July 2008
Volume 33, Number 7

ASCE’s Board of Direction is giving special attention and allocating resources to three major professional issues: improving America’s infrastructure; raising the educational bar for entry into the profession; and helping shape the civil engineer’s role in an era characterized by, among other trends, the offshoring of work, the larger roles played by technicians and software, and a perceived commoditization of services.

The infrastructure strategy targets a number of fronts. asce’s strategic issue statement highlights two areas: the years of deferred infrastructure investment and maintenance and the civil engineering profession’s continuing efforts to strengthen its communication with policy makers and the public. Deferring investments in infrastructure renewal and maintenance has put the health, safety, and welfare of the public at risk, impeded economic growth and competitiveness, and lowered the quality of life.

As part of its continuing adjustment and refocusing of strategies, ASCE recently fine-tuned its infrastructure targets. The Society seeks an increase of at least 3 percent in constant dollars per year in total public and private funding for infrastructure from 2009 through 2015, with the understanding that progress is to be measured not just in dollars but also in innovative policy approaches that lower the need for new construction. ASCE also seeks to significantly improve the grades meted out in its 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure (www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/index.cfm) by 2017.

ASCE’s 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure is due for release in March, and as before, publication will provide an opportunity to stimulate debate and to propose, highlight, and promote solutions. Over the past two years, as various infrastructure tragedies have made headlines, ASCE has been the “go-to” source for expertise and insights when it comes to explaining untoward events and describing infrastructure shortcomings to the media. ASCE representatives have appeared on television news programs and been quoted in national newspapers. Data from the 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure even found their way into a front-page Wall Street Journal advertisement promoting infrastructure investment tools. As part of ASCE’s infrastructure strategy, a major investment will be made in outreach efforts next year when the infrastructure assessment is released. In this way the Society can further enhance its leadership role in this important area as it seeks to improve the nation’s quality of life.

ASCE’s multipronged Action Plan for the 110th Congress (www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/actionplan07.cfm) also puts the Society at the forefront in championing the need for infrastructure renewal. In particular, the plan calls for the enactment of important bills affecting aviation, bridges, roads, mass transit, brownfields, dams, levees, drinking water and wastewater systems, and inland waterways (see “Members Deliver Action Plan to 110th Congress,” ASCE News, April 2007, page 1). Through the efforts of ASCE and other parties working with it, a number of milestones have already been met as various bills have moved through the legislative process.

ASCE also promotes state and local action on infrastructure. Region 4, for example, is using a Society grant to help its states produce state-level infrastructure assessments, which will enable civil engineers in those areas to bring shortcomings and deficiencies to the attention of state leaders and the general public. (Region 4 encompasses Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.) Numerous ASCE sections across the country have used infrastructure assessments as a way of making their case to policy makers. ASCE has also reached out to communities through local workshops that explain how addressing water infrastructure questions is in everyone’s interest.

All of this speaks to a key goal of ASCE’s infrastructure strategy, namely, establishing the Society as a credible, trusted, and effective source and as an organization that can bring the interests of the public to the attention of public- and private-sector decision makers. In this vein, members of ASCE are encouraged to take a more active role in political and policy processes. They could do this by serving as elected or appointed officials or simply by assuming a higher profile in discussions in their communities and in meetings with their elected representatives.

Properly preparing civil engineering students for entry into professional practice remains at the core of ASCE’s “raise the bar” initiative. Here the Society continues its long-standing initiative to make a master’s degree or 30 credits of postbaccalaureate education mandatory for those seeking licensure. (Those currently licensed as professional engineers would not be affected.) No major profession other than engineering requires just four years of education for licensure, and given the breadth and complexity of civil engineering practice today, the profession needs to take the lead in making the required changes.

Significant victories have been logged along the way, including the requirement of 30 postbaccalaureate credits in the model licensing law drawn up by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), publication of a report—Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century- (http://www.asce.org/professional/educ/)—detailing what one aspiring to become a professional civil engineering should know, acceptance of new accreditation criteria based upon this body of knowledge, and removal of the ban on accrediting both a bachelor’s and a graduate engineering program at the same university. (See “ABET Rescinds Ban on Dual Accreditation,” ASCE News, May 2008, page 1.)

A major lobbying effort will be required to change the engineering licensure laws of states to correspond to the ncees model. That critical portion of the campaign began this year with an effort to pass legislation in Nebraska. As a result, the Nebraska legislature has established a commission to examine the educational requirements for licensure. Work will continue on this and other fronts in the long process of upgrading the educational and experience requirements for licensure.

Shaping the role of the civil engineer in professional practice, the third of ASCE’s current major professional priorities, goes hand in hand with the initiative that led to the publication of The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 (http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html). That report sought to define the role of the civil engineer in a world where technicians, technologists, and offshore engineers are expected to figure more prominently on engineering teams. Civil engineers need to become master integrators and leaders, bringing to bear a broad array of skills and disciplines. The hourly basis of pricing, competitive bidding for services, and a lack of appreciation of the value provided by the civil engineer give credence to the notion that civil engineering is becoming more of a commodity. The profession needs to ambitiously transform itself into a recognized leader in public policy, and it should be at the forefront in integrating those policies through innovative planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of public and private works.

As part of this strategy, the Society assembled a special task committee to draw up a road map for achieving the objectives set forth in The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025, and a number of the steps outlined in that map, which is to be submitted to the Board of Direction in November, should find their way into ASCE initiatives in the years to come.

As ASCE’s planning process has taken root, the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) has appointed liaisons to the various committees charged with carrying out the strategies and has asked those individuals to ensure that roles are clear and that lines of communication remain open so that dialogue is fostered. As part of its mission, the SPC periodically reassesses the issues facing the profession and the Society. At its most recent meeting, it focused more attention on the Society’s sustainability efforts and on how generational differences are affecting engineering practice. The Board of Direction, which oversees the Society’s strategic priorities and sets direction, will be discussing strategic issues at a meeting in November. The process reflects the dynamic way in which strategic priorities are considered and reconsidered as the civil engineering environment evolves. asce’s strategic plan has not gotten comfortable somewhere on a shelf.

As an ASCE member, what do you see as the key strategic issues confronting the civil engineering profession in the next several years? Tell the SPC by e-mailing strategy@asce.org.

ASCE’s newest institute, the Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI),
 held its inaugural conference in Minneapolis May 18–21. EM’08 attracted 460 attendees from 34 countries and included an exhaustive technical program featuring a total of 450 presentations on a wide variety of mechanics topics.

