Review of Local Buckling Width-to-Thickness Limits

Benjamin W. Schafer is the director of the Ralph O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute and Hackerman Professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He is also active in engineering consulting and is currently a consulting principal at Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger. He holds master's and doctoral degrees from Cornell University in structural engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Iowa. Schafer has led numerous research projects on the behavior and design of thin-walled steel structures.

He is dedicated to the codes and standards process with over 20 years of service to AISC, AISI, and ASCE, and currently serves as Chair of AISC TC4 on Members, Vice Chair of the AISC Committee on Structural Stainless Steel, and Chair of ASCE 8 on cold-formed stainless steel. He has previously served as Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at Johns Hopkins, Chair of the Structural Stability Research Council, President of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute, and North American Editor of the journal Thin-Walled Structures.

Steel Structures to Withstand the Elements: What Structural Engineers Need to Know About Corrosion

Jennifer McConnell, PhD, is the Bentley Systems Career Development Professor at the University of Delaware, where she also directs the Center for Innovative Bridge Engineering. She has over 20 years of research experience in bridge behavior, laboratory testing, field evaluation, inspection, long-term performance, design, and analytical modeling of bridges. She is a member of the National Steel Bridge Alliance Oversight Committee, the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Steel Bridge Task Force, the AISI Corrosion Advisory Group, and the Transportation Research Board Committee on Steel Bridges.

McConnell has conducted groundbreaking research into the performance of uncoated weathering steel (UWS) in bridges. Her work incorporates long-term field data on the performance of steel structures and corrosion protection methods in various environments and includes an analysis of practical design strategies that improve corrosion resistance.

Column Base Connections: Research, Design, and a Look to the Future

Amit Kanvinde, PhD, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the College of Engineering at University of California, Davis, presented “Column Base Connections: Research, Design, and a Look to the Future” as a keynote speaker during NASCC: The Steel Conference 2022 in Denver. He shared his findings from 15 years of research into the behavior, design, and structural interactions of various types of connections, including exposed, slab-overtopped, and embedded connections. The lecture also included prospective developments in base connection design, as well as insight into a revision of the AISC Design Guide 1: Base Plate and Anchor Rod Design.

Kanvinde received his Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from IIT-Bombay (1999), and his master’s (2000) and doctorate (2004) from Stanford University.

Kanvinde’s research is focused on the seismic response of steel structures and connections. His work with AISC includes research on column base connections, column splices, and fillet welds, and has been cited in standards including AISC 341 (Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings) and the forthcoming AISC 342 (Seismic Provisions for Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Structural Steel Buildings). He currently serves on the AISC Connection Prequalification Review Panel (CPRP) and the Committee on Research, as well as an ad hoc committee on box columns. He previously received AISC’s Special Achievement Award (2017) and the Norman Medal (2008), Walter Huber Research Prize (2016), and the State of the Art of Civil Engineering Award (2018), all from the American Society of Civil Engineers.

SpeedCore and Steel-Concrete Composite Construction: The Best of Both Worlds (paper not available)

Varma received his BS in Civil Engineering from IIT-Bombay (’94), MS from Univ. of Oklahoma (’96), and PhD from Lehigh University (’01). He has been an academic for 20 years and at Purdue University for 16 years.

Varma has dedicated his academic and professional life to the development of innovative steel-concrete composite structures for the built infrastructure including commercial, industrial, and safety-related nuclear structures. He has conducted fundamental research leading to the development of design provisions for composite members, connections, and overall structural systems subjected to extreme loading conditions including seismic, fire, blast, and impactive loading.

Varma’s research products are the basis of (and directly cited in) several AISC specifications (AISC 360, AISC 341, AISC N690) for the design of steel-concrete composite structures for building structures and safety-related nuclear facilities. He has previously received the AISC Milek Faculty Fellowship Award (2004), AISC Special Achievement Award (2017, 2020), and the ASCE Shortridge Hardesty Award (2019).

Varma is the Chair of AISI/AISC Task Committee 8 on Fire Design, and member of Task Committee 5 on Composite Design. He is also a member of the AISC Committee of Specifications and ASCE/SEI 7 Standard Committee.

Varma lives in West Lafayette, Ind., with his mother, wife, and two daughters.

