions. They also had an opportunity to meet and hear from their elected national leaders, including David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE, the Society’s president; D. Wayne Klotz, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, the president-elect; and Patrick J. Natale, P.E., F.ASCE, the executive director.

ASCE is improving its manual How to Work Effectively with Consulting Engineers, and we need your help. The publication provides guidance on procuring engineering services and offers tools to foster a better understanding between the client and the consulting engineer, including an explanation of the services provided to the client. It also outlines methods for determining compensation for engineering services and for selecting a consulting engineer and includes a discussion of contracts. To update the information on compensation for engineering services in the manual, ASCE is hosting an online survey, the ASCE Consulting Engineering Practice Survey 2008. The survey is confidential, and only ASCE staff members will have access to individual responses and contact information. We are asking principals and project managers to submit one survey per office. Some ASCE members will receive an e-mail inviting them to participate. If you do not receive this e-mail and are interested in participating, please contact Alicia Karwoski, P.E., M.ASCE, the manager of professional practice, by telephone at (800) 548-2723, extension 6324, or by e-mail at akarwoski@asce.org. Each respondent will receive a complimentary copy of the revised manual and will be entered in a drawing to win a player in the iPod nano series.

—Patrick J. Natale, P.E., F.ASCE
Executive Director

SITUATION: An ASCE member prepares and organizes a review course for candidates planning to take the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam. The ASCE logo is featured prominently on the course brochure and other materials distributed by the member in promoting the course. Although the placement of the ASCE logo conveys the impression that ASCE has sponsored or at least sanctioned his course, the member has never requested or received asce’s permission to use its name in connection with the offering. In fact, ASCE learns of the member’s activities only when another member forwards the course brochure to the national office and voices concern that the program organizer has, in violation of asce’s bylaws, misused the Society logo. An ASCE staff member forwards the course brochure and the organizer’s name to the Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC).

QUESTION: Is it a violation of asce’s Code of Ethics for a member to publish advertising materials giving the impression that his or her review course has been sponsored or endorsed by ASCE?

DECISION: Category (f) in the guidelines to practice for canon 5 of the Code of Ethics reads as follows: “Engineers may advertise professional services in a way that does not contain misleading language or is in any other manner derogatory to the dignity of the profession.” This proscription on misleading advertisement follows logically from canon 5, which bars engineers from competing unfairly with others. However, it is not unrelated to canon 3, which has this to say: “Engineers shall issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.”

While category (f) in the guidelines to practice for canon 5 indicates that certain advertising practices may constitute an ethics violation, it is interesting to note that the current language on ads for professional services is considerably less restrictive than in previous versions of the Code of Ethics. By way of contrast, canon 6 of the 1976 Code of Ethics read as follows: “It shall be considered unprofessional and inconsistent with honorable and dignified conduct for any member . . . to advertise engineering services in self-laudatory language, or in any other manner derogatory to the dignity of the profession.” As in many other instances, this change in the breadth of ASCE’s ethics provisions came as a result of new interpretations of federal antitrust law.

In 1976 the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a regulatory provision of the Virginia Board of Pharmacy that deemed it unethical for pharmacists to advertise the prices of prescription medicine. Although the Supreme Court based its decision on the pharmacist’s First Amendment right of free speech, its observations on a consumer’s right to receive truthful information before selecting professional services appear to have been greatly influenced by the antitrust rationale of “preserving free competition in the marketplace.” Moreover, because the First Amendment does not apply to acts of private entities such as trade associations, subsequent holdings by the court used antitrust law as a means of compelling private associations to limit or remove ethics provisions against advertising.

In the early 1990s ASCE was one of a number of professional organizations advised by the Department of Justice that it deemed ethical bans against “self-laudatory” advertising to be a violation of federal antitrust law. The department believed that as long as an advertisement was not false or deceptive and did not serve in some way to mislead the consumer with respect to the products or services offered, “self-laudatory” language was a valuable element in the free flow of information in the commercial marketplace and thus was subject to the protections of antitrust law. In response to the views expressed by the Department of Justice, in April 1993 the Board of Direction approved the removal of the term “self-laudatory” from the Code of Ethics and substituted the revised guidelines on advertising that exist in the code today.

With regard to the member’s use of the ASCE logo on promotional material, although the facts of the case suggested a potential violation of canon 5’s ban on false advertising, the cpc chose instead to investigate the claim as a “public statement” in relation to canon 3 as well as a possible violation of canon 6, which reads as follows: “Engineers shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession.” The cpc found that the member’s actions in misrepresenting Society sponsorship of his course violated both canons and voted to issue the member a letter of admonishment.

Members who have an ethics question or would like to file a complaint with the Committee on Professional Conduct may call ASCE’s hotline at (703) 295-6061 or (800) 548-ASCE (2723), extension 6061. The attorneys staffing this line can provide advice on how to handle an ethics issue or file a complaint. Please note that individual facts and circumstances vary from case to case and that the general summary information contained in these case studies is not to be construed as a precedent binding upon the Society.

Eight Members Inducted Into National Academy Of Engineering

Located in Washington, D.C., the National Academy of Engineering has, according to its Web site, the mission of promoting “the technological welfare of the nation by marshaling the knowledge and insights of eminent members of the engineering profession.” The academy recently paid tribute to some eminent members who also happen to be members of ASCE. The inductees are as follows:

Bernard Amadei, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was recognized for establishing the group Engineers Without Borders–USA (EWB–USA), for his leadership in sustainable development education, and for his research on geomechanics. Amadei holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Toronto and a doctorate, also in civil engineering, from the University of California at Berkeley. His current interests encompass sustainability, “green” construction, and international development. He is currently leading an initiative in engineering education and practice at the University of Colorado called Earth Systems Engineering, which emphasizes the interaction between the built environment and natural systems. The mission of EWB–USA is to help people in poor communities around the world improve their quality of life by implementing measures that embody the principles of sustainable development. The organization also broadens the intellectual horizons of the students and other professionals who lend their services. Amadei has been the recipient of numerous awards, including ASCE’s 2007 Hoover Medal; the Nayudamma Award from the Nayudamma Centre for Development Alternatives, in Nellore, India; the American Association of Engineering Societies’ Norm Augustine Award for outstanding achievement in engineering communication; and the Service Award for Professional Excellence from Rotary International.

