Michael D. Engelhardt, PhD, PE, Professor, University of Texas at Austin

The Haaijer Award is AISC's highest honor for educators, and Michael D. Engelhardtt, PhD, PE is just the ninth recipient since the Award's establishment in 1999.

Engelhardt is perhaps best known for his research into seismic performance and design of steel structures following the Northridge earthquake in 1994. In the five years following the earthquake, he conducted more than 60 large-scale structural tests of connections for seismic force-resisting systems, which ultimately led to the development of the reduced beam section connections used in special moment resisting frames--one of the first modern moment connections developed after Northridge. That research earned him the 1999 T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award.

He also made substantial contributions to the development and adoption of eccentric braced frames for use as a seismic force-resisting system--an accomplishment that garnered a 2008 AISC Special Achievement Award. AISC honored Engelhardt with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Roberto T. Leon, PE, PhD, D.H. Burrows Professor of Construction Engineering, Virginia Tech

AISC's highest honor for educators, the Haaijer Award honors individuals for both their research and teaching. Leon is honored for his nearly 40 years of teaching, research, and professional leadership. He is internationally recognized for his work in seismic behavior and design of composite and hybrid steel-concrete structures, composite action in beam-slab systems, testing of full-scale and model structures in the laboratory, and field instrumentation of structures. He also has served as chair of AISC's Composite Construction task committee and is a member of the AISC Committee on Specifications. He has previously won the AISC T. R. Higgins Lectureship Award, the AISC Special Achievement Award, the AISC Lifetime Achievement Award, been elected a Distinguished Member of ASCE and elected a Fellow within ASCE, SEI and ACI, the ASCE Norman Medal, the ASCE State-of-the-Art award on two occasions, the ASCE Tewksbury Award, ASCE Presidents Award.

Bruce R. Ellingwood, PE, PhD, NAE, F SEI, Dist M ASCE, professor and College of Engineering eminent scholar, Colorado State University

Internationally recognized as an authority on structural load modeling, reliability, and risk analysis of engineered facilities, Ellingwood is a prominent leader in the technical development and implementation of probability-based codified design standards for building structures. His research and professional activities involve the application of probability and statistics to structural engineering, particularly in structural reliability theory and probabilistic risk assessment. He directed the development of the general probability-based load criteria for limit states design that have appeared in successive editions of the ASCE/ANSI Standard on Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures since 1982, which are the basis for strength design in the U.S. His work has also been instrumental in the development of the load and resistance factor design methodology used in AISC specifications that forms the basis for modern steel design. 

Thomas M. Murray, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Joseph A. Yura, Professor Emeritus, The University of Texas at Austin

John W. Fisher, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Lynn S. Beedle, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

William McGuire, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Theodore V. Galambos, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota