Influential steel research engineer Reidar Bjorhovde, P.E., Ph.D., was recently named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Distinguished membership is the society’s highest accolade.
Bjorhovde is recognized for his seminal research on the stability and reliability of steel columns, reliability and design of bolted connections, reliability and performance of composite frames and heavy steel members, classifying bolted and welded connections, and for his significant contributions in preparing national and international steel design codes.
Bjorhovde is president of The Bjorhovde Group, which he founded in 1998. He consults on construction projects, engineering projects, design codes and research around the world, with a focus on steel materials. Before working in consulting, he was a professor for many years at the University of Arizona and the University of Alberta in Canada, and he was professor and chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
He currently serves as research editor for AISC’s Engineering Journal and is editor of the Journal of Constructional Steel Research of Elsevier Science. He received AISC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 for his many contributions to AISC’s publications, as well as the T.R. Higgins Award in 1987 for his paper on column design.
He holds doctoral degrees from the Norwegian Institute of Technology and Lehigh University.
To date, only 649 of ASCE’s worldwide members have been elected to receive distinguished membership since the society’s founding in 1852. (ASCE currently represents more than 145,000 civil engineers worldwide.)