Academic Honors

Best of the Best Poster Award (with student Julie Fogarty) for a poster presented at the 2013 ASCE Structures Congress. The award is given by the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The award is for a poster titled "Collapse Behavior of Steel Columns under Lateral Loading.

Teaching Innovation Prize, University of Michigan, 2014.

The award is to honor faculty members who have developed innovative approaches to teaching that incorporate creative pedagogies. This is a University-wide award.

Monroe-Brown Foundation Award for Research Excellence, College of Engineering, University of Michigan, 2014.

This College-wide award is for faculty who have demonstrated sustained excellence in research and related scholarly activities.

Richard R. Torrens Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2014.

The award is made in recognition of Richard R. Torrens' distinguished service and honors volunteer journal editors who have made outstanding contributions to the ASCE journals' program. Achievements in categories such as journal competitiveness, turnaround time, growth, and creativity and innovation shown by the editor are recognized among other measures of accomplishment.

1000 Talent's Award, Chinese Government, 2013.

Best of the Best Poster Award (with student Julie Fogarty) for a poster presented at the 2013 ASCE Structures Congress. The award is given by the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The award is for a poster titled "Collapse Behavior of Steel Columns under Lateral Loading."

Elected Fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 2013.

State-of-the-Art Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2012.

Award Citation: The ASCE State-of-the-Art of Civil Engineering Award recognizes the individual, individuals or committee that has prepared, for the benefit of the profession, the most outstanding paper which reviews and interprets state-of-the-art scientific and technical information. The 2012 award is for the paper "Seismic Design of Hybrid Coupled Wall Systems: State of the Art," by Sherif El-Tawil, PH.D., P.E., F.ASCE; Kent A. Harries, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE; Patrick J. Fortney, Ph.D., M.ASCE; Bahram M. Shahrooz, Ph.D., M.ASCE; and Yahya Kurama, Ph.D., M.ASCE, published in the July 2010 issue of Journal of Structural Engineering.

Keynote Speaker, First International Conference on Advances in Civil Infrastructure Engineering (ICACIE 2012) to be held in Changsha, Hunan, China, Sep.14-16, 2012.

Moisseiff Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2012 (with Yasser Alashker [former postdoc, currently Head of CEE Dept. at King Khalid U., Saudi Arabia] and Fahim Sadek at NIST).

The award citation reads "For the paper, Progressive Collapse Resistance of Steel-Concrete Composite Floors," published in the Journal of Structural Engineering, ASCE, October 2010. The selection committee particularly noted the paper's novel approaches to influence details commonly used in building construction.

Recipient of the New Millennium Yuelu Lectureship in Civil Engineering from Hunan University, China, 2011.

Paper of the Year Award, Korean Concrete Institute (KCI), 2010 (with former student Dong-Joo Kim and colleague Antoine E. Naaman)

The award was given to the paper "High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cement Composites with Innovative Slip Hardening Twisted Steel Fibers" published in the International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials (Vol.3, No.2, December 2009).

Elected Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE), 2010.

Invited Visiting Professor, University of California, Irvine, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Irvine, CA, March/April 2010.

Moisseiff Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2008 (with former student Kapil Khandelwal).

The award was given for the paper "Collapse Behavior of Steel Special Moment Resisting Frame Connections," Journal of Structural Engineering, May 2007. The selection committee particularly noted the paper's novel approaches, important practical conclusions and original contributions.

Invited Visiting Professor, University of Rennes 1, Rennes, France, May/June 2008.

Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2007

This is a research achievement award for engineers less than 40 years old. The award citation reads "For the development and application of novel numerical simulation models for the analysis and design of steel and hybrid steel-concrete structures." The selection committee particularly noted that the developed modeling techniques span several length scales, are rooted in fundamental structural mechanics and have great practical and theoretical significance.

Arthur M. Wellington Prize, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2006 (with former students Edward Severino and Priscilla Fonseca).

The award was given for the paper "Vehicle Collision with Bridge Piers," in the Journal of Bridge Engineering, May/June 2005. The paper was noted for its contribution to the field of Transportation Engineering.

Faculty Recognition Award, University of Michigan, 2006.

This is a University level award given to recognize "Outstanding contributions as a teacher, scholar, and member of the University community".

Best Paper Award (with co-author Vineet Kamat), Construction Research Congress 2005 in San Diego, CA, American Society of Civil Engineers.

Outstanding Achievement Award, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, April 2005.

This is a yearly award given to one faculty member in the CEE Department (comprised of 28 faculty members) who distinguishes himself during the preceding year.

Chi Epsilon "James M. Robbins" Excellence in Teaching Award for the Great Lakes District, 2005.

Students in each of the 17 Universities in the Great Lakes District nominate one faculty member per institution to compete for this award at the district level.

Norman Medal, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2002 (with Greg Deierlein, Stanford University)

The Norman medal is the oldest and most prestigious awards given by ASCE. Each Division within ASCE nominates one paper for judging on a Society-wide basis, so the winner goes through a rigorous and highly competitive process. The award states, "The medal and certificate are awarded to the author, or authors, of a paper that is judged worthy of special commendation for its merit as a significant contribution to engineering science".

Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award, Dept. of Civil and Env. Eng., Univ. of Central Florida, 2002.

This is a yearly award given to one faculty member in the CEE Department (comprised of 25 faculty members) who distinguishes himself in graduate education.

TIP Teaching Award, State University System of Florida, 2000.

This award recognizes outstanding teaching at the undergraduate level. The award involves a substantial and permanent increase in the base 9-month salary. In the year awarded, only 2 faculty members in the UCF College of Engineering (comprised of 140 faculty members) received it.

Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, College of Engineering, Univ. of Central Florida, 1999.

This yearly award is given to two faculty members in the UCF College of Engineering (comprised of 140 faculty members) who distinguish themselves in undergraduate teaching.

Josephine de Kármán Fellow, 1996.

One of 10 national awards made to outstanding doctoral students in their final year.

Student National Awards

EERI/FEMA Fellowship in Earthquake Hazard Reduction, 2014

Julie Fogarty was awarded an EERI/FEMA Fellowship for her dissertation work in earthquake engineering. Only one award is made nationally per year and comes with a $20,000 grant.

Ammann Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2014

Julie Fogarty was awarded the ASCE Ammann award for her dissertation work. Only one award per year is given nationally. The award comes with a $7,000 grant.

National PERISHIP Fellowship, 2007

Kapil Khandelwal was awarded a National PERISHIP Fellowship for his dissertation work. The award is made by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Public Entity Risk Institute with support from the National Science Foundation. 10 awards per year are given nationally for multidisciplinary hazard research. The award comes with a $10,000 grant.

Ammann Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 2007

Kapil Khandelwal was awarded the ASCE Ammann award for his dissertation work. Only one award per year is given nationally. The award comes with a $5,000 grant.