Robert H. Dodds, Jr., Ph.D., M.ASCE the H.T. Geoffrey Yeh Chair of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was recognized for his contributions to nonlinear fracture mechanics and its applications in nuclear power and space systems. Dodds holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Memphis and a master’s degree and a doctorate, also in civil engineering, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He served on the faculty at the University of Kansas from 1979 to 1987 and was the Nathan M. Newmark Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1996 to 2000. Dodds has published extensively in the areas of fracture mechanics, computational methods, and software engineering, and his work as an editor for many internationally acclaimed journals includes service as an associate editor of ASCE’s Journal of Structural Engineering. His numerous research awards include the George R. Irwin Medal and ASCE’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize and Nathan M. Newmark Medal.

David A. Dzombak, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, the Walter J. Blenko, Sr., Professor of Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, was selected for his work in developing models that shed light on chemical behavior in water quality engineering and environmental remediation. Dzombak holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from Car-negie Mellon University and a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also earned a bachelor of arts in mathematics from Saint Vincent College. A registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania and a diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from ASCE, the Harrison Prescott Eddy Medal from the Water Environment Federation, and the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award.

Anthony E. Fiorato, Ph.D., M.ASCE the board chairman of the CTLGroup, of Skokie, Illinois, was selected for his research contributions in the area of concrete materials and construction, his development of tests and standards, and his overall technical leadership. Fiorato received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Drexel University and a master’s degree and a doctorate in structural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was the president and chief executive officer of the CTLGroup from 1999 to 2007, when he retired. From 1989 to 1999 he was the vice president for research and technical services for the Portland Cement Association. Fiorato’s technical activities have focused on the engineering properties and durability of concrete, as well as on structural design, construction, and performance characteristics. He has been active in research and consulting as well as in standards development for cement and concrete technology, test methods, and the performance of concrete structures. His numerous awards include ASTM International’s Katherine and Bryant Mather Award and the American Concrete Institute’s Henry L. Kennedy Award and Henry C. Turner Medal.

W. Allen Marr, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, was recognized for innovative applications of numerical methods, risk analysis, advanced laboratory techniques, and field instrumentation in the fields of geotechnical engineering and construction. He is the chief executive officer of the Geocomp Corporation, of Boxborough, Massachusetts. Marr holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of California at Davis and a master’s degree and a doctorate, also in civil engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His engineering contributions include the development of techniques for monitoring stability, movement, and pressure in earthworks projects using sensors, wireless communication, automated analysis, and data visualization. Marr has also developed a methodology to improve the earthquake resistance of loose soils by permanent dewatering and was one of the developers of a technique—the stress path method—that is used to solve soil mechanics problems and is employed worldwide in teaching, research, and practice. He has been responsible for concepts that have helped to manage the risks associated with heavy civil construction and for an integrated system that can monitor sensors anywhere in the world via a Web browser.

Ekkehard Ramm, P.E., M.ASCE, was selected in recognition of his signal contributions to the finite-element analysis of plates and shells and his leadership in computational mechanics. A professor at the Universität Stuttgart, in Germany, he heads an institute there devoted to structural mechanics. Ramm studied at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and the Universität Stuttgart and obtained a doctorate in civil engineering from the latter. He became an associate professor of structural mechanics at the Universität Stuttgart and later headed the civil engineering department there. His research interests include computational methods in applied sciences and structural engineering, computational mechanics, finite-element technology, the nonlinear mechanics of thin-walled structures, structural optimization, and material modeling involving multiscale problems and fluid-structure interaction. His numerous awards include the Eric Reissner Medal, the Pioneer’s Award from the Space Structures Research Centre at the United Kingdom’s University of Surrey, and the Computational Mechanics Award from the International Association for Computational Mechanics.

Kumares C. Sinha, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE the Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue University, was recognized for his contributions to highway infrastructure engineering and management and to the education of transportation professionals worldwide. He received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Jadavpur University, in India, and a master’s degree and a doctorate, also in civil engineering, from the University of Connecticut. Sinha headed the transportation and infrastructure systems engineering department at Purdue University for 20 years and for the past 10 years has directed a transportation research program that links Purdue with the Indiana Department of Transportation. He teaches courses on infrastructure planning and management and on highway infrastructure management systems, and in recent years he has become recognized for his innovative research on road infrastructure deterioration and its effect on agency and user costs. This research has provided the basis for many current road and bridge management systems. The president of the Council of University Transportation Centers, Sinha was one of the founders of ASCE’s Transportation and Development Institute. He also recently completed a term as president of the research and education division of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.

William W-G. Yeh, Ph.D., Hon.M.ASCE was honored for his development of methodologies for optimizing the management of water resources and for his work on inverse methods of estimating subsurface parameters. Yeh obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the National Cheng Kung University, in Taiwan, a master’s degree in civil engineering from New Mexico State University, and a doctorate, also in civil engineering, from Stanford University. His research interests encompass groundwater modeling, inverse problems of parameter structure identification, and the development of methodologies and models for optimizing large-scale water resources. He has developed computer models for large-scale hydropower and water supply systems, including the California Central Valley Project and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Another major facet of his research deals with groundwater modeling and management, including the inverse problems of parameter structure identification and experimental design. Yeh’s numerous awards include the Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching from the University of California at Los Angeles’s Engineering Alumni Association, the Engineering Foundation Fellowship Award, the Robert E. Horton Award from the American Geophysical Union, and the Warren A. Hall Medal from the Universities Council on Water Resources.

Sussman Elected AAAS Fellow

Joseph M. Sussman, Ph.D., M.ASCE the J.R. East Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). One of 471 new fellows honored on February 16, Sussman was elected for his work in elucidating the operation of large and complex engineering systems, work that has emphasized freight and passenger transport systems. He was also singled out for his pioneering work in transportation systems education. Members of the society are nominated for fellow status by three existing fellows, by the steering group of any of the association’s 24 sections, or by the AAAS’s chief executive officer. Sussman has served on the MIT faculty for 40 years, and his textbook Introduction to Transportation Systems has been translated into Greek, Chinese, and Spanish. His book Perspectives on Intelligent Transportation Systems was published in 2005. Sussman received the Roy W. Crum Distinguished Service Award from the Transportation Resources Board in 2001, the organization’s highest honor, and has also been the recipient of the Award for Distinguished Contributions to University Transportation Education and Research from the Council of University Transportation Centers. In 2002 the Intelligent Transportation Society of Massachusetts established the Joseph M. Sussman Leadership Award in his honor. Sussman specializes in the study of complex, large-scale, interconnected, open, sociotechnical (CLIOS) systems.