According to its proceedings, the conference’s objective was to “provide a major forum for the exchange of information and discussion of recent developments in, and applications of, solid and fluid mechanics.” The technical sessions featured keynote lectures and presentations of papers on both completed and current research. In addition to the fluid mechanics sessions, the conference included two symposia: “Probabilistic Mechanics and Structural Reliability” and “St. Anthony Falls Laboratory 70th Anniversary.”

The symposium “Probabilistic Me-chan-ics and Structural Reliability” was held during all three days of the conference, and it focused on the latest developments in all of the areas of stochastic mechanics. It was sponsored by the EMI and by ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute and Geo-Institute.

The symposium “St. Anthony Falls Laboratory 70th Anniversary” celebrated a milestone in the history of the facility, which is part of the University of Minnesota. Dedicated on November 17, 1938, it has become one of the leading hydraulic engineering laboratories in the world. The symposium was held on Tuesday, May 20, and those in attendance heard addresses by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland; the Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, in Sweden; Johns Hopkins University; Stanford University; and the Universität Karlsruhe, in Germany.

Keynote speakers opened each morning and afternoon segment of the conference’s technical sessions, discussing a variety of topics and calling attention to novel and promising applications of established theories and concepts. For example, several keynote speakers addressed how such traditional mechanics topics as elastodynamics, fluid flow, and fracture mechanics are now shedding light on the behavior of living tissues. Stephen C. Cowin, Ph.D., a mechanical engineering professor at the City College of New York, discussed tissue mechanics as they relate to developmental biology. Morteza Gharib, Ph.D., the Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, discussed the mechanisms associated with the development of the zebra fish’s heart.

Although the biological applications of the principles and theories of engineering mechanics are indeed novel, the technical sessions also included such new developments as advances in the boundary integral equation method for the solution of a number of standard mechanics problems, including those relating to the behavior of granular materials undergoing large strains. Attention was also given to the use of nanoparticles in strengthening masonry walls against blasts and to advances that have made it easier to create materials with desired physical properties.

One of the keynote speakers, Christian Soize, Sc.D., a professor of mechanics at France’s Université Paris-Est, addressed probabilistic models in the computational sciences. According to the abstract of his presentation in the conference proceedings, Soize expatiated on “the effective construction of the probability distribution in high dimension of a vector-valued random variable using the maximum entropy principle.”

Philip L.-F. Liu, Ph.D., f.ASCE, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Cornell University, discussed new findings relating to the interactions between waves and muddy portions of the seafloor. He states in the abstract of his presentation that “if a seafloor is composed of sediments, a variety of dissipation mechanisms associated with the sediment rheology play important roles in enhancing wave damping and in modifying wave characteristics.”

Ted Belytschko, Ph.D., m.ASCE, a professor of theoretical and applied mechanics at Northwestern University, discussed how quantum mechanics can be coupled with molecular and continuum mechanics to more accurately predict the strength of such materials as crystalline carbon nanotubes and nanoscale graphene sheets that contain defects.

The final keynote speaker was James R. Rice, Ph.D., M.ASCE, the Mallinckrodt Professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics at Harvard University, who discussed his research on earthquake rupture dynamics. In particular, he related how the frictional elastoplastic response in damaged fault border zones affects the dynamics of earthquake rupture propagation. His address also covered localization instabilities in deformation within those zones during the passage of rupture fronts.

The EMI’s inaugural conference also included an awards ceremony, and those in attendance saw the presentation of the Nathan M. Newmark Medal to George Z. Voyiadjis, Ph.D., F.ASCE, the Boyd Professor and Bingham C. Stewart Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Louisiana State University, for his seminal research on constitutive modeling and the characterization of damage mechanisms in metals, composites, and soils and his pioneering contributions in multiscale modeling and localization problems. Also honored were Sia Nemat-Nasser, Ph.D., M.ASCE, a professor of mechanics and materials at the University of California at San Diego, who received the Theodore von Karman Medal in recognition of his numerous contributions to engineering mechanics, and Jean-Francois Allard, a professor of mechanics at the Université du Maine, in France, who was presented with the Maurice A. Biot Medal for his work in acoustics relating to soundproofing materials. The Robert H. Scanlan Medal went to Nicholas P. Jones, Ph.D., M.ASCE, the dean of Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering, in recognition of both his theoretical and practical contributions to engineering mechanics, and the Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal was presented to Ruediger Rackwitz, Dr-Ing., a professor of civil engineering at the Technische Universität München, in Germany, to signalize his work in safety and reliability studies. Finally, the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize was awarded to Andrew W. Smyth, Ph.D., M.ASCE, an associate professor of civil engineering at Columbia University, for his research achievements.

—Brett Hansen

In early June the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a public meeting on revisions to the principles and guidelines (P&G) adopted by the U.S. Water Resources Council in March 1983 (www.usace.army.mil/cw/cecw-cp/library/pg.pdf). At issue here are both the economic and environmental principles for water and related land resources implementation studies and the economic and environmental guidelines for water and related land resources implementation studies. Together, these principles and guidelines define what the federal government must consider when performing cost-benefit analyses of water resource projects. ASCE has submitted recommendations to the Corps that would significantly change the P&G so that safety, watersheds, low-income households, the environment, and risk management would be incorporated into the planning process.

The revisions are a result of section 2031 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, which was introduced in the House by Representative Jim Oberstar (D-Minnesota) and is now law. The act states that the secretary of the army must revise the P&G to ensure that the best available economic principles and analytical techniques, including risk and uncertainty analyses, are used; that public safety is included in the formulation of alternatives and recommended plans; that assessment methods are used “that reflect the value of projects for low-income communities and . . . that use nonstructural approaches to water resources development and management”; that attention is given to the interactions of a project with other water resources projects located in a particular region; that integrated water resource management and adaptive management approaches are employed; and that evaluations guarantee that the projects will provide justifiable benefits to the public.

ASCE notes in a statement listing its recommendations to the Corps that “the problems with the implementation of the 1983 P&G are well known.” It states that the main focus of the P&G is on the nation’s economic development and that safety is mentioned only peripherally. “The present P&G do not do enough to emphasize the importance of public safety,” it states. Moreover, the P&G place “relatively less emphasis on the noneconomic needs of society and do a poor job of establishing which projects may damage the environment.”

ASCE recommends that a new strategy be adopted that focuses not just on economic development and public safety but also on objectives that support sustainable development. “Our nation’s quality of life is highly dependent on enhancing the environment. National water resources planning objectives must include [the] restoration of aquatic ecologies,” the Society’s document states.