Gusset Plates: The Evolution of Simplified Design Models (paper not available)

Bo Dowswell started in the steel industry in 1985 as a detailer. Since then, he earned BS, MS, and PhD degrees from Auburn University and The University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a professional engineer, his design practice focuses on steel structures. Currently, he is principal of both SDS Consulting, a design firm, and ARC International, which specializes in research and consulting. Dowswell is also an adjunct professor at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, where his research and teaching is concentrated on steel connection design. Additionally, he provides consulting services for the AISC Steel Solutions Center. 

Dowswell is the author of AISC Design Guide 33--Curved Member Design, and he regularly publishes technical articles on steel design. He is a member of several AISC Committees, including the Committee on Specifications, the Committee on Manuals, the Committee on Research and the Task Group on Industrial Buildings and Nonbuilding Structures. Bo is also a member of the Structural Stability Research Council, where his activities are primarily related to connection elements and beam stability.

Structural Stability – Letting the Fundamentals Guide Your Judgement (paper not available)

Ronald D. Ziemian is a professor at Bucknell University. He received his BSCE, MENG, and PhD degrees from Cornell University. In addition to authoring papers on the design and analysis of steel and aluminum structures, Ron is co‐author of the textbook Matrix Structural Analysis (Wiley, 2000), the developer of the educational analysis software MASTAN2, and the editor for the 6th edition of the Guide to Stability Design Criteria for Metal Structures (Wiley, 2010). He is the Co-Editor in Chief of Elsevier’s Journal of Constructional Steel Research. Ron is a member of AISC’s Committee on Specifications, chairs AISC’s TC3 - Loads, Analysis and Stability, and previously chaired AISC's TG on Inelastic Analysis and Design. He also serves on the AISI and Aluminum Association Specification Committees, is active with the Steel Joist Institute, and the former chair of the Structural Stability Research Council. Ron was awarded the ASCE Norman Medal (1994), the AISC Special Achievement Award (2006), and the ASCE Shortridge Hardesty Award (2013) for his contributions to the profession related to the stability analysis and design of metal structures.

Towards an Integrated Fracture-control Plan for Steel Bridges (paper not available)

Robert J. Connor, PhD, professor with the Purdue University School of Civil Engineering and director of the school's S-BRITE Center, has been selected as the winner of the 2018 AISC T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award. Presented annually, the award recognizes a lecturer and author whose technical paper or papers, published during the eligibility period, are considered an outstanding contribution to engineering literature on fabricated structural steel.

“Rob was nominated for a number of papers, primarily on fatigue and bridge design,” said Larry Kruth, PE, AISC's vice president of engineering and research. “His papers 'State-of-the-Art Fracture Characterization I: Master Curve Analysis of Legacy Bridge Steels' and 'State-of-the-Art Fracture Characterization II: Correlations between Charpy V-Notch and the Master Curve Reference Temperature,' both published in the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, were particularly notable to the awards jury.”

Connor has worked in the areas of fatigue, fracture and other issues related to steel bridges for over 20 years. He received the George S. Richardson Medal in 2016 and an AISC Special Achievement Award in 2012, and was the first recipient of the Robert J. Dexter Memorial Lecture Award in 2005.

Effective Bracing of Flexural Members and Systems in Steel Buildings and Bridges (paper not available)

Professor Todd Helwig is currently in his 23rd year of teaching and conducting research in the field of structural engineering. He currently holds the J. Neils Thompson Teaching Fellowship in Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). He joined the faculty at the UT Austin in 2005 after teaching at the University of Houston for 11 years. His area of interest is the design and behavior of steel structures with an emphasis in structural stability and bracing.

He has co-developed and taught a number of short courses on the fields of structural stability and bracing on behalf of the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC), the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), and the National Highway Institute. Since 1994 more than 5000 engineers have attended the short courses that he has co-developed and taught. He has conducted a wide range of research studies on the design and behavior of steel buildings and bridges. Results from the past studies have led to design methodologies for bracing systems for steel box girders as well as new details for stability bracing systems for I-shaped sections. He has also developed recommendations for cross-frame and diaphragm systems that rely on lean-on bracing to help reduce the number of fatigue sensitive braces on steel bridges.