Panchang Honored with Richard R. Torrens Award

The Board of Direction’s Publications Committee and the Society’s publications division have named Vijay Panchang, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, the recipient of the Richard R. Torrens Award. Panchang, who heads the maritime systems engineering department at Texas A&M University at Galveston, was chosen for his outstanding performance as the editor of the Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, one of ASCE’s 30 peer-reviewed journals. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Pune (formerly the University of Poona), in India, and a master’s degree and a doctorate, both in civil engineering, from the University of Maine. His research interests encompass coastal hydraulics and the computer modeling of coastal processes. The wave prediction and coastal circulation models he has developed are widely used by government and consulting engineers. The award was established to honor the memory of Richard R. Torrens, who served ASCE’s publications department for 17 years and was the manager of professional and technical publications. It is conferred on volunteer journal editors who have made outstanding contributions to ASCE’s publications program.

ASCE Names New Faces of Civil Engineering

As part of its participation in the New Faces of Engineering program, an important facet of Engineers Week, which this year was February 17–23, ASCE has singled out 10 individuals whose technical prowess and spirit of volunteerism are seen as auguring well for the profession. New Faces of Engineering celebrates the accomplishments of young engineers and highlights their contributions to their communities.

Thomas Borrowman, A.M.ASCE conducts sediment and dredging research to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ $1.5-billion navigation mission, no small task given that two-thirds of consumer goods purchased in the United States pass through harbors maintained by the Corps. In the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Borrowman was deployed to Louisiana to serve as the mission specialist for the Corps’s temporary roofing mission. In that capacity he supervised the plastic tarp distribution warehouse that supplied more than 50,000 temporary roofs. In recognition of that work, Borrowman received the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service and the Army Service Ribbon. In his current position at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Borrowman focuses on the resuspension of contaminated sediment during dredging and the stability of sediment beds and coastlines, both of which are significant with regard to sediment remediation and the maintenance of navigation channels and harbors. In 2007 he served as the interim chief of an environmental engineering branch, supervising 22 federal employees and 11 contractors conducting research and development work valued at more than $6 million annually. In addition to his work at the ERDC, Borrowman, who is 31, serves as a board member of ASCE’s Mississippi Section and as president of that section’s Vicksburg Branch. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Utah.

Jeanne Brantigan, P.E., M.ASCE, is a water resources engineer with CH2M HILL in Sacramento, California, where she focuses on increasing the dwindling water supplies at wildlife refuges along the north–south migratory bird route known as the Pacific Flyway. To accomplish this, the 30-year-old engages in groundwater planning and conveyance design while balancing the concerns of regulators, biologists, and landowners. She has also worked to improve water management for thousands of acres of California farmland through cooperative studies involving regulators, growers, and engineers, and she contributed solutions to a Bureau of Reclamation report to Congress. Brantigan was one of 18 professionals selected from a group of more than 80 applicants from California to participate in the Water Education Foundation’s 2007 Water Leaders program, a yearlong mentorship and leadership program for young people who have exhibited a cooperative approach to decision making in the area of water resources. In addition to her work at CH2M HILL, Brantigan works as a fund-raiser for her local Engineers Without Borders–USA chapter and volunteers at an educational community garden at a local high school. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Deryk Daquigan, A.M.ASCE is an assistant engineer with CSG Consultants, Inc., in San Mateo, California. In his current position, as well as in his previous one with Pakpour Consulting Group, the 25-year-old has completed the design of several water storage and distribution projects along the San Francisco Bay peninsula. These projects, most of which are located underground, provide clean water to numerous residents and businesses. Within ASCE Daquigan is active in the San Francisco Section’s Younger Member Forum, currently serving as its president and participating in educational and mentoring workshops for students at local colleges and universities. During these workshops, Daquigan and other panelists lead discussions on an array of topics of interest to engineering students, including résumés, interviews, salary negotiations, career fairs, internships, and the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam. They also discuss the relative advantages of public-sector and private-sector jobs and provide information about civil engineering careers and concentrations. Daquigan holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from San Jose State University.

Chavon Grande, A.M.ASCE a structural engineer at CH2M HILL in Somerset, New Jersey, has been recognized for her efforts in establishing a team that promotes environmentally sound office practices and educates employees on the importance of recycling. The team has introduced paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum recycling bins and in the future hopes to expand the recycling program to include facilities for batteries, obsolete equipment, and other products that pose a potential risk to the environment. In the 29-year-old’s previous position with Birdsall Engineering, of Eatontown, New Jersey, she designed the foundations for several amusement park rides, including Kingda Ka, at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure, the tallest and fastest roller coaster ride in the world. She also discussed the engineering challenges faced in major amusement park ride projects with college students who visited the park. Grande holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Alicia Hermann, P.E., M.ASCE, is the principal and the senior manager of Hermann and Associates, L.L.C., in Peoria, Illinois, which specializes in designing roadways, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, detention basins, and preventive maintenance plans. But the 29-year-old still finds time to coordinate educational outreach events in her area and to serve as the city engineer for West Peoria and as the village engineer for Peoria Heights and Creve Coeur. Previously she worked on a variety of projects for Randolph and Associates, also in Peoria, including Illinois Department of Transportation projects and municipal maintenance programs. An active ASCE member, Hermann has served as secretary, educational and publicity chair, and program chair within the Central Illinois Section’s Illinois Valley Branch. As educational and publicity chair, she coordinated speaking events and engineering activities at local schools designed to encourage students to consider careers in engineering. She also instituted an annual canned food drive competition that is held in December and involves all engineering consulting firms in the Peoria area. Hermann obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Bradley University.