Although ASCE takes issue with the current P&G for placing too much attention on economic development, it recognizes that economic development should continue to be a factor in the planning process. Its recommendations state that “the development of our nation’s water resources fosters economic development, facilitates trade and commerce, aids international competitiveness, stimulates employment, provides water recreation opportunities, enhances agricultural and industrial productivity, and augments our national defense.”

ASCE contends that, by focusing on individual projects, the P&G give insufficient attention to such water resource systems as watersheds. It calls for more collaboration between federal and nonfederal bodies in water resource planning and implementation. “A full range of best management practices, including those of other federal agencies, nonfederal governments, and nongovernmental organizations,” is needed to find the best watershed solutions in a particular area, it states. “Different perspectives and a more comprehensive discussion and evaluation of complex problems, interrelated concerns, and potential projects are more likely to occur with a collaborative approach.”

To improve the overall watershed of an area, ASCE recommends that the basic assessment of a stream should include monitoring conditions at points along a stream over time and that the data be used to assess the effect that the project is having on the stream’s habitat. It also suggests that upland areas need to be considered rather than just the stream corridor. ASCE’s document states that “the P&G should require the use of a unified subwatershed and site reconnaissance—a comprehensive survey of upland areas to identify potential pollutant sources and restoration opportunities of the watershed.”

The revised P&G should also look at ways of protecting low-income households when planning water resource projects, according to the ASCE statement. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which swept across New Orleans and other portions of the Gulf of Mexico, illustrate how the current economic development objective “does not take into serious consideration the protection of low-income households,” it states.

The Society’s recommendations also relate to risk management and uncertainty analysis. For, example, they suggest the following steps:

• Develop and implement up-to-date risk management guidelines;
• Formulate and implement strategies to reduce the risk to public safety posed by natural and man-made hazards;
• Establish core risk assessment research programs to ensure that risk management is based on adequate scientific data and appropriate processes;
• Encourage and facilitate public participation in formulating risk assessment guidelines.

Effective risk assessment, comparative risk analysis, risk management, and public participation will enable government agencies and private entities to “make informed decisions in land use, infrastructure development, mitigation for natural hazards, and establishment of environmental standards,” the recommendations state.

 “ASCE hopes that the revision recognizes the need to be flexible, timely, and open to innovation in the marketplace of water resource planning,” the statement concludes. The revisions to the P&G are to be completed by November 8, 2009.

—Brett Hansen

Vision 2025–Making It a Reality

ASCE took a bold step toward the future in June of last year when we published the report The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025. The world view expounded in that report emerged from an asce-organized gathering of about 60 thoughtful leaders with a wide variety of backgrounds and at different levels in their careers. The group included civil engineers, engineers from other disciplines, architects, educators, association executives, and other leaders. Eight countries aside from the United States were represented. The report has now been widely disseminated among members of the global civil engineering community.

The participants imagined the global environment in 2025—the world in which the civil engineer will be working—and addressed the role of civil engineers in that world. They then sought to define the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that civil engineers practicing at that time will need to possess. Vision 2025 puts it this way:

“Entrusted by society to create a sustainable world and enhance the global quality of life, civil engineers serve competently, collaboratively, and ethically as master:

• 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 across the public, private, and academic sectors;
• managers of risk and uncertainty caused by natural events, accidents, and other threats; and
• leaders in discussions and decisions shaping public environmental and infrastructure policy.”

The task committee asce has established to help realize this vision has begun to develop a road map for achieving the five components listed above, which represent “outcomes” that should be in place by the year 2025 in the social and civil engineering environment. Each of the outcomes will include steps to be taken—now being defined—that are meant to be achievable within the realm of the civil engineering profession.

While we draw up the road map to achieve our vision, asce already has a number of initiatives under way that dovetail with Vision 2025. For example, the Board of Direction has approved a plan for sustainable development that reinforces the need for civil engineers to be stewards of the natural environment and its resources. asce is committed to sustainable development on a wide scale, and our affiliation with Engineers Without Borders–USA helps to promote sustainability at the community level. Our Society partners with this nonprofit humanitarian organization to help people in the developing world improve their standard of living through projects carried out in accordance with the principles of sustainable development.

A related effort is the international program on engineering adaptations to climate change. This initiative will form part of our annual conference this year, which will be held in November in Pittsburgh. Climate change is beginning to have consequences for the water environment and for urbanized areas in coastal regions. While the scientific underpinnings of climate change continue to be the subject of debate, our profession must carefully monitor and develop an understanding of the trends we are seeing. Our program will explore the effects of climate change and discuss how asce must prepare itself so that it can respond in the most effective way. I urge you to attend the session at the annual conference that will be devoted to this program.

Another of our priorities in connection with Vision 2025 is defining the role of the civil engineer in a world characterized by, among other trends, the offshoring of work, the larger roles played by technicians and software, and a perceived commoditization of services. Civil engineers need to become master integrators and leaders so that they can orchestrate and draw upon the efforts of specialists in a broad variety of disciplines. asce’s vision for the global profession also calls for a more clearly defined organizational structure for engineering teams.

The hourly basis of pricing, competitive bidding for services, and a lack of appreciation for the value provided by civil engineers buttress the idea that civil engineering is becoming more of a commodity and that the profession needs to transform itself. asce is leading the effort to upgrade the minimum educational requirements for licensure in the United States. This effort, which encompasses our “raise the bar” and body of knowledge initiatives, calls for elevating the profession in two ways: first, through formal training, a greater number of academic credits, and greater technical depth and, second, by supplementing technical prowess with expertise in leadership, communication, and management.

Also consistent with Vision 2025 is our call for more leadership and participation on the part of civil engineers in the political and legislative arenas, thereby helping to influence legislation with a bearing on infrastructure and sustainability. asce continues its campaign to raise the grades bestowed in our 2005 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. Among the many successes of our Action Plan for the 110th Congress (www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/actionplan07.cfm) has been the override of the Water Resources Development Act veto; funding guarantees for fiscal year 2009 for the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU); Senate passage of the National Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2007; and House passage of the Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2007 and the Water Quality Financing Act of 2007. Our action plan, together with an expanded list of 18 legislative actions we wish to promote, reflects our commitment to strengthening our infrastructure through proactive public policy engagement. The agenda includes the National Infrastructure Bank Act of 2007 and the National Highway Bridge Reconstruction and Inspection Act of 2007. Ultimately, civil engineers must be at the forefront in influencing public policy both to shape a strategic research agenda and to secure adequate funding for carrying it out.