His research has been recognized with several awards including the ASCE Collingwood Research Prize, the ASCE Moisseiff Award, and the ASCE Shortridge Hardesty Award. He was recognized by TxDOT with a top innovation award in 2005 for work related to lateral bracing of bridge girders by permanent metal deck forms. In 2010, his work on stability bracing systems in steel bridges was recognized at the North American Steel Construction Conference with an AISC Special Achievement Award. He has served on a number of technical committees for AISC, ASCE and SSRC. He is currently the Chair of SSRC.

Get Fired Up: What Structural Engineers Should Know About Fire Design (paper not available)

Dr. Maria Garlock is an Associate Professor at Princeton University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and also the Director of the Architecture and Engineering Program and the Acting Director of the Program in Urban Studies. She is the recipient of awards such as the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching (the highest teaching award at Princeton University), the Lawrence Keyes, Jr. /Emerson Electric Co. Faculty Advancement Award, and the Bronze Award for the Advancement of Arc Welded Design, Engineering and Fabrication. Dr. Garlock is also a Professional Engineer, having earned her license while working for Leslie E. Robertson Associates of New York City as a structural engineer. She had the opportunity to participate in the design of many interesting buildings including several skyscrapers. Dr. Garlock received her Bachelors of Science degree from Lehigh University, a Masters of Science degree from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. degree from Lehigh University.

Her research aims to bridge the gap between academia and practice, both as related to advancing the knowledge in structural engineering and as related to the education of future engineers. Dr. Garlock's scholarship is in resilient structural design for large fires and earthquakes, both as isolated and as combined multi-hazard events. She is an advocate in both fields by serving as Chair of the Fire Protection Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineering (2010-2014), and President of the Consortium of Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREE) (2010-present). During her period as Chair of the Fire Protection Committee, she directed the work of the committee on an Appendix to ASCE-7 on "Performance-Based Design Procedures For Fire Effects On Structures."

In addition to multi-hazard resistant structural design, Dr. Garlock studies the best examples of structural designs of the present and past, which encompass the ideals of efficiency, economy, and elegance. She has co-authored a book on the subject (Felix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist), and co-curated several exhibitions with scale models and instructional displays that teach about exemplary structural engineering designs. She has authored several book chapters on the subject including the recent SOM Structural Engineering book chapter on "Efficiency and Economy." She has recently developed a MOOC titled "The Art of Structural Engineering: Bridges", which will be launched on the edX platform in January 2016.

Dr. Garlock's research on fire, earthquakes, the art of engineering, and education has been published in many journal papers, conference proceedings, and books. She is frequently invited to lecture on such subjects within the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Garlock is also serves several journals such as Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering (2010-2014) and a member of the editorial board of the new journal Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure.

What Seismic Steel Design Is All About (paper not available)

Chia-Ming Uang is a professor in the Department of Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He received a B.S. in civil engineering from National Taiwan University, and M.S. and Ph.D. in structural engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining UCSD in 1994, He served on the faculty at Northeastern University in Boston, MA for six years. He is a member of the American Institute of Steel Construction, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the American Welding Society, and the Structural Engineers Association of California. For AISC, he serves on the Committee of Specifications, Committee of Research, and Connection Prequalification Review Panel.

Professor Uang's research is in the seismic design, rehabilitation, and testing of large-scale steel structures, including buildings and bridges. Uang received three research awards from American Society of Civil Engineers: Raymond C. Reese Research Prize in 2001 as well as Moisseiff Awards in 2004 and 2014. AISC awarded him a Special Achievement Award in 2007 for his contributions in research and service to the steel industry. Uang is coauthor of two textbooks on structural analysis and structural steel design and three book chapters. His research results are published in many journal papers, conference proceedings, and technical reports.

Statics, Strength, Ductility, and the Uniform Force Method (paper not available)

Larry S. Muir has been involved with structural steel in one form or another for over 20 years. After a brief time with an engineering office doing main member design, he began to pursue a Master's degree at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Upon receiving his graduate degree he went to work for Cives Steel Company, where over the course of 12 years he participated in the design and fabrication of numerous large-scale projects, including high-rises, stadiums, and power plants. He has more recently provided consulting services to fabricators, erectors, engineers, and the AISC Steel Solutions Center.

Larry is a member of both the AISC Specification and Manuals Committees and a member of the SEI Committee on the Design of Steel Building Structures. Larry has authored or co-authored numerous papers, articles, seminars and book chapters on connection design and steel fabrication.

