Prof. Victor Li - the innovative creator of NanoMaterial in Civil Engineering

    The innovative creator of NanoMaterial in Civil Engineering: Review
      "One of the most challenging problems in infrastructure is to endure our built infrastrutures from the affect influences from the natural and man-made hazard. To mitigate the influence of hazard on the infrastructures, the smart engineer utilizes the smart material through materials technology". 
      One of the most smart and influencing engineer and researcher in the world in the area of smart material is "Professor Victor C. Li".
       Prof. Li use the technology core that is micromechanics-based designed engineered cemetitious composites (ECC) with ductility approaching two to three orders of magnitude that of ordinary concrete of FRC. Prof.Li's research extends its impact on the quality of life via interdisciplinary research collaborations with partners specilizing in polymer chemistry, rheology, fiber processing, including structural and construction engineering.

  This is for the "better built environment and infrastructures".  Read more Prof.Victor Li in Forbes.

  The short summary of Prof. Li Bio is below:
E. Benjamin Wylie Collegiate Chair
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
University of Michigan

Education (Top)
Ph.D. Solid & Structural Mechanics Brown University 1981
M.S. Mechanical Engineering Brown University 1978
M.A. Mechanical Engineering Brown University 1977
B.S. Economics Brown University 1977
Experience (Top)
2005 - Present E. Benjamin Wylie Collegiate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
2004 - Present Professor of Materials Science and Engineering,
U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
1993 - 2005 Professor of Civil and Envirn. Engineering, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
1990 -1993 Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
1985 -1990 Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA.
1983 -1985 Edgerton Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA.
1981 -1983 Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, M.I.T., Cambridge, MA.
Honors and Awards (Top)

* Fellow, IA-FraMCoS, 2010
* Member, General Council, Int’l Union of Laboratories and Experts in Construction Materials, Systems, and Structures (RILEM), 2005-present
* Member, Editorial Advisory Committee, RILEM J. of Materials and Structures, 2004-present
* Member, Advisory Board, J. of Adv. Concrete Technology, Japan Concrete Institute, 2001-present
* Guest Professorship, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, 2006-present
* Hua Ying Honorary Lectureship, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, 2006
* U-M Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award, 2005-2006
* Fellow, World Innovation Foundation, 2005-
* Finalist, Frank Annunzio Award for “cutting edge” innovations Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, 2005
* UM College of Engineering Stephen S. Attwood Excellence in Engineering Award, 2004-2005
* Honorary Doctorate, Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark, 2004
* President, Association of Fracture Mechanics of Concrete and Concrete Structures, 2001-2004
* Member, Editorial Board, J. of Cement and Concrete Composites, 2000-2002
* Højgaard Visiting Professor of Concrete Technology, Techn. Univ. of Denmark, 1999 - 2004
* Fellow, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1999 -
* Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1998
* Member, Executive Committee, ASCE Materials Technology Division, 1996 - 1998
* Invited Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Tokyo, 1996-1997
* Visiting Professor of Civil & Structural Engineering, Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, 1997 summer
* Member, Executive Committee, Materials Engineering Division, ASCE, 1996 -
* Editor-in-Chief, ASCE J. Materials in Civil Engineering, 1996 - 1999
* U-M College of Engineering Research Excellence Award, 1995-1996
* Distinguished Lecturer Award, ICCE, 1994
* U-M CEE Department Research Excellence Award, 1993-1994
* Invited Guest Editor, J. of Cement and Concrete Composites, 1992
* Invited Professor of Structural Engineering, Techn. Univ. of Denmark, 1992 summer
* Rackham Research Partnership Award, 1991-1992
* Edgerton Career Development Chair, M.I.T., 1983-1985
* University Fellowship, Brown University, 1977-1978
* Tau Beta Pi, 1977- ; Sigma Xi, 1977-

Keynote/Plenary Speaker (selected list) (Top)