For the civil engineer of 2025, becoming a leader in adapting and integrating new technologies will be of cardinal importance in improving the quality of life and our built environment. The challenge here is formidable, as reflected in common concerns within the profession today. Incorporating systematic risk management techniques into the evaluation of new technologies, approaches, and projects, along with ensuring a more equitable sharing of risk, is an important priority for asce. Assessment of risk is a key engineering function, and engineers must assess and communicate clearly to decision makers and the public how the trade-offs of risk, costs, and benefits will affect performance and safety.

ASCE’s initiatives are moving us toward our vision for 2025. As we work to achieve our vision, we as civil engineers will begin to raise the stature of our profession and control our own destinies. To obtain a free hard copy of The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025 or to download an electronic copy, visit http://content.asce.org/vision2025/index.html.

—David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE

QUESTION: How is ASCE’s Code of Ethics enforced?

DISCUSSION: A code of ethics is the expression of a professional community’s goals and standards, something that serves both as a guide for members of the community and as a symbol to the public of the community’s commitment to integrity in its professional activities. But when members of the community can violate these standards without consequence, there is a danger that the code will be seen as “mere words,” statements that fail to reflect the actual practice of the community’s members. As such, it may be argued that a code of conduct can only truly demonstrate a community’s ethical standards when its provisions are enforced.

Even before ASCE adopted its first Code of Ethics, in 1914, it recognized the need to take action against members whose conduct violated professional standards to such an extent as to cast the Society in a bad light. ASCE’s 1878 constitution authorized the removal of Society members “for cause” by a vote of the Board of Direction after an opportunity for defense, and the first recorded disciplinary action was the requested resignation of a member in 1899.

While early disciplinary actions were handled entirely by the Board of Direction, in 1923 the board assigned the task of investigating ethics complaints to the newly formed Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC), a function the committee continues to perform to this day. The original CPC was staffed by sitting members of the board, but in 1968, recognizing the conflict that could arise when CPC members were both recommending and voting on disciplinary sanctions (in essence, serving as both prosecutor and judge), the board voted to change the status of the CPC so that it would no longer be a Board of Direction committee. Today’s CPC is staffed by no fewer than four ASCE members, each of whom is a former member of the Board of Direction. The CPC’s members are appointed by the board and serve staggered three-year terms.

The process for receiving and administering ethics complaints is set forth in article 3 of ASCE’s bylaws and of its rules of policy and procedure. Complaints may be initiated by members and nonmembers alike and are received by a CPC staff liaison at ASCE’s headquarters. That person reviews the charge to confirm that it names a current ASCE member and determines the particular canon or canons of the Code of Ethics the complainant believes the member has violated.

The complaint is then forwarded to the CPC, which reviews the charge and determines whether the circumstances (if proven) could constitute a violation of the Code of Ethics. If it finds that the charges could constitute a violation, it assigns a committee member to investigate the case.

The CPC’s rules of procedure are designed to ensure that due process is afforded to any member accused of an ethics violation, and the most crucial elements of that “due process” are proper notice of the CPC’s activities and an opportunity to present a defense. When the CPC votes to open an investigation, therefore, its staff first sends a letter to the member under investigation advising the person of the charges and inviting him or her to submit a written statement or any other information relevant to the charges.

The CPC member assigned to the case is responsible for collecting the information necessary for the committee to reach a finding on the matter. In addition to the complaint and any written response from the member under investigation, the CPC member may conduct phone or in-person interviews of the parties and witnesses, review records of judicial or other related proceedings, and request any other evidence that might be of relevance to the case. When the CPC member considers his or her investigation to be complete, the findings are presented at a meeting of the full committee.

After a review and discussion of the material from the investigation, the CPC votes on whether it believes the member has violated one or more of the canons of the Code of Ethics and, if so, what form of disciplinary action it will recommend to the Executive Committee. Such actions may include a letter of admonition, suspension, or expulsion, as well as publication of the action in ASCE News with or without the accused member’s name. Moreover, the CPC’s findings may be reported to state licensing boards or other engineering organizations.

If the CPC votes to recommend disciplinary action, the case is scheduled for a hearing before the Executive Committee. The member is notified of the hearing date and invited to present a defense either in writing or in person. The member may also waive his or her right to a hearing and accept the CPC’s recommendations in accordance with ASCE’s consent procedure. The hearing is conducted in accordance with article 3 of ASCE’s rules of policy and procedure. The CPC chair and the committee member who conducted the investigation present the case before the Executive Committee, and the accused member is given an opportunity to question witnesses, refute the evidence, and present any arguments that may support his or her defense. The member is also entitled to have an attorney present at the hearing.

The Executive Committee, acting as judge and jury, then votes by secret ballot on whether the member has violated the Code of Ethics. If the charge is sustained, the Executive Committee votes on the appropriate disciplinary action. If it votes in favor of suspension or some less severe step, its decision is final. However, if it votes in favor of expulsion, the decision may be enforced only after a vote by the full Board of Direction. The case is referred to the full board for yet another hearing, and final action requires an affirmative vote by three-fourths of all members of the Board of Direction.

A full description of the procedures described here is contained in ASCE’s bylaws and rules of policy and procedures, which may be found in the Society’s Official Register at www.asce.org/or/.

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.

UC BERKELEY STUDENTS TRIUMPH IN NATIONAL STEEL BRIDGE COMPETITION

Engineering students from the University of California at Berkeley were awarded first place in this year’s National Student Steel Bridge Competition, the final round of which was held at the University of Florida in May.

The competition is supported by local and national sponsors, including ASCE and the American Institute of Steel Construction, and is designed “to supplement the education of civil engineering students with a comprehensive, student-driven project experience from conception and design through fabrication, erection, and testing, culminating in a steel structure that meets client specifications and optimizes performance and economy,” according to the contest rules.

The teams received a problem statement informing them that their state department of transportation (DOT) wanted them to construct a scale model of a new bridge as part of a proposal that would replace a century-old bridge. “Your company’s design/build proposal is among those that the DOT has deemed responsive, and winning the contract would be a step toward becoming a leader in the bridge replacement market,” the problem statement reads.

Engineering students from around the country designed and fabricated 1:10 scale models of steel bridges on their campuses. The entries were judged on the basis of structural efficiency and construction economy, with attention also given to weight, stiffness, appearance, and construction speed. Structural engineers, contractors, and experts from the steel fabrication industry judged the competition and named the Berkeley engineering team the winner, marking the university’s first win in the 17-year competition.

The Berkeley team won second place in the categories of construction economy and construction speed and first place in the areas of efficiency and lightness. The teams from the University of Florida and the University of California at Davis finished second and third overall. Plaques were awarded to the winning teams at a banquet held on May 24.