Structural Innovation: Combining Classic Theories with New Technologies

William F. Baker is the Structural Engineering Partner for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP. Throughout his distinguished career, Bill has dedicated himself to structural innovation. His best known contribution has been to develop the "buttressed core" structural system for the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest manmade structure. While widely regarded for his work on supertall buildings, his expertise also extends to long-span roof structures, such as the Korean Air Lines Operations Hangar and the Virginia Beach Convention Center, as well as specialty structures like Broadgate-Exchange House and the GM Renaissance Center-North Lobby. Baker has also collaborated with numerous artists, including Jamie Carpenter (Raspberry Island-Schubert Club Band Shell), Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned With), James Turrell (Roden Crater), and Jaume Plensa (World Voices).

In addition to working at SOM, Bill is actively involved with numerous professional organizations and institutions of higher learning. In 2011, he received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the University of Stuttgart and an ASCE Outstanding Projects And Leaders (OPAL) Lifetime Award for Design. Bill is also the 2010 recipient of the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and the 2009 recipient and first American to receive the Fritz Leonhardt Preis (Germany). In 2008, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) awarded him the Fazlur Rahman Khan medal. Bill is a Fellow of both the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the IStructE, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He frequently lectures on a variety of structural engineering topics within the U.S. and abroad.

Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSW), TEBF, CFST, SF, and Other Short Stories

Michel Bruneau is a professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering (CSEE) at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. He received a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering at the Université Laval, Québec and M.S. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Bruneau has conducted research on the evaluation and retrofit of existing steel bridges and buildings subjected to large destructive forces up to collapse, as well as on the development of new design concepts capable of providing satisfactory seismic-resistance, blast-resistance, or both simultaneously (as multi-hazard resistant concepts). This research has encompassed contributions to the development and large-scale experimental validation of various metallic energy-dissipating design concepts to enhance the resilience of structures against extreme events, including work on ductile steel plate shear walls, ductile bridge diaphragms, tubular eccentrically braced frames, structural fuses, and controlled-rocking piers.

Dr. Bruneau has conducted numerous reconnaissance visits to disaster stricken areas, and is a member of many professional and technical code-writing committees. He also served as Director (2003-2008) and Deputy Director (1998-2003) of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research, a National Center of Excellence funded by the National Science Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration, and many others. His past service to the profession includes participation in expert peer review panels, project advisory committees, special project design teams, conference steering and advisory committees, and journal editorial boards. Prior to his appointment in academia, he practiced as a consultant for the firms of Morrison Hershfield Limited (Toronto, Canada) and Buckland and Taylor (Vancouver, Canada).

Dr. Bruneau has authored or co-authored over 100 referred journal papers, 200 papers in conference proceedings, and 50 research and engineering reports, in addition to 2 textbooks, 5 textbook chapters, and two fiction books. He has received many awards for his technical work (as well as for his latest novel).

Gusset Plate Connections for Seismic Design

Charles Roeder received a BSCE from the University of Colorado, Boulder, a MSCE from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a PhD. from the University of California, Berkeley. His PhD dissertation addressed the seismic performance of eccentrically braced frames with the late Prof. Egor P. Popov. His engineering experience includes several years in the building construction industry for several years and several years as a structural design engineer for the construction of offshore platforms. He served for two years in the US Army in Fort Polk, Louisiana, and Vietnam. He is a Professor of Civil Engineering and has been a member of the faculty of the University of Washington since 1977. He is a registered professional engineer in Colorado and Washington.

He is a member of a number of professional organizations including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), the Earthquake Engineers Research Institute, and the Structural Engineers Association of Washington. He is presently a member of the Board of Directors for the Applied Technology Council and the Executive Committee of the Technical Activities Division for the ASCE/Structural Engineering Institute. He was a participant in the preparation of the FEMA Guidelines for Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings, and he was the Team Leader for Connection Performance on the FEMA supported SAC Steel Project. He was the co-author of the AASHTO Specifications (with John Stanton) for the design of bridge bearings. He has served as chair of national technical committees including the TRB A2C02 Steel Bridge Committee, the ASCE Seismic Effects Committee, the ASCE Composite Construction Committee and the ASCE Technical Administrative Committee on Dynamic Effects. He has received the 1979 ASCE J. James R. Croes Medal, 1984 ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Prize, 2002 AISC Special Achievement Award, 2002 Puget Sound Engineers Council Academic Engineer of the Year, and 2010 ASCE Ernest E. Howard Award for his past research and publications. He has authored more than 75 journal articles and many other reports and publications.