Javier Moncada, A.M.ASCE is an engineer with Ber-ger/ABAM Engineers, Inc., in Portland, Oregon. As a graduate student at Oregon State University, Moncada studied wave forces and the devastating impacts of tsunamis. Upon graduating, he joined marine geologists and paleoseismologists on an international research vessel near the epicenter of the earthquake that struck southern Asia in late December 2004 and took a heavy toll of life through tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. In that work he helped collect marine paleotsunami deposits from the ocean floor. The 27-year-old has done volunteer work with the group Los Embajadores, traveling to Mexico with high school students to help communities there build schools. As a student at Mount Hood Community College he did tutoring work in mathematics and engineering. At present he volunteers at Oregon State’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, where he helps to give the public a better understanding of marine wildlife and coastal engineering. Currently the treasurer of ASCE’s Oregon Section, he is helping to set up a technical group within the section that will focus on renewable energy and sustainability. Moncada earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Oregon State.

Suresh Raghavendra, A.M.ASCE is a project manager with PBS&J in Phoenix. After studying in India and in the United States, Raghavendra worked on various transportation infrastructure projects with HDR Engineering, Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska. In his current position with PBS&J, which is headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the 29-year-old is responsible for project management, marketing, and mentoring. At present he is working on an Arizona Department of Transportation project in McGuireville, Arizona, that includes a traffic interchange reconfiguration and ramp improvements. While with HDR he worked on the design of an interchange on Route 801 in Arizona and participated in the development of freeway corridors and the design and modeling of freeway alternatives. As a research assistant at Arizona State University, Raghavendra studied the use of crumb rubber in nonstructural concrete as a way of reusing tires. An active member of the Younger Member Forum in the Arizona Society of Civil Engineers Section’s Phoenix Branch, Raghavendra participates in various community outreach activities, including volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House and participating in cleanup efforts in the Adopt-A-Highway program. He also volunteers as an instructor for basic Spanish grammar and reading classes. Raghavendra received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Bangalore University, in India, and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from Arizona State.

Saumya Swain, S.M.ASCE is a manager with SK Telecom in Seoul, South Korea, where he is currently involved in the design of the Ubiquitous City project, an endeavor that is continuously evolving to reflect the convergence of information technology and construction. The concept aims to solve a variety of urban issues by incorporating appropriate technology into the city’s infrastructure. Swain assists the project team in designing the information space layer—the point where information technology services and infrastructure are combined. Swain, 27, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, in Surathkal, India, and a master’s degree in construction management from Hanyang University, in South Korea, where he earned a full scholarship after winning an essay contest held in Seoul, South Korea. While completing his master’s degree, Swain and his academic adviser developed a way of assessing the state of South Korea’s infrastructure.

Gregory Thiebaut, P.E., M.ASCE, is a registered professional engineer in California. As a project engineer with the DE Group, of San Jose, California, Thiebaut managed the utility relocation design for the proposed Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) extension from Fremont to San Jose. As a student, he worked for the California Department of Transportation developing high-performance concrete mix designs for the new San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. He also participated in ASCE’s National Concrete Canoe Competition, which required the members of his team to draw on their knowledge of concrete mixes to produce a canoe that would not only float but also race. An active ASCE member, the 29-year-old has served on the board of the San Francisco Section’s San Jose Branch since 2002. He was named civil engineering mentor of the year by the San Francisco Section and in 2006 received the Region 9 Practitioner Adviser of the Year Award. In addition to serving as a practitioner adviser to the student chapter at San Jose State University, he does volunteer work as a member of the San Francisco Section’s Younger Member Forum. Thiebaut earned an associate degree in general education from Santa Rosa Junior College and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from San Jose State University.

Sarah Weissman, A.M.ASCE is a program manager at Rutgers University’s Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT), in Piscataway, New Jersey. There Weissman, who is 25, directs work related to the mobility of senior citizens and evaluates and implements measures to ensure that crashes are reduced among the senior population and that alternative modes of transportation are available when driving is no longer an option. To aid safety programs aimed at reducing the incidence and severity of crashes and injuries on New Jersey’s roadways, she developed a strategic business plan for CAIT’s Transportation Safety Resource Center, a joint venture on the part of the New Jersey Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. Weissman has also organized training workshops for state, county, and local transportation and safety professionals and was instrumental in developing a software program that helps safety engineers pinpoint problem areas and implement appropriate countermeasures. Within ASCE Weissman serves as secretary of the New Jersey Section’s Central Jersey Branch and as president of that branch’s younger member group. She also volunteers her time and expertise for MATHCOUNTS and the Future City Competition. Weissman earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Dalton Graduates from Institute For Organization Management

Marla Dalton, P.E., M.ASCE, recently named the executive vice president of ASCE’s Civil Engineering Forum for Innovation, has graduated from the Institute for Organization Management, completing a four-year leadership training program developed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Participants must attend one weeklong session per year. The curriculum’s required courses and electives help participants develop their management skills and give them the ability to make the organizations they work for run more efficiently. Over the past six years Dalton has served both as the Society’s director of critical infrastructure and as the executive director of The Infrastructure Security Partnership, better known as TISP. Before that she was ASCE’s director of educational activities, manager of technical services, and manager of student services. Dalton holds a degree in civil and environmental engineering from Cornell University and is a registered professional engineer in Virginia. A certified association executive and the holder of a certificate in nonprofit organization management from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, she also serves on an ASTM International committee dealing with homeland security applications.

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 distinguished members.

Chimay J. Anumba, Ph.D., Sc.D., CEng, F.ASCE, is a professor at Pennsylvania State University and head of the school’s architectural engineering department. Before joining the faculty at Penn State he was a senior lecturer and reader in computer-aided engineering at Britain’s University of Teesside and a professor of construction engineering and informatics at Loughborough University, where he founded and directed the Centre for Innovative and Collaborative Engineering. He also chaired the European Group for Intelligent Computing in Engineering and served on the governing council of the United Kingdom’s Institution of Civil Engineers. His research interests encompass construction engineering, engineering informatics, concurrent engineering, knowledge management, collaborative communications, and project management, and he has more than 400 publications to his credit. His research has received support worth more than $30 million from industry and a variety of national and international agencies. He has also successfully supervised 31 doctoral candidates and 15 postdoctoral research associates. Anumba serves as a consultant and adviser to the U.K. government and to private firms and is a coeditor of the Journal of Information Technology in Construction. A chartered engineer in the United Kingdom, he has held visiting positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, South Korea’s Hanyang University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and the University of Florida. Anumba’s accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards, among them an honorary doctorate from the Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands.