To qualify for the national competition, teams must place first, second, or third—depending upon the number of competitors—in regional competitions, which are held in conjunction with ASCE student conferences. For more information about this year’s competition, visit www.2008steelbridge.com/competition_info.html. Information about next year’s competition may be obtained by visiting the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Web site (www.aisc.org) and clicking on “Competitions & Awards.”

Reno Engineering Students Paddle Concrete Canoe to Victory 

The University of Nevada at Reno is savoring its first victory in ASCE’s National Concrete Canoe Competition, the final round of which was held in Montreal June 19–21. Composed of engineering students, the Reno team won through their design and presentation of the canoe as well as through their racing prowess. Christened Argentum, the white, blue, and silver canoe was constructed of lightweight concrete. It was 19.5 ft (5.9 m) long and weighed 160 lb (72.5 kg).

The members of the Reno team prevailed in a trying three-day racing competition after spending a year designing and fabricating their canoe. The Wolf Pack defeated teams from top engineering schools from around the country and ended the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s five-year winning streak.

“Over the past three days, these intrepid civil engineering students have shown that technical skills combined with an innate sense of creativity can turn a seemingly impossible task into a reality,” said ASCE’s president, David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE. “With the innovative thinking we’ve seen in Montreal, I can’t wait to see what’s to come from these students in the future as they begin their professional careers.”

The team’s closest competitors were the University of California at Berkeley and the host school, the École de Technologie Supérieure. The Berkeley team paddled into second place with VoCal, a gray, black, and red canoe that weighed 229 lb (104 kg) and was 19.9 ft (6 m) long, and the École de Technologie Supérieure finished a close third with Toutatis, a gray, green, and black canoe 20 ft (6.1 m) long and weighing 170 lb (77 kg). The top three teams received respectively $5,000, $2,500, and $1,500 in scholarship funds.

The endurance and sprint races counted for only 25 percent of the overall scores. The remaining 75 percent was based on several factors, including a paper outlining the technical design and describing the planning, development, testing, and construction of the vessel. Team members also made a formal oral presentation, detailing their canoe’s design, construction, racing ability, and other innovative features. The teams then had to defend their choices to the judges during a question-and-answer session. The racing canoe and project display were judged on the basis of aesthetics and presentation.

Funds for the competition were donated by the American Concrete Institute; Baker Concrete Construction, of Monroe, Ohio; BASF, of Ludwigshafen, Germany; Bentley Systems, Inc., of Exton, Pennsylvania; ASCE’s Construction Institute; Holcim (U.S.), Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts; ICS Penetron, of Long Island, New York; Kiewit, of Omaha, Nebraska; and U.S. Silica Company, of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

AAWRE Honors New Diplomates and Offers Sessions at EWRI Congress 

Nearly 300 environmental and water resources engineering professionals convened on May 13 to honor approximately 50 individuals who had met the requirements for certification as water resources engineers set by the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE). The ceremony and reception formed part of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s 2008 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress, which was held in Honolulu. Those who seek diplomate status as water resources engineers include water engineering experts from academia, public service, and private practice. The status requires a master of science or a doctorate.
ASCE’s president, David G. Mongan, P.E., F.ASCE, participated in the ceremony, which was held to honor all who had met the requirements for certification since the fall of 2007. Mongan emphasized the importance of postlicensure specialty certification for civil engineers. The AAWRE conferred a special award on Major General Steven Abt, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, of Colorado State University, in recognition of his engineering work in Iraq. It also recognized its most recent honorary diplomates: Asit K. Biswas, Ph.D., Hon.D.WRE, from the Third World Centre for Water Management, based in Mexico; Rafael L. Bras, Sc.D., P.E., Hon.D.WRE, F.ASCE, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Paul Boulos, Ph.D., Hon.D.WRE, M.ASCE, from MWH Soft, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.

The AAWRE also organized sessions as part of the congress. Three two-hour sessions provided AAWRE diplomates and other attendees a convenient opportunity to fulfill annual professional development hour (PDH) renewal requirements. The sessions were organized as interactive short courses, which encouraged group discussions. They were presented by Steve K. Starrett, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, M.ASCE, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Kansas State University, and were facilitated by Alicia Karwoski, P.E., M.ASCE, a manager in ASCE’s professional activities department. All participants earned two PDHs for attending one full session. Because ethics figures prominently in the AAWRE’s specialty certification program, the organization plans to offer engineering ethics sessions in the future.

The opportunity to become a diplomate in water resources engineering is ASCE’s first voluntary, postlicensure specialty certification program. The AAWRE diplomate program began in October 2004, and since then more than 400 professional engineers have met its requirements. The AAWRE is a subsidiary of ASCE and was founded by practicing water resources professionals who were members of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute to improve the practice and elevate the standards of water resources engineering and to raise the stature of the field. For more information about the AAWRE, visit www.aawre.org.

ASCE Volunteers Help Celebrate Brooklyn Bridge Anniversary 

Volunteers from ASCE’s Metropolitan Section manned information booths along the Brooklyn Bridge as part of a five-day celebration of the historic structure’s 125th anniversary. The office of Brooklyn’s president and the New York City mayor’s office invited ASCE to provide information about the structure to the many visitors who were expected for the celebration.

Designed by John A. Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge is considered to be among the most innovative and daring engineering feats ever undertaken. Completed on May 24, 1883, it set the pattern for all suspension bridges subsequently built. At its grand opening, President Chester A. Arthur referred to it as the eighth wonder of the world.
“The Brooklyn Bridge really has been the stuff of dreams, a New York City icon, and an enduring symbol of America’s greatness,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg during a speech at the celebration. Brochures and laptops in the ASCE information booths displayed facts about the bridge’s construction and engineering. Those visiting the bridge included descendents of the Roebling family and civil engineers from Europe and Asia.

Raymond Paul Giroux, A.M.ASCE, the chair of the committee set up by ASCE’s Metropolitan Section to oversee the anniversary, spoke at a meeting of the Brooklyn Historical Society as well as at a gathering convened at Brooklyn’s Surrogate’s Court. He discussed the roles of John Roebling and of his son Washington, who at the age of 32 oversaw the construction of the bridge after his father’s untimely death. Giroux also paid tribute to Emily, Washington’s wife, who assumed much responsibility for completing the bridge after her husband had been incapacitated with caisson disease, now known as decompression sickness or the bends. “Nearly fifty years before women gained the right to vote in America, she had the courage to become her husband’s presence in the field and communicate his vision,” Giroux stated.

The celebration ran from May 22 to May 26 and included lectures, films, musical performances, art exhibitions, tours of the bridge, and fireworks. The bridge is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and has been formally recognized in ASCE’s Historic Civil Engineering Landmark Program.