His research focuses on bridges and the seismic performance of steel and composite buildings. Present research studies include development of design methods for improved seismic performance of concentrically braced frames and their gusset plate connections, evaluation of riveted bridge gusset plate connections, evaluation of pile to wharf connections for port facilities, and development of economical and efficient concrete filled tube applications.

The AISC Seismic Provisions: Past, Present and Future

James O. Malley is a Senior Principal with Degenkolb Engineers of San Francisco, California. He received both his Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. A registered Structural Engineer in California, Mr. Malley has over 26 years of experience in the seismic design, evaluation and rehabilitation of building structures. He has specialized in the seismic design of steel frame structures, especially for health care facilities.

Mr. Malley served as the Project Director for Topical Investigations for the SAC Steel Program. In that position, he was responsible for directing data collection and interpretation of steel frame buildings damaged by the Northridge Earthquake and all of the analytical and testing investigations performed as part of the SAC Steel Project. In 2000, this work was recognized by AISC in presenting Mr. Malley its' Special Achievement Award. Mr. Malley is a member of the AISC Specifications Committee and the Chair of the AISC Seismic Subcommittee that is responsible for developing the AISC Seismic Provisions that are the basis of the IBC. Mr. Malley is a member of the ASCE Committee on Steel Buildings and the ASCE Seismic Effects Committee. He is also a member of the AWS D1.l Subcommittee on Seismic Welding Issues that publishes the AWS D1.8 Seismic Supplement to AWS D1.1.He was a member of the steel subcommittee of the ATC 33 project that developed FEMA 273/274, "NEHRP Guidelines for the Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings", and is the chair of the Building Seismic Safety Council TS 6 on Structural Steel and Composite Construction.

Jim has served as a member of the SEAONC and SEAOC Board of Directors, and was President of SEAONC in 2000-2001. He was President of SEAOC in 2003-2004. He was named a SEAOC Fellow in 2007. He is presently a member of the Board of Directors of NCSEA, and will become the President of NCSEA in 2010. He has made numerous presentations on the effects of the Northridge Earthquake on Steel Frame Buildings, as well as the seismic design of steel structures. The author of over fifty technical papers, Mr. Malley was the Co-Recipient (with the late Egor Popov) of the 1986 ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Prize ASCE for the paper "Shear Links in Eccentrically Braced Frames."

Stability Analysis and Design (paper not available)

Donald White is a professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has been a member of the CEE faculty at Georgia Tech since 1997. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Donald served on the faculty at the Purdue University School of Civil Engineering from 1987 to 1996. He received his doctorate in Structural Engineering from Cornell University in 1988, and is an alumnus of North Carolina State University. Prior to graduate study, he worked as a structural designer and structural engineer in Raleigh, NC.

His research covers a broad area of design and behavior of steel and composite steel-concrete structures as well as computational mechanics, methods of nonlinear analysis and applications to design.

He's a member of the AISC Committee on Specifications as well as various other AISC technical committees. He's also a member of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Bridge Research Task Force and the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC). In addition to his contributions to the 2005 AISC Specification for Structural Steel Buildings, he served as a major contributor to the 2004 update of the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Load and Resistance Factor Design Specification provisions for curved and straight steel bridge design.

Donald received the 2005 Special Achievement Award from AISC for his research on design criteria for steel and composite steel-concrete members in bridge and building construction and the 2006 Shortridge Hardestey Award from ASCE for his research on advanced frame stability concepts and practical design formulations. He's an Associate Editor of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Journal of Structural Engineering and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Constructional Steel Research.

Buckling-Restrained Braced Frames

Walterio López is a senior associate at Rutherford & Chekene. He has served as project manager for the design of five multi-story buildings using buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) as well as numerous other buildings. He participated in the design of a test frame and loading protocol associated with the experimental verification of a BRBF design. He is a coauthor of the guidelines used by structural engineers to design BRBFs. He is the author or coauthor of numerous technical papers on behavior and design of BRBFs. He serves on two advisory boards for research projects dealing with innovative structural steel systems and is a corresponding member of the AISC Task Committee on the Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings.