Roberto Ballarini, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is the James L. Record Professor at the University of Minnesota and head of the civil engineering department there. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the City College of New York and a master of science and a doctorate, also in civil engineering, from Northwestern University. Ballarini is recognized internationally as an authority on the mechanics of the fracture and fatigue of materials and structures. His multidisciplinary research, which has been funded by a number of federal and state agencies, has been applied to problems encountered in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, and materials science and in work involving microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), biological tissues, nanoscale structures, and prosthetic design. Ballarini has approximately 70 refereed journal papers to his credit, and he has been invited to lecture around the world. Several of his research projects have also been featured in the popular press. He has been a visiting professor of structural engineering at the Politecnico di Torino and a visiting professor of mathematical physics at the Università di Pisa, both in Italy. He also held the Materials Testing Services Visiting Chair of Geomechanics at the University of Minnesota and was the F.W. Olin Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. His technical contributions include analyses of indentation-induced contact stresses in anisotropic plates, the pioneering use of fracture mechanics to characterize the failure of anchor bolts embedded in concrete, Green’s function formulations of interface cracks and cracks in laminated structures, fatigue cracking in high-speed bearings, the development of on-chip mechanical testing platforms for MEMS materials, bioinspired designs of laminated composites, and nanoscale mechanical testing. Ballarini has been active within ASCE since 1982, both nationally and with the Cleveland and Minnesota sections. He has been an associate editor of the Society’s Journal of Engineering Mechanics and chairman of the Elasticity Committee, formerly within the Engineering Mechanics Division and now part of the Engineering Mechanics Institute.

Brian D. Barkdoll, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, is an associate professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at Michigan Technological University. A licensed professional engineer in Michigan, Barkdoll holds degrees from the University of Akron, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Iowa. He also spent four years as an engineer for the Peace Corps in Nepal, where he was involved in water distribution systems and in the construction of a road, a suspension bridge, a biogas plant, an irrigation system, and an office building. Barkdoll’s teaching interests encompass fluid mechanics, hydraulics, hydrology, sediment transport, contaminant transport, and water collection and distribution, and his research interests are in sedimentation, scour, oxygen transfer, clay permeability, vortices, acoustics, stream restoration, dams and reservoirs, water distribution systems, and sustainable development. A diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, Barkdoll has been a member of ASCE’s Sedimentation Committee and Eco-Hydraulics Committee, both of which are part of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute. He also served as an adviser to the ASCE chapter at the University of Mississippi. He has more than 35 technical papers to his credit and has conducted more than 25 seminars at international conferences. Barkdoll currently reviews technical papers for a number of societies and organizations. His accolades include the Society’s Daniel W. Mead Prize for Younger Members and the Chi Epsilon James M. Robbins Excellence in Teaching Award.

Craig H. Benson, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is the Wisconsin Distinguished Professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. An educator, researcher, and consulting engineer, Benson has supervised more than 100 graduate students and countless undergraduate students in more than 22 years at the University of Wisconsin. He has conducted 95 different research projects with a total research budget in excess of $16 million and has been a consultant on more than 100 engineering projects worldwide, including high-profile geotechnical projects for industry and government. His research findings have been incorporated into codes and standards, and his engineering methods have been integrated into practice. Benson’s research has focused on methods for designing, constructing, and evaluating liner and cover systems for landfills and other waste containment structures. In particular, he developed a methodology for the compaction control of clay liners that is included in guidelines promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The approach is required in many state codes and has been broadly adopted by practicing engineers. Moreover, in response to his recent work on ion exchange in bentonites, manufacturers of geosynthetic clay liners have changed their application requirements and construction specifications. Benson’s pioneering research on alternative landfill cover technologies has formed the basis for current practice. A member of ASCE since 1987, Benson served as editor in chief of its Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering and as a member of the Geo-Institute’s Board of Governors. He is also a founding member of the Partnership for Sustainable Solid Waste Management and one of the directors of the Recycled Materials Resource Center, which is funded by the Federal Highway Administration and the EPA. He is also active in the affairs of ASTM International, having served on several technical committees, and he is responsible for five widely used ASTM standards.

Wieslaw K. Binienda, Ph.D., F.ASCE, is the chair of the civil engineering department in the University of Akron’s College of Engineering. He received a master’s degree in Poland from the Warsaw University of Technology and a master’s degree and a doctorate, both in mechanical engineering, from Drexel University. Under his leadership, freshman enrollment in the College of Engineering has quadrupled. Moreover he has overseen accreditation of the department by ABET, Inc., as well as the department’s transition from a teaching body to a department that balances teaching with research. Binienda’s research interests include composite materials testing and processing, material characterization, micromechanics-based modeling, and the implementation of such rigorous techniques as singular integral equations for the analysis of composite damage and failure mechanisms. The holder of several patents, he has developed an innovative curriculum for designing and applying advanced composite materials and has been the recipient of more than $4.5 million in research grants from industry and such bodies as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation. With more than 80 publications to his credit, he has also been the recipient of numerous awards recognizing his accomplishments in research and teaching, among them NASA’s Turning Goals into Reality Award for his work dealing with containment concepts as they relate to jet engines. Within ASCE Binienda has chaired an Aerospace Division committee dealing with advanced materials and structures and has served on conference planning committees, chaired technical sessions, and led symposia. He has also served on the editorial board of ASCE’s Journal of Aerospace Engineering. Binienda is the general chairman of the Earth and Space Conference 2008, which is being held this month in California, and was a technical cochair for the 2006 conference.