Upchurch Hikes 10,000 Miles

When not instructing students as a professor of civil engineering or serving on an ASCE committee, Jonathan Upchurch, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, likes to go hiking. Now 57, he recently logged his 10,000th mile (16,090th kilometer).

On Monday, April 14, Upchurch reached this milestone during a hike out of the Grand Canyon. His first recorded hike was on the same trail in June 1961, when he joined the Boy Scouts of America. He later earned a merit badge in hiking and monitored his progress toward the award that is conferred on scouts who have hiked 100 mi (161 km), and he continued to track his mileage for the next 47 years.

Upchurch has hiked throughout the United States, engaging in this pastime in numerous national parks. With his wife, Betty, Upchurch has hiked nearly the entire Appalachian National Scenic Trail, which extends from Georgia to Maine. They have also hiked the 210 mi (338 km) John Muir Trail, in California’s Sierra Nevada range. More than 1,000 mi (1,609 km) of his hiking has been in Grand Canyon National Park, where he now serves as a National Park Service volunteer.

Upchurch specializes in transportation engineering, including traffic engineering, traffic operations, transportation planning, geometric design, highway safety, and intelligent transportation systems. His career includes professorships at Arizona State University and the University of Massachusetts. He has also been involved in transportation legislation, serving as an ASCE congressional fellow and as a member of the staff of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. An adjunct professor of civil engineering at Northern Arizona University, Upchurch holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Illinois and a doctorate from the University of Maryland.

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.

Farshad Amini, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, is a professor and the founding chair of the civil and environmental engineering department at Jackson State University, where he also helped to establish the School of Engineering. In addition to developing new undergraduate and graduate programs, he has been instrumental in establishing teaching and research laboratories at Jackson State. He also helped to develop a rigorous assessment process for the university’s civil engineering program. Under his direction, the department has achieved ABET accreditation, obtained a number of major research grants, and seen enrollment markedly increase. Amini’s research in the area of liquefaction of layered silty sands and composites of sand, silt, and gravel has elucidated the behavior of these soils under liquefaction conditions. By investigating the effect of soil fabric on the cyclic resistance of soils, he has given specialists a better understanding of these soils, insight that can be applied to field conditions during earthquakes. He has also been recognized for developing new and useful techniques for testing various soil types and for studying dynamic soil behavior under random excitation conditions. Amini has obtained more than 25 major research grants from such organizations as the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey and has more than 100 papers, mostly in the area of geotechnical engineering and soil dynamics, to his credit. His experience encompasses academia, industry, and the federal government, and his accolades include the Faculty Productivity Award from the Office of Research and Federal Relations at Jackson State University, which he received in 2006, and the 1994 Outstanding Researcher of the Year Award from the University of the District of Columbia.

Carlos A. Brebbia, Ph.D., CEng., F.ASCE, is the director of the Wessex Institute of Technology, in the United Kingdom, a position he has held since 1986. He received his first engineering degree from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral, in Argentina, and later earned a doctorate from the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom. He then worked at a U.K. research laboratory before accepting an academic appointment at the University of Southampton, where he rose from lecturer to senior lecturer and reader. During this time Brebbia also served as a visiting lecturer at many other universities, Princeton among them. After being appointed a full professor of engineering at the University of California at Irvine he returned to the United Kingdom to set up the Wessex Institute, where he continues his efforts to increase its international renown. He is also a professor of computational engineering at the University of Portsmouth and chairman of the Computational Mechanics International Group of Companies. Brebbia is known internationally as the originator of the boundary element method, a technique that is widely used in offshore engineering and aerospace and in solving complex structural problems. The method continues to generate important research work at the Wessex Institute. He also led the development of the BEASY code, which is used to solve engineering tasks encountered in such areas as corrosion studies, fatigue analysis, electromagnetics, and fracture mechanics. Brebbia has written numerous scientific papers, and he is the author or coauthor of 14 technical books and the editor or coeditor of more than 400 volumes. He serves as the editor in chief of Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements and as a coeditor of the International Journal of Ecodynamics and the International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning.

John M. Dionisio, P.E., F.ASCE, began his 35-year career by working as a field engineer. He is currently the president and chief executive officer of AECOM Technology Corporation, a publicly traded, $4.2-billion firm with more than 35,000 employees worldwide. He previously served as president and chief executive officer of DMJM Harris. Dionisio received a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the City College of New York and a master of science, also in civil engineering, from the Polytechnic Institute of New York (now Polytechnic University). He is a licensed professional engineer in four states. Dionisio has provided leadership in the planning, design, and construction of a number of notable engineering projects, including the redevelopment program at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, the rapid transit system in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and New York City’s Second Avenue Subway. He lends his experience and expertise to the board of the New York Building Congress and to the advisory board of directors for the City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering, and he is championing the American Public Transportation Association’s program Transportation Partnership for Tomorrow. Earlier this year Dionisio was honored by ASCE for his achievements in management as part of its Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) program. He has also been the recipient of the Civil Engineer of the Year Award from ASCE’s Metropolitan Section, the Milton Pikarsky Distinguished Leadership Award in Engineering from the City College of New York, and the Career Achievement Award from the Alumni Association of the City College of New York. The Greater New York chapter of the March of Dimes honored Dionisio with its Service to Humanity Award. As an innovative and influential role model in the civil engineering field, Dionisio has encouraged involvement in professional organizations, and his input in 2007 greatly aided the corporate partnership between ASCE and DMJM Harris. His leadership and influence increased DMJM Harris’s involvement in local ASCE student chapters and events, professional meetings, and national conference activities.

Ian C. Goulter, Ph.D., CPEng, F.ASCE, is the vice-chancellor and president of Charles Sturt University, in Australia, a position he has held since 2001. Prior to that he worked at the Swinburne University of Technology and Central Queensland University, both in Australia, at the University of Manitoba, in Canada, and for a government agency and a consulting firm in New Zealand. He received an undergraduate degree in civil engineering (with honors) from the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His areas of expertise include risk analysis and least-cost design of water distribution systems. Goulter has done pioneering work in the area of water distribution networks, water quality monitoring systems, optimization algorithms, and integrated water resources management. He was the first to apply the entropy theory in assessing the reliability of water distribution systems, a step that led to a new area of research and a new and efficient way of designing water distribution systems. He has made seminal contributions with his work on water quality networks and determinations of the water quality status of rivers where data are scarce. Goulter’s achievements have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society through Education and best-paper awards from ASCE’s Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management and Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. He has more than 70 refereed papers and six book chapters to his credit. A member of ASCE since 1979, Goulter has served on a number of technical committees on hydraulics and water resources planning and management. In 2006 he began a two-year term as president of the World Association for Cooperative Education.