Rafael Sabelli is Director of Seismic Design at Walter P Moore. He is a member of the AISC Task Committee on the Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings, the ASCE 7 Seismic subcommittee, and the NCSEA Seismic Code Advisory Committee. He is the coauthor of AISC Design Guide 20: Steel Plate Shear Walls, as well as the author of numerous research papers on conventional and buckling-restrained braced frames. Rafael was the 2000 NEHRP Professional Fellow in Earthquake Hazard Reduction, and is the Past Chair of the Seismology Committee of the Structural Engineers Association of California.

Stability and Analysis Provisions of the 2005 AISC Specification for Steel Buildings

R. Shankar Nair is a principal and senior vice president of Teng & Associates, Inc. in Chicago. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1969 and is licensed to practice engineering in 44 states. In a career focused on structural engineering for large architectural and civil engineering projects, he has developed the structural designs of many major bridges and buildings, including the longest tied arch in the world (for Interstate 255 over the Mississippi) and a 90-story, 1047-foot tall building now under construction in Chicago. His projects have won numerous awards, including four AISC/NSBA "Prize Bridge" awards and six of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois' annual "Most Innovative Structure" awards. Active as a researcher and leader of professional activities, he is the author of a wide range of technical papers on structural theory, analysis and design and is former Chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. He a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Alternative Methods of Evaluating and Achieving Progressive Collapse Resistance

Ronald Hamburger is a practicing structural engineer and Principal with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc., in San Francisco, California. A graduate of the Polytechnic University, in New York, in 1974, with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Structural Engineering, Mr. Hamburger's practice has included structural design of industrial facilities including petroleum refineries, floating and fixed offshore production facilities, power generation stations, paper mills and mining facilities; design of commercial, residential and institutional buildings; failure investigation, seismic evaluation and upgrade, blast and progressive collapse evaluation, upgrade and design, construction engineering, project management, engineering research and building code and standards development.

Ronald served as President of the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations (2004-2005), Vice President of the Structural Engineering Certification Board (2004-205), Vice President of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (2000-2001), President of the Structural Engineers Association of California (1999-2000) and President of the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (1995-96). He is chair of the Building Seismic Safety Council's Provisions Update Committee (2000 - ), chair of AISC's Connection Prequalification Review Panel (2003 - ), Vice chair of AWS's Seismic Task Group of the D1.1 Structural Welding Committee (2002 - ), and a member of the ASCE-7 Standards Committee and several of its task committees. He served as Project Technical Director for Product Development for the FEMA/SAC Program to Reduce Seismic Hazards in Steel Moment Frames, and served on the product development teams for the ATC-40 Methodology for Seismic Evaluation and Upgrade of Concrete Buildings, FEMA 273/274 Guidelines and Commentary for Seismic Rehabilitation, FEMA-356 Prestandard and Commentary for Seismic Rehabilitation, and FEMA-440 Improvement of Nonlinear Seismic Analysis Methods projects. Presently he serves as Project Technical Director for the ATC-58 program to develop next-generation performance-based seismic design criteria.

Ronald served as a member of the FEMA/ASCE Building Performance Assessment Team that performed preliminary investigations of the collapse of New York's World Trade Center and also played a key role in the more detailed investigation performed by NIST. He has investigated earthquake damage to buildings following 9 earthquakes, around the world. He served as a visiting professor of earthquake engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and serves as chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center. He has published more than 90 professional papers, journal and handbook articles.

Continuity Plate Detailing for Steel Moment-Resisting Connections

Jerry Hajjar is a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. His research and teaching interests include analysis, experimental testing, and design of steel and composite steel/concrete structures, and he has published over 70 papers and edited three books on these topics. Prior to joining the University of Minnesota in 1992, Jerry was a structural engineer and associate at the architectural/engineering firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in their Chicago and New York offices. Prior to joining SOM, Jerry received his B.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from Yale University in 1982, and his M.S. degree in 1985 and Ph.D. degree in 1988 in Structural Engineering from Cornell University.