Michel Bruneau, Ph.D., P.Eng., F.ASCE, is a professor of structural engineering at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the director of MCEER, a research center at the university that develops tools and technologies to help communities better withstand earthquakes and other extreme events. He also served as the project director for the earthquake engineering experimental facility that opened in 2004 at the university as part of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation. Bruneau practiced professionally for the consulting firms Buckland and Taylor, of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Morrison Hershfield, of Toronto, before joining academia in 1990. Since then he has carried out extensive research funded by such bodies as the National Science Foundation and the Federal Highway Administration on the evaluation and retrofitting of bridges and buildings subjected to earthquakes and other extreme loads. This research has encompassed the development and large-scale experimental validation of various innovative metallic energy-dissipating design concepts to enhance the resilience of structures. Bruneau has more than 350 technical publications to his credit, including 87 journal papers. A coauthor of the book Ductile Design of Steel Structures and of the American Institute of Steel Construction design guide Steel Plate Shear Walls, he has been the recipient of  numerous awards, including ASCE’s J. James R. Croes Medal in 2003. Bruneau has been active on many professional and technical code-writing committees in both Canada and the United States.

Robert B. Case, P.E., F.ASCE, is a principal transportation engineer with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, where he has worked since 1993. Before that he worked as a land development project engineer for John E. Sirine & Associates. He earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Old Dominion University and a master of science, also in civil engineering, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. A licensed professional engineer in Virginia and a registered professional traffic operations engineer, he is currently pursuing a doctorate in civil engineering at Old Dominion University. Case has performed extensive work in such areas as mobility for senior citizens and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane safety. His research on improving the mobility of persons who do not drive was recognized in 2006 by the Institute of Transportation Engineers with its Innovative Intermodal Solutions for Urban Transportation Award. Case’s most significant contributions have been in evaluating hurricane evacuation routes. Over the past 10 years he has been instrumental in developing multimodal metropolitan transportation plans. In addition to leading the development of a model for measuring the effectiveness of intersection improvements, he devised a model for determining the effect of transit service changes on ridership and revenue. His synthesis of safety research on HOV lanes in the early 1990s exposed certain safety problems. In 1996 Case evaluated the Virginia Department of Transportation’s hurricane evacuation plan for the Hampton Roads region, a study for which his employer received the John T. Hanna Award from the group Concerned Citizens Advocating Traffic Safety. Based on his quantification of the effect of lane reversals on evacuation efficiency, the evacuation study made recommendations that were implemented by the state. Case has served the Transportation Research Board as a committee member since 2001 and has been a member of ASCE since 1986.

Maria Q. Feng, Ph.D., F.ASCE, is a professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at the University of California at Irvine, where she has taught and conducted research since 1992. She is also the director of the university’s Center for Advanced Monitoring and Damage Inspection. Feng’s expertise in the areas of structural control, damage inspection, and the monitoring of structural health is recognized internationally. Moreover, her original contributions to the development of innovative sensors, nondestructive evaluation techniques, and advanced structural control and health monitoring technologies, together with her work in data collection and analysis, have benefited engineering practice in the areas of structural design, inspection, maintenance, and rehabilitation. Her most notable achievements include pioneering research on an isolation system that uses friction to control the seismic responses of buildings and bridges, and her work on protecting structures from wind and earthquakes (“mega-sub control”) is widely cited. Her patented fiber-optic sensing techniques, which measure the dynamic responses of large-scale structures under wind, earthquake, traffic, and ambient loads, is seeing use in China in a collaborative research project being carried out by U.S. and Chinese investigators at the power plant at Three Gorges Dam. Feng was the first to develop a handheld nondestructive evaluation system based on microwave imaging, and with support from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Advanced Technology Program that system is being commercialized for inspection of fiber-reinforced polymer composites and concrete structures wrapped with such composites. Feng has led more than 50 major research projects in the past 15 years, and her various contributions have earned her numerous honors, among them an award in the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program and ASCE’s Alfred Noble Prize, Collingwood Prize, and Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize.

Donald K. Frevert, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE., F.ASCE, has served as a hydraulic engineer, team leader, and principal investigator for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation since 1980. A registered professional engineer in Colorado and a diplomate of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, Frevert holds a bachelor of science in hydrology from the University of Arizona and a master of science in civil engineering and a doctorate from Colorado State University. He has more than 20 years of leadership in research and in developing and applying decision support systems and other modeling tools for managing and operating major reservoirs. Two of these systems, RiverWare and SAMS, are currently in use in the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Frevert has also led agency and interagency committees set up to disseminate information. An affiliate faculty member in the civil engineering department at Colorado State University, he serves on advisory committees for graduate students. Frevert has served ASCE as a member and chair of various technical and awards committees and has been a member of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute since its formation. He has chaired that institute’s Watershed Management Technical Committee and is currently the vice-chair of its Watershed Council. His accolades include the Department of the Interior’s Superior Service Award in 2003 for his work on the RiverWare modeling system and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Excellence in Leadership Award in 2006 for his exemplary work on a hydrology subcommittee and a working group concerned with hydrologic modeling.

Udaya B. Halabe, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at West Virginia University, where he has taught and conducted research for 17 years. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Halabe is a licensed engineer in West Virginia. Through his research and publications he has made important contributions in the area of the nondestructive testing of structures by exploring the potential of ultrasonic techniques, ground-penetrating radar, infrared thermography, and vibration techniques. His publications include 90 journal and conference papers, a book chapter, and 36 research reports. Halabe has been a principal investigator on funded research projects totaling more than $13 million. Striving to bring theory into practice, he has taught short courses around the country on ground-penetrating radar and ultrasonic techniques to practicing civil engineers, and he was one of the authors of a manual for field engineers outlining nondestructive evaluation methods for highway bridge superstructures. His research was cited in the American Concrete Institute report Nondestructive Test Methods for Evaluation of Concrete in Structures (228.2R). Halabe also helped to develop an ASCE review course for those preparing to take the Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam, and he served as a consultant to the Institute of Engineering in Nepal under the United Nations Development Programme in an initiative to train civil engineers in nondestructive testing and to set up a laboratory for such testing in the country’s capital, Kathmandu. For his service to the profession and his efforts to prepare future generations of engineers, Halabe has been honored with awards from the University of West Virginia’s College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, Tau Beta Pi, and the king of Nepal.