Levent Kavvas, Ph.D., F.ASCE, is a professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at the University of California at Davis, where he began as an associate professor in 1985. He has also held academic positions at Purdue University, the University of Kentucky, and the Middle East Technical University, in Turkey. Kavvas has been a leader in hydrologic research and practice and has contributed groundbreaking work in physical hydrology, stochastic hydrology, extreme value theory, drought hydrology, regional hydrology, hydroclimatology, and watershed modeling. He developed the first coupled atmospheric and hydrologic regional hydroclimate model based on upscaled hydrologic conservation equations. He also initiated the clustering theory for the stochastic modeling of precipitation phenomena and developed a physics-based theory for the initiation, evolution, and termination of droughts as well as a new physics-based theory for the probabilistic ensemble modeling of hydrological processes. As a consultant, Kavvas has applied his research to undertakings around the world, among them a detailed study of the effect of climate change on water resources in Japan, the development of a hydroclimate model for the Tigris and Euphrates watershed for the study of water balances, and the development of a hydroclimate model of the Mekong River basin, in Southeast Asia, to reconstruct historical climate data. Kavvas is the founding editor of ASCE’s Journal of Hydrologic Engineering and has served on the editorial boards of a variety of other journals, including Stochastic Hydrology and Hydraulics, the Journal of Hydrology, and publications in the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s International Hydrological Programme. His accolades include a best-paper award from the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering and ASCE’s Arid Lands Hydraulic Engineering Award and Richard R. Torrens Award. Kavvas was a Fulbright scholar from 1970 to 1975.

David S. Smith, P.E., F.ASCE, is a deputy project manager for the Battelle Memorial Institute Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in Richland, Washington. His career has focused on planning, managing, and implementing projects that have involved construction, sampling and characterization, environmental restoration, demolition, and site closure. Smith received a bachelor of science in civil engineering from the University of Washington and is a registered professional engineer in the state of Washington. He began his career as a field engineer at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (now referred to as the Hanford Site), in Washington State, working on a project that involved entombing (“cocooning”) a reactor. He was also involved in designing the infrastructure to support a burial project at Hanford. Smith supports the Megaports Initiative, a program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as a project manager in charge of the design, construction, installation, and oversight of radiation portal monitors at international ports. Combining expertise in geotechnical, structural, and environmental engineering, he has been successful in having contaminated facilities “delisted” as Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) sites and has been innovative in developing cost-saving solutions on a variety of undertakings, among them the Interim Safe Storage Project. His ability to draw on practical construction and engineering experience has also aided him in carrying out reviews for the DOE’s Office of Project Assessment. Earlier in his career he taught science and math in Peru at the Southern Copper Company.

William H. Walton, P.E., S.E., F.ASCE, is vice president of STS Consultants, Ltd., in Vernon Hills, Illinois. He began his career as an embankment dam engineer and now has 28 years of experience providing geotechnical engineering consulting. Walton received a bachelor of science in civil engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a master of science in agricultural engineering from Cornell University. He is a licensed structural engineer in Illinois and a licensed professional engineer in Illinois and 11 other states. Walton has been a leader in introducing the use of the Osterberg load cell test for confirming bearing pressures well above the code allowable for caisson foundations. He has also been a leader in utilizing higher allowable stresses in steel pile foundations by using the higher-strength steels available today. Walton has done design work and conducted analyses and field observations of geotechnical projects in North and South America, the Middle East, and Africa. His responsibilities encompass seismic liquefaction analyses of embankments and landfills, slope stability analyses, environmental assessments, remedial designs, groundwater studies, and construction monitoring. Walton was the geotechnical and foundation engineer of record for Chicago’s UBS, Trump, and Spire towers’ caisson and deep basement systems, where the Osterberg load cell test and building settlement surveys were used to establish the increase in bearing pressures on dolomite. He was also the foundation engineer of record for Soldier Field renovations and was the structural engineer responsible for underpinning designs for the additions to Shedd Aquarium and the relocation of a submarine at the Museum of Science and Industry, all in Chicago. Walton also served as the lead geotechnical forensic investigator on a landfill failure and on the failure of the Silver Lake Dam, in Michigan. At the behest of the Federal Highway Administration and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, he investigated a slurry wall leak in Boston in an Interstate 93 tunnel forming part of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Within ASCE Walton has served as treasurer, vice-chair, and chair of the Illinois Section’s geotechnical group. He has a number of technical papers to his credit and has been invited to lecture at Purdue University, Northwestern University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Illinois.

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.

John W. Keys III, P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, died on May 30 at the age of 66 after a plane crash in Utah. Keys received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from Brigham Young University. From 1964 to 1979 he was a civil and hydraulic engineer for the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, where he worked on issues involving the Great Basin and the basins of the Missouri, Colorado, and Columbia rivers. He retired from the Department of the Interior in 1998, having served for 12 years as the director of its Pacific Northwest region. In 1995 the department honored him with its Distinguished Service Award for his ability to maintain lines of communication and keep interest groups focused on solutions. Keys returned to the Bureau of Reclamation in 2001, when President George W. Bush named him commissioner, a position he held until 2006. Robert W. Johnson, the bureau’s current commissioner, regularly consulted Keys on major decisions. A resident of Moab, Utah, Keys was running for the office of county commissioner at the time of his death.

Jorj O. Osterberg, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, passed away on June 1 in Denver at the age of 93. The son of Swedish immigrants, Osterberg was raised in the New York City borough of the Bronx. In 1931, at the age of 16, he entered Columbia University, where he attended the first undergraduate and graduate courses to be offered in the new field of soil m-echanics. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in science in 1935 and a degree in civil engineering the following year, he did graduate work at Harvard, earning a master’s degree in 1937. In 1940 he obtained a doctorate from Cornell University. He then went to work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Waterways Experiment Station (WES), in Vicksburg, Mississippi. There he invented and patented the WES soil pressure cell (also referred to as the Osterberg Cell or O-cell) and worked with many of the researchers who were doing pioneering work in soil mechanics. In 1942 he taught at the University of Illinois, and the following year he joined the faculty at Northwestern University, where he established the university’s soil mechanics laboratory. He retired from Northwestern in 1985 and moved to Colorado. Osterberg is regarded as a pioneer in the field of geotechnical engineering, and his renown was such that he was called upon to do consulting work for governments, large industrial companies, and firms all around the country as well as abroad. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Osterberg was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1975.