* "Non-Brittle Concrete For Durable Infrastructure In Coastal Regions," to appear in Proc., International Conf. on Future Concrete, Doha, Qatar, 2010.
* "Damage Characteristics And Micromechanics of Impact Resistant Engineered Cementitious Composites," European Fracture Conference (ECF18), Dresden, Germany, 2010.
* "Advances in Self-healing Engineered Cementitious Composites," Japan Concrete Institute, Tokyo, 2010.
* "Driving Infrastructure Sustainability Via Advanced Materials Technology," Int’l Conference on Advanced Concrete Materials, Stellenbosch, S. Africa, 11/2009.
* "Self-Healing Cementitious Material and Sustainable Infrastructure," 2nd Int’l Conf. on Self-Healing Materials, Chicago, 6/2009.
* "Sustainable Infrastructure With Durable Fiber Concrete Material," Concrete: Construction's Sustainable Option, Dundee Scotland, 7/2008.
* "Bendable Concrete for Sustainable Infrastructure," NRMCA Concrete Tech Forum, Denver, 5/2008.
* ACI Convention State-of-the-Art Cement and Concrete Applications, Puerto Rico, 2007
* 1st Int’l Conf. on Self Healing Materials, Noordwijk, the Netherlands, 2007
* 10th Int’l Inorganic-Bonded Fiber Composites Conf., Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2006
* Japan Society of Civil Engineers – TC334 Workshop, 2006
* Int’l Workshop on Fracture of Materials, Sydney, Australia, 2006
* ECI on Advances in Cement and Concrete – Sustainability, Switzerland, 2006
* Knud Højgaard Conf. on Advanced Cement-Based Materials, Denmark, 2005
* Int’l Seminar on Better Quality of Concrete and Competitiveness of the Construction Industry,” Seoul, Korea, 2005
* 6th RILEM Symp. on Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC), Varenna, Italy, 2004
* Conf. on Fibre Composites, HPC and Smart Materials, Chennai, India , 2004
* Int¹l Workshop on Sustainable Concrete Technology, Beijing, China, 2004
* JCI Japanese Symposium on DFRCC, Japan, 2003
* Fiber Society on Engineering with Fibers, Loughborough, UK, 2003
* Materials Research Society Meeting, Boston, US, 2002
* Japan Concrete Institute Workshop on DFRCC, Takayama, Japan, 2002
* 1st fib Congress ­ Concrete Structures in 21st Century, Osaka, Japan, 2002
* High Performance Concrete Workshop, Kungmin, China, 2001
* Int’l Conference on High Performance Concrete, China, 2000
* 6th Int'l Symposium on Brittle Matrix Composites, Warsaw, Poland, 2000
* FRAMCOS-3, Gifu, Japan, 1998
* 5th Int'l Symposium on Brittle Matrix Composites, Warsaw, Poland, 1997
* ICF-9, Sydney, Australia, 1997
* Meso-Fracture ‘96, Tomsk, Russia, 1996
* 4th Japan SAMPE Conference, Tokyo, Japan, 1995
* 4th Int'l Symposium on Brittle Matrix Composites, Warsaw, Poland, 1994
* 4th RILEM International Symposium on FRC, Sheffield, UK, 1992
* MIT Sea Grant Program, WS on Breaking Process of Ice Plates, US, 1984

Member/Chair, Scientific Board of Advisors/Organizing Committee (selected list) (Top)

