May 26, 2015

(Chicago, IL) – Nominations are now being accepted for the most prestigious lectureship award in the structural steel industry, the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award, which includes a $15,000 cash prize. Presented annually by AISC, the award recognizes a lecturer and author whose technical paper(s) are considered an outstanding contribution to engineering literature on fabricated structural steel. The winner will be recognized at the 2016 NASCC: The Steel Conference, April 13-15 in Orlando, Fla., and also will present their lecture at various professional association events throughout the year.

AISC encourages anyone involved in the design community and steel construction industry to submit nominations. Nominations must be submitted by August 3, 2015, and include the following information:

• Name and affiliation of the individual nominated (past winners are not eligible to be nominated again)
• Title of the paper(s) for which the individual is nominated, including publication citation
• If the paper(s) have multiple authors, identify the principal author
• Reasons for nomination
• A copy of the paper(s), as well as any published discussion

The author must be a permanent resident of the U.S. and available to fulfill the commitments of the award. The paper(s) must have been published in a professional journal between January 1, 2010 and January 1, 2015, and the award winner is required to attend and present at the 2016 NASCC and also give a minimum of six presentations of their lecture on selected occasions during the year.

The award will be given to a nominated individual based on their reputation as a lecturer and the jury's evaluation of the paper(s) named in the nomination. Papers will be judged for originality, clarity of presentation, contribution to engineering knowledge, future significance and value to the fabricated structural steel industry.

Please send nominations for the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award to:

T.R. Higgins Award Nomination
c/o Janet T. Cummins
Engineering & Research Coordinator
American Institute of Steel Construction
One East Wacker Drive, Suite 700
Chicago, IL 60601

Or, nominations may be submitted via email to AISC’s Janet Cummins at cummins@aisc.org.

The current T.R. Higgins Lecturer is Chia-Ming Uang, Ph.D., professor of structural engineering at the University of California, San Diego, whose lecture is titled "What Seismic Steel Design is All About." He received the award for his paper “A Flexibility-Based Formulation for the Design of Continuity Plates in Steel Special Moment Frames,” which he co-authored. It was published in the third quarter 2013 edition of AISC’s Engineering Journal.

For more information about the T.R. Higgins Lectureship Award, including past winners, please visit www.aisc.org/TRHigginsAward.