David V. Rosowsky, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, holds the A.P. and Florence Wiley Chair in Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he also heads the civil engineering department. Before joining the faculty at Texas A&M Rosowsky was a professor at Oregon State University, where he held the Richardson Chair in Wood Engineering and Mechanics. Since 1990 his research has focused on structural reliability, the probabilistic modeling of structural and environmental loads, and probability-based design. His current research addresses itself to the effect of natural hazards on the built environment; the modeling and analysis of load effects on buildings and other structures, with particular emphasis on complex environmental phenomena; performance-based engineering for design, postdisaster condition assessment, and loss estimation studies; and reliability-based assessments of reinforced-concrete bridges. The classes he teaches deal with structural analysis and design, mechanics, and probabilistic methods. Rosowsky serves on a number of ASCE technical committees dealing with structural safety, the reliability-based design of engineered wood structures, and design for natural hazards. A former associate editor of ASCE’s Journal of Structural Engineering and of Natural Hazards Review, he currently serves on the editorial board of ASCE’s Journal of Infrastructure Systems. His research awards include the Society’s Norman Medal in 1998 and its Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize in 2001.

Saverios Vrahimis, CEng, F.ASCE, is an owner and managing partner of A.F. Modinos & S.A. Vrahimis, Chartered Architects and Engineers, in Cyprus. A chartered engineer, Vrahimis holds a bachelor of arts in engineering and a master of science, both from Dartmouth College. Under his leadership, his firm has developed into a multidisciplinary architectural and engineering enterprise handling an influx of new projects in tourism and water engineering. His notable projects include structural engineering for the redesign of the tallest building in the city of Nicosia (Lefkosia), the capital of Cyprus. He oversaw the refurbishing and modification of the 40-year-old, 16-story building necessary to transform a residential building into a commercial one, a project that involved redesign to accommodate extra loading, elevators, and escalators. He also provided structural engineering for the first underground parking structure in Cyprus to have four levels. The project site in Nicosia was surrounded by old buildings and required the application of diaphragm walls and, for the first time in Cyprus, “Berlin Wall” methods. Vrahimis’s accolades include an award from Holiday Inn in 1995 for what was judged the best international hotel of the year, an award for his contribution to a design competition in Nicosia for new offices for the Cyprus Olympic Committee, and recognition for his work to promote the cause of paraplegics in Cyprus. He has also volunteered his time to instruct young engineers and architects preparing for professional licensure. Vrahimis has been a member of ASCE since 1972.

Fellow applications may be obtained from ASCE’s world headquarters, in Reston, Virginia, by calling (800) 548-2723, extension 6289. From outside the country, the number is (703) 295-6289. The e-mail address is fellows@ASCE.org. The application may be found on the Web at www.ASCE.org/pdf/fellowmemapp.pdf. Completed applications may be submitted online at www.ASCE.org/membership/fellowgrade.cfm (click on “Online ASCE Fellow Application”). Questions concerning fellow guidelines (including guideline waiver inquiries) or the application process may be directed to Erin Santiago, the applications coordinator, at (703) 295-6289 or esantiago@ASCE.org. Completed applications are reviewed monthly by the Membership Application Review Committee.

Alan B. Christopherson, P.E., F.ASCE, died on February 1 at the age of 55. Christopherson was born in Seattle on May 5, 1952, and his career centered on oil field development in Alaska and Russia. He also contributed to prominent development projects in Alaska, including the Alaska SeaLife Center, in Seward; a submersible bridge over the Kuparuk River; the access tunnel to Whittier; the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s spill response facility in Valdez; and essential dock projects in numerous remote areas. Moreover, he developed specialized driven pile foundations for Arctic and subarctic conditions. Christopherson obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from the University of Alaska at Anchorage. He moved to Alaska in 1975 to begin his engineering career at the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. He later worked for R&M Consultants, and at the time of his death he was the treasurer of PND Engineers, Inc., of Anchorage. He played an active role in several engineering societies, published numerous technical papers and articles, and made presentations to both students and professionals. Memorial contributions may be made to the Alan B. Christopherson Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund; the address is University of Alaska, 3211 Providence Drive, Suite 236, Anchorage, AK 99508.

Fred E. Culvern, F.ASCE, died on December 29 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the age of 97. Born in Marion, South Carolina, he obtained a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of science, also in civil engineering, from the University of Colorado. He was a member of the honor society Tau Beta Pi and an honorary member of the Pipeliners Club of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He became a member of asce while a student, and in 1979 the Society honored him with its Stephen D. Bechtel Pipeline Engineering Award. Culvern was responsible for the design and engineering of large gas pipeline systems and compressor stations around the world.  A true southern gentleman, he earned in his quiet way the love and respect of  all who knew him.

Joseph F. Friedkin, Hon.M.ASCE, died on January 14 at the age of 98. Friedkin served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1942 to 1946. In 1962 President John F. Kennedy named him the United States commissioner on the International Boundary and Water Commission, a position he held for 24 years, retiring in 1986. The recipient of asce’s Royce J. Tipton Award in 1981 and its Presidents’ Award in 1984, Friedkin received the U.S. Department of State’s Superior Honor Award in 1964 and in 1968 was accorded the Personal Rank of Ambassador by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He also received the Department of State’s Distinguished Honor Award in 1986 in recognition of his service as an engineer and diplomat during his years at the International Boundary and Water Commission.

James M. Gere, Ph.D., F.ASCE, died on January 30 at the age of 82. Gere was born on June 14, 1925, in Syracuse, New York. He joined the Army Air Corps at the age of 17 and worked as a bombsight mechanic for three years. He then earned an undergraduate and a master’s degree in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship, Gere attended Stanford University as a doctoral student in 1952. He obtained a doctorate there in applied mechanics, and in 1954 the university offered him a faculty position. From 1960 to 1970 he was the associate dean of the university’s School of Engineering, and from 1967 to 1972 he served as the chairman of the civil engineering department. Gere taught engineering for 34 years and eventually became a professor emeritus at Stanford. In addition to contributing to civil engineering and earthquake research with a stream of articles and technical papers, he wrote nine books on engineering and mathematical theory and applications. He coauthored Mechanics of Materials in 1972 and was the sole author of later editions. In 1974 he cofounded at Stanford the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center. An avid hiker and runner, Gere completed the Boston Marathon in 1973 at the age of 48. Gere retired from Stanford in 1988. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Robert Jenny, P.E., F.ASCE, died on February 23 at the age of 76. Jenny was the founder and chief executive officer of Jenny Engineering Corporation, of Springfield, New Jersey, and was a pioneer in applying various tunneling techniques in the United States. In 1970 his firm was the first in the country to use fully encapsulated epoxy resin ground support dowels for tunnels, and in 1992 it was the first in the country to apply what is called the new Austrian tunneling method to subway stations and tunnels. Jenny designed tunnels, shafts, and other components for the subway system in Washington, D.C., and he worked on projects around the world. He obtained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in civil engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and later served on the school’s Board of Overseers. An active member of the U.S. Coast Guard and a Korean War veteran, Jenny is survived by his wife, two children, and four grandchildren. The family has requested that memorial donations be made toward scholarships at the Newark College of Engineering or the NJIT or to Peggy Coloney’s House at Hope Village, which is in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, and forms part of the Center For Hope Hospice & Palliative Care.

