Company

University of Texas at Austin

Title

Professor

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.