Jerry's work on steel construction has included conducting research on steel moment-resisting connections, including testing of new details for column stiffener design suitable both for non-seismic and seismic design. He has also studied procedures for assessing member and frame stability for design of steel frame structures. Jerry's work on composite construction has included research on the seismic behavior and design of concrete-filled steel tubes, or CFTs, in composite frame structures. He has developed computational models to simulate the cyclic seismic response of composite CFT frames; he has compiled an extensive database of worldwide experimental results of CFT members, connections, and frames; and is currently developing performance-based design criteria for concrete-filled steel tubes. Jerry has also documented the seismic response of partially-restrained steel frames with composite reinforced concrete infill walls; he has studied the effect of composite floor slabs on the cyclic behavior of pre-Northridge steel moment-resisting connections; and he has done field studies of the behavior of steel curved girder bridges with composite concrete decks.

Jerry is on the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Specification Task Committees on Composite Construction; Stability; and Loads, Analysis, and Systems, for which he is vice-chair; he is leading the editing of the AISC Commentary for the 2005 AISC Specification; he is on the Building Seismic Safety Council Provisions Update Committee and the BSSC Task Subcommittee 11 on Composite Construction, which writes the NEHRP Seismic Design Guidelines and the AISC Seismic Provisions Part II on Composite Construction; he is the past chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Structural Engineering Institute Technical Administrative Committee on Metals; he is the past chair of the ASCE Committee on Load and Resistance Factor Design; and he is the current President of the ASCE Minnesota Section. Jerry was awarded the 2004 AISC Special Achievement Award, the 2003 ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, and the 2000 ASCE Norman Medal for his research on composite construction and structural stability, and he has received several teaching awards from the University of Minnesota. Jerry is also a registered professional engineer in Minnesota.

Robert Dexter was an Associate Professor (deceased) in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Robert’s research interests included fatigue and fracture, design, fabrication and behavior of bolted and welded connections, wind loading and dynamic behavior of structures and the repair of damaged and deteriorated structures. He has conducted investigations for the Navy, for the Ship Structure Committee, and for steel producers characterizing materials and their behavior in structures.

Prior to accepting an appointment at the University of Minnesota, Robert worked as a Senior Research Engineer at the ATLSS Laboratory at Lehigh Unviersity in Pennsylvania and at Southwest Research Institute in Texas. He received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and has worked in the construction of steel structures.

Unfortunately, Robert passed away in the fall of 2004. 

Design of Skewed Connections

Larry Kloiber has been involved in designing, fabricating and erecting structural steel for almost 40 years; first as an AISC Engineer and then with LeJeune Steel Co. While with LeJeune Steel Co. he has directed the connection design and fabrication on projects such as the Minneapolis Convention Center and the Mall of America along with work on numerous high rise office buildings, arenas, and industrial buildings.

Larry is a graduate of Marquette University with a BCE and is a licensed professional engineer in several states. He is a member of the AISC Specification Committee, the AWS D1.1 Code Committee and the Research Council on Structural Connections. He is an ASCE Fellow and member of the SEI Committee on the Design of Steel Building Structures. ASCE presented him its "Practitioner in Service" certificate in 1998 in recognition of his long association with and service to the University of Minnesota Dept. of Civil Engineering.

Larry is the author of several papers on the design, fabrication and erection of structural steel along with being one of the co-authors of the "Handbook of Structural Steel Connection Design and Details" edited by A.R. Tamboli and published by McGraw Hill. AISC in Sept 2002 presented Larry with a Lifetime Achievement Award "Special recognition for many years of service to the structural design, construction, and academic communities."

Structural Failures: Effects of Joint Design

John Barsom is president of Barsom Consulting, Ltd., Pittsburgh, PA, a forensic engineering company. He is a member of several AISC committees including the Committee on Specifications and is the recipient of the AISC Lifetime Achievement Award. John is a Fellow of the American Society of Metals (ASM International), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Welding Society (AWS) and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM International). John is the recipient of the Edgar C. Bain Award in metallurgy from the Pittsburgh chapter of ASM International and of the Fracture Mechanics Medal from ASTM Committee E08 on Fracture and Fatigue. He received the medal for having exerted a profound and positive effect on the development of the scientific development of fracture mechanics and " in recognition of his outstanding contribution to application of fracture mechanics and its usefulness to the practicing engineer." Most of his distinguished career was spent at U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh, where he was named Research Fellow and Director of the Material Technology Division. He is a specialist in properties and behavior of steels and weld metals, fracture mechanics, failure analysis of structures and equipment including metalographic and fractographic investigations, accident reconstruction, integrity and life extension of structures and equipment, and behavior of fabricated components under slow and rapid loading conditions. John is also an adjunct professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh. John received BS in Physics, an MS in Mathematics, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Developments in Long-Span Composite Slabs

Samuel Easterling is an Associate Professor and Assistant Department Head in the Via Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech. He received his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from Iowa State University and his B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from West Virginia University. He has worked as a consultant on various projects related to steel buildings and pre-engineered metal buildings and is a registered professional engineer in Virginia. He presently serves as the Director of the Structures and Materials Laboratory at Virginia Tech.