Howard M. Post, P.E., F.ASCE, one of the founders of the firm now known as pbs&j, which is based in Tampa, Florida, died on June 10 at the age of 83. Post was an engineering graduate of the University of Miami. He served as an infantryman in World War II and as a member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during the Korean War. He retained his connection with the military as a member of the U.S. Army Reserve in the 1970s. Together with three of his colleagues, namely, John D. Buckley, P.E., F.ASCE, George G. Mooney, and Robert P. Schuh, P.E., F.ASCE, he founded Post, Buckley, Mooney & Schuh in 1960. (Mooney left the firm for health reasons, and Alex M. Jernigan became a principal.) The firm has become the 29th largest engineering firm in the United States. A registered professional engineer and land surveyor, Post was pbs&j’s principal in charge of such Florida projects as the Ocean Reef Club, in Key Largo, and the Card Sound Bridge, which links the mainland to the Florida Keys. He retired in 1977 but continued to work on projects into the 1980s. Post served on the Florida Board of Professional Engineers, the board of directors of the Florida Engineering Society, and asce’s Committee on Professional Practice. He also served as a trustee and president of the Pennekamp Coral Reef Institute, a nonprofit organization near Key Largo established to enhance and protect Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Memorial donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 919 Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60611, and to the First Presbyterian Church of Miami Springs, 301 Westward Drive, Miami Springs, FL 33166-5261.

J. Patrick Powers, P.E., F.ASCE, died on May 15 at the age of 81. Powers received a bachelor’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and then went to work for the New Jersey–based geotechnical contractor Moretrench American Corporation in 1948, beginning what was to become a lifelong career in construction dewatering. He remained with the firm for the next 40 years, 16 of them as its chief engineer and vice president. Later he became a consultant for Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, of New York City, where he stayed active as a consultant and as a mentor to young engineers. Powers authored three books on dewatering technology as well as a number of articles and conference papers on various aspects of groundwater engineering. His contributions to the advancement of his chosen field were signalized by ASCE when it bestowed its Roebling Award on him in 2007.

E.J. “Al” Renier, P.E., F.ASCE, died on March 20 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, at the age of 87. Renier obtained a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Michigan, and after serving as a county engineer in Michigan he worked with the Portland Cement Association in New York City, Montreal, and Minneapolis. He helped design, construct, and reconstruct highways throughout the United States and in Canada and had more than 20 technical papers to his credit. He also received numerous awards for his contributions to the concrete industry. During World War II, Renier served in the 5th Engineer Combat Regiment, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was awarded the Bronze Star among other combat awards and also received a presidential citation and the Reserve Medal. Renier is survived by his wife, Elayne, and by three sons, two daughters-in-law, and two grandchildren.

ASCE CONFERENCES

For further information on these conferences, unless noted otherwise, contact asce Conferences Department, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, VA 20191-4400; telephone (800) 548-2723 or, from outside the United States, (703) 295-6300; fax (703) 295-6144; e-mail conf@asce.org; Web site www.asce.org/conferences. Dates are subject to change.

Fifth International Engineering and Construction Conference (IECC’5),
August 27–29, 2008, Irvine, California
www.iecc5.org

11th Multidisciplinary Conference on Sinkholes and the Engineering and
Environmental Impacts of Karst,
September 22–26, 2008, Tallahassee, Florida
http://content.asce.org/conferences/KARST08/index.html

2008 Architectural Engineering Conference,
September 25–27, 2008, Denver
http://content.asce.org/conferences/aei08/index.html

T&DI Pavement Conference,
October 15–18, 2008, Bellevue, Washington
http://content.asce.org/conferences/pavements2008/index.html

International Workshop on Frontier Technologies for Infrastructure Engineering (IWFTIE 2008),
October 23–25, 2008, Taipei, Taiwan
www.iwftie2008.com/

ASCE’s 138th Annual Civil Engineering Conference,
November 6–8, 2008, Pittsburgh
http://content.asce.org/conferences/annual2008/index.html

2008 International Low Impact Development Conference,
November 16–19, 2008, Westin Seattle, Seattle
http://content.asce.org/conferences/lid08/index.html

ASCE CONTINUING EDUCATION

Develop your technical and management skills and earn PDHS/CEUS through ASCE’s program of continuing education. Courses are offered in more than 40 cities across the country. ASCE also offers live Web seminars, on-demand online courses, and courses on DVD and CD. Customized on-site training also can be arranged. To register or to obtain additional information, contact asce’s continuing education department by telephone at (800) 548-2723, by fax at (703) 295-6144, or by e-mail at seminars@asce.org. The Web site is www.asce.org/conted/.

Construction
Comprehensive Site Design Workshop
August 7–8, 2008, Boston

Construction Administration for Engineers
August 7–8, 2008, Portland, Maine

Geotechnical
Deep Foundations: Design, Construction, and Quality Control
August 7–8, 2008, Cleveland

Hydraulics and Water Resources
Sediment Transport Analysis Using HEC-RAS (Formerly: HEC-RAS Sediment Transport Analysis Using the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System)
August 6–8, 2008, Atlanta

HEC-HMS Computer Workshop
August 7–8, 2008, San Diego

Pumping Systems Design
August 7–8, 2008, Manchester, New Hampshire

HEC-RAS Computer Workshop for Unsteady Flow
August 20–22, 2008, Boston

Structural
Design of Foundations for Dynamic Loads
August 6–8, 2008, San Francisco

Wind and Seismic Retrofit of Buildings
August 14–15, 2008, Portland, Oregon

ASCE CONTINUING EDUCATION WEBINARS

Hydraulics and Water Resources
HEC-RAS Bridge Hydraulics
August 15, 2008, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Management
Project Plans: Why and How?
August 1, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Speaking to Make Good Things Happen: Preparing, Presenting, and Following Up
August 5, 2008, 3–4:30 pm (eastern time)

Five Habits of Highly Successful Marketers
August 13, 2008, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Facilitating Action-Oriented Meetings
August 20, 2008, 3–4 pm (eastern time)

Structural
Design of Wood Diaphragms and Shear Walls
August 6, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Design of Wood Columns and Wall Studs
August 7, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Strengthening Wood Beams and Joists
August 12, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Renovation of Wood Trusses
August 26, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Deciphering Building Code Provisions for Structural Renovation
August 28, 2008, noon–1 pm (eastern time)

Transportation
How Transportation Liability Impacts Civil Engineers
August 8, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Traffic Impact Studies
August 14, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Sight Distance
August 21, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)

Railroad Crossing Safety and Light-Rail Street Operations
August 27, 2008, noon–1:30 pm (eastern time)