Howard B. Jones, P.E., M.ASCE, died on January 13 at the age of 62. Jones was born in Clovis, New Mexico, on December 20, 1945. He received a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of New Mexico in 1968. He served in the army, reaching the rank of captain, and also worked for the federal government for more than 40 years. Jones received numerous awards and commendations, including the Commander’s Award for Civilian Service and the Superior Civilian Service Award. In 1987 he moved to Gresham, Oregon, and was employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work on the Bonneville Lock and Dam. Jones is survived by his wife and three children. Memorial contributions may be made to the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, P.O. Box 22065, Milwaukie, OR 97269.

Ralph B. Peck, Ph.D., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, a consultant in geotechnical engineering and a professor emeritus of foundation engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, died on February 18 at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on June 23, 1912, to American parents, Peck earned a degree in civil engineering in 1934 and a doctorate, also in civil engineering, in 1937, both from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 1938 and 1939 he studied soil mechanics at Harvard University and was a laboratory assistant to Arthur Casagrande, M.ASCE. From 1939 to 1942 Peck was an assistant subway engineer for the City of Chicago and in that capacity represented Karl Terzaghi, Ph.D., Hon.M.ASCE, who was a consultant on the work being done on the city’s subway system. In 1942 Peck joined the civil engineering faculty at the University of Illinois and was a professor of foundation engineering there from 1948 to 1974. In 1948 he and Terzaghi produced what may be the most influential textbook ever written in geotechnical engineering: Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice. The textbook Foundation Engineering, which he coauthored with Walter E. Hanson, P.E., Hon.M.ASCE, and Thomas H. Thornburn, F.ASCE, appeared in 1953.

Peck retired from the University of Illinois in 1974 but remained active as a consultant. Indeed, his consulting practice included projects in 44 states in the United States and in 28 countries spanning five continents. Among the more than 1,000 projects on which he was a consultant were the rapid transit systems in Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.; the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System; the hydroelectric project on the rivers in Quebec emptying into James Bay; and a dike project at the Dead Sea. The author of more than 250 technical publications, he served as president of what is today known as the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering from 1969 to 1973. In 1974 he was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Gerald R. Ford. He was also the recipient of asce’s Norman Medal and Arthur M. Wellington Prize and of an award for lifetime achievement in education in 2001 in connection with the Society’s Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) program. His expertise was also applied to the Rion–Antirion Bridge, in Greece, which received asce’s Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award in 2005. Peck married Marjorie E. Truby on June 14, 1937. He is survived by his two children and two grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Ralph B. Peck Geotechnical Engineering Fund, University of Illinois Foundation, 1305 West Green Street, MC-386, Urbana, IL 61801.

James H. Schaub, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, died on February 11 in Gainesville, Florida. A West Virginian by birth, Schaub completed high school in Washington, D.C., where he was a page in the U.S. House of Representatives. After serving in the army during World War II and the Korean War, he completed his education in civil engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Harvard, and Purdue. A professional engineer, Schaub practiced in several states before he began teaching at Virginia Tech. In 1960 he became a professor and was named head of the civil engineering department at West Virginia University, where he later became the associate dean of engineering. In 1969 he became a professor at the University of Florida, where he headed the civil and coastal engineering department. Schaub retired in 1992 with the title of distinguished service professor. Donations in his memory may be made to the American Heart Association.

L. Earl Tabler, P.E., F.ASCE, died on December 31 at the age of 80. A native of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tabler received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the State University of Iowa (now Iowa State University) in 1952. He was employed by Pittsburgh-based Dravo Corporation for 30 years in various capacities. Tabler was also a pioneer in using nuclear fission to generate electricity. He worked on the nation’s first nuclear power plant, in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Later, he specialized in critical path scheduling. Within asce Tabler served as chairman of a national committee on project planning, and in 1966 the Society honored him with its Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize. In 1975 he was one of six asce members who toured engineering sites for three weeks as a guest of the government in what was then the Soviet Union.

John Williams, P.E., M.ASCE, died on February 14 at the age of 70. Williams earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Iowa State University in 1959 and a master’s degree, also in civil engineering, from Stanford University in 1965. He specialized in the development of water resources and also worked on irrigation, hydroelectric, water supply, and flood protection projects. From 1965 to 1979 he applied his expertise to international projects, both as a home office project manager and as a resident manager at project locations. Upon returning to the United States, he rejoined Tudor Engineering Company and established the firm’s Denver office. He later moved to Tudor’s San Francisco headquarters and served as the firm’s president. When ICF Kaiser Engineers, of Fairfax, Virginia, purchased Tudor, Williams served as the vice president in charge of water resources and the deputy regional manager of ICF Kaiser’s western region. He retired in 2002 but continued working as a consultant to the California Department of Water Resources and a number of private engineering firms. His assignments included both national and international projects.

Kenneth D. Yost, P.E., M.ASCE, the director of public works for the City of Kirkwood, Missouri, died on February 7 at the age of 61. Yost was one of five victims of a gunman who opened fire on members of Kirkwood’s city council and on police officers present in city hall. He had served as the public works director since 1973 and was widely esteemed for being soft-spoken, knowledgeable, and selfless. A U.S. Army veteran, he was a graduate of the University of Missouri at Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology), earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering there in 1968 and a master’s degree in engineering management in 1976. Yost’s family has requested that memorial donations be mailed to Engineers Without Borders–USA, 1811 Lefthand Circle, Suite A-1, Longmont, CO 80501. Contributions to the organization may also be made online at www.ewb-usa.org.