The National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA), the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), and the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) presented Robert J. Connor with the 2020 Richard S. Fountain Award on January 30 in Orlando. Named for the founder of the Steel Bridge Task Force, the Richard S. Fountain Award recognizes leadership in steel bridge research and outstanding efforts to advance AASHTO specifications.
Connor is the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor in Civil Engineering at Purdue University's Lyles School of Engineering. In 2018, the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) honored Connor with the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award. You can view his lecture from the 2018 NASCC: The Steel Conference here.
"Dr. Connor is a nationally recognized expert on fatigue and fracture whose work has contributed substantially to advancing steel bridge design in those areas," said Robert Wills, vice president of AISI's construction market program. "He has been instrumental in the development of new guide specifications and provisions that are helping engineers at state Departments of Transportation in their analysis and inspection of the nation's steel bridges."
Read the full press release here.