Samuel teaches courses in structural steel design and cold-formed steel design. His primary research interests are in the areas of composite and cold-formed steel structures. He has directed research dealing with composite slabs, PR connections, composite beams, joists and joist girders, composite shear connectors, and cold-formed steel members. Currently, he is directing projects dealing with composite slabs, transverse reinforcing requirements in composite girders, and the evaluation of cold-formed steel trusses.

A member of several professional organizations, Samuel is active with AISC as a Professional Member and serves on TC 5-Composite Structures, as a member of the Executive Committee for the Structural Stability Research Council, and as a member ASCE committees on Composite Construction and LRFD. He served for six years on Working Commission 2 (Steel, Timber & Composite Structures) of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. He is actively involved with the development and improvement of composite design codes through his work on AISC TC 5, and on ASCE Standards Committees for composite slabs and beams with web openings.

Samuel has been recognized for his work in the area of composite construction with the Steel Deck Institute John Gundel Award in 1987, the ASCE Walter L. Huber Prize in 1998, and the ASCE State-of-the-Art of Civil Engineering Award in 1996 and 2000 as a member of the Task Committee on Design Criteria for Composite Structures in Steel and Concrete.

Creating Quality With Visual Inspection

Duane Miller, is a recognized authority on the design of welded connections. He is in demand as a speaker on the subject all over the world and has lectured in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, as well as across North America. In 1994, he was selected to chair the American Welding Society's (AWS) Presidential Task Group on Northridge earthquake issues. He also serves on the Project Oversight Committee of SAC, a consortium sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide understanding of connection behavior in the wake of Northridge.

Duane publishes frequently in the industry press and on three occasions, has been awarded the coveted Silver Quill Award of the American Welding Society (AWS) for the excellence of his published work, most recently in 1998. He has authored and co-authored chapters of many texts, including the Highway Structures Design Handbook and the Mark's Handbook of Engineering, 10th Edition. He is the co-presenter of the Lincoln Electric's Blodgett Design Seminar series, and a frequent speaker at seminars sponsored by professional groups such as AWS and the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC). He is the Executive Director of the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation, and editor of Welding Innovation Magazine with a worldwide circulation of over 35,000.

Duane earned a B.S. degree in Welding Engineering from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, an M.S. in Materials Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from LeTourneau University in 1997. An AWS member since he was 19, he currently serves as Second Vice Chair of the AWS D1 Structural Welding Code Committee and Chair of the Seismic Welding Subcommittee. He is a former co-chair of the AASHTO-AWS D1.5 Bridge Welding Code Committee, a member of the AISC Specification Committee, a Professional Engineer, Certified Welding Inspector and Certified Welder. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, LeTourneau University's Gold Key Club, and NSPE.

A Practical Look at Frame Analysis, Stability, and Leaning Columns

Louis Geschwindner is Professor of Architectural Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University and a Registered Professional Engineer. He received his bachelor's degree in building science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and both his Master of Science in architectural engineering and his Ph.D. in civil engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. He has been a faculty member at Penn State for over 30 years, teaching and conducting research in building structures. In addition, he is in charge of the undergraduate program in architectural engineering.

Louis is chairman of the Committee on Design of Steel Building Structures of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). He is also a member of the Committee on Metals, the LRFD Committee and vice-chair of the Tension Membrane Structures Standards Committee, all of ASCE. Dr. Geschwindner is a member of the AISC Committee on Specifications as well as its Task Committee 10 - Stability. His memberships also include the Masonry Society and the American Society for Engineering Education.

Teaching advanced level structural courses, in the five-year architectural engineering program at The Pennsylvania State University, has been the primary thrust of his academic career. He has participated as a lecturer in the American Institute of Steel Construction's lecture series and has developed a short course on LRFD for practicing professionals. He has received numerous awards for outstanding teaching, including the University-wide AMOCO Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award and the AT&T Foundation Award for Excellence from ASEE.