* BEFIB 2012 on Fibre Reinforced Concrete, Guimaraes City, Portugal, 2012
* 7th Int’l Symp. on Cement & Concrete (ISCC), Ji’nan, China, 2010
* 2nd Int’l Conf. on Service Life Design for Infrastructure, Delft, The Netherlands, 2010
* 18th European Conference of Fracture (ECF 18), Dresden, Germany, 2010
* Fracture Mechanics of Concrete & Concrete Structures (FraMCoS 7), Korea, 2009
* 1st Int’l Conf. on Computational Technologies in Concrete Structures (CTCS'09), Korea, 2009
* 2nd Int’l Conf. on Self-Healing Materials (ICSHM), Chicago, US, 2009
* Int’l Conf. on Durability of Concrete Structures (ICDCS 2008), Hangzhou, China, 2008
* Int’l Symp. on Hydration, Microstructure and Durability, Nanjing, China, 2008
* Int’l Conf. on Challenges for Civil Construction, Porto, Portugal, 2008
* 8th Int’l Symp. on Utilization of High Strength & High Performance Concrete, Tokyo, Japan, 2008
* Int’l Workshop on HPFRCC, Mainz, Germany, 2007
* 1st Int’l Conf. on Self Healing Materials, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 2007
* Int’l Workshop on Fracture of Materials, Sydney, Australia, 2006
* 11th Int¹l Conf. On Fracture (ICF11), Turin, Italy, 2005
* Int’l Conf. on Advances in Concrete & Construction (ICACC-2004), India 2004
* FraMCoS 5th Int'l Symp. on Concrete Fracture, Vail, Colorado, 2004
* 6th RILEM Symposium on Fibre-Reinforced Concrete, Varenna, Italy, 2004
* Int'l Conf. on Concrete under Severe Conditions CONSEC 04 Seoul, Korea, 2004
* HPFRCC-4 Int¹l Workshop, Ann Arbor, US, 2003
* Int¹l Fiber Society Symposium, Loughborough, UK, 2003
* Japan Concrete Institute Workshop on DFRCC, Takayama, Japan, 2002
* International Board of JCI Committee on High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites, 2001- 2004
* Int' Conf. on Advances in Building Technology, Hong Kong, 2002
* 2nd Int’l Workshop on Self-Compacting Concrete, Japan, 2001
* FraMCoS 4th Int'l Symp. on Concrete Fracture, France, 2001
* Int’l Conference on High Performance Concrete, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China, 2000
* Int’l Workshop on High Performance FRC Composites, Mainz, Germany, 1999
* Civil & Envir. Engrg. Conf. – New Frontiers & Challenges, AIT 40th Anniv. Celebration, Thailand, 1999
* Meso-Fracture ’98, Haifa, Isreal, 1998
* Int’l Workshop on Self-Compacting Concrete, Japan, 1998
* FraMCoS 3rd Int'l Symp. on Concrete Fracture, Japan, 1998
* Sixth Int’l Symp. on Ferrocement, Ann Arbor, US, 1998
* Damage and Failure of Interfaces, Vienna, Austria, 1997
* ICF-9, Sydney, Australia, 1997
* Int'l Workshop on HPFRCC, US, 1995
* FraMCoS 2nd Int'l Symp. on Concrete Fracture, Switzerland, 1995
* RILEM 4th Int'l Symp. on FRC, UK, 1992
* RILEM Int'l Conf. Frac./Damage of Conc. & Rock, Austria, 1992
* FraMCoS 1st Int'l Conf. Frac. Mech. of Conc. Struct., US, 1992
* SEM Int'l Conf. Micromech. Failure of Quasi-Brittle Mat'ls, US, 1990
* Int'l Assoc. BEM - Int'l Sym. on BEM, 89, US, 1989
* ITA Int'l Conf. on Jointed and Faulted Rock, Austria, 1989
* RILEM Int'l Conf. Frac. Toughness and Frac. Energy, UK, 1989
* RILEM Int'l Conf. in Fracture of Concrete and Rock, UK, 1987

Amr S. Elnashai-One of the Best Expert in Earthquake Engineering.

    In this post, I introduced you to one of the best expert in Earthquake Engineering. If you are in this field, you might be able to guess. Yes. He is Amr S. Elnashai.He is the first author of Fundamentals of Earthquake Engineering

     
    Professor Amr Elnashai, Fellow of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering is the William and Elaine Hall Endowed Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois.  He is also Director and Chair of the College of Engineering Council on Global Engineering Initiatives.

A graduate of Cairo University, Dr. Elnashai obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Imperial College, University of London, UK. Before joining the University of Illinois in June 2001, he was Professor of Earthquake Engineering and Head of Section at Imperial College. He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey since 1997. Other visiting appointments include the University of Tokyo, the University of Southern California (1990-1995) and the European School for Advanced Studies in Reduction of Seismic Risk, Italy, where he has served on the Board of Directors since its founding in 2000.
Dr. Elnashai is founder and co-editor of the Journal of Earthquake Engineering, editorial board member of several other journals, a member of the drafting panel of the European and Egyptian design codes, past chairman of the UK earthquake engineering association, UK delegate to and past senior Vice-President of the European Association of Earthquake Engineering. He is the winner of the Imperial College Unwin Prize for the best PhD thesis in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (1984), the Oscar Faber Medal for best paper in the Institution of Structural Engineering, and two best paper medals from the International Association of Tall Buildings, Los Angeles. He served as coordinator for major European research networks including 14 institutions from 9 countries.            
     Dr. Elnashai is Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Structural Engineers in the UK. He is President of the Asian-Pacific Network (ANCER), a member of the FIB Seismic Design Commission Working Groups and two Applied Technology Council (ATC, USA) technical committees as well as the Illinois State Seismic Safety Task Force. He founded the Japan-UK Seismic Risk Forum in 1995 and served as its director until 2004. He was adviser to the UK Department of the Environment, chairman of a ministerial committee for the assessment of scientific research in Egypt, adviser to the Civil Defense Agency of Italy and review panel member for the Italian Ministry of Research and the New Zealand and Canadian Science Research Councils.
       He has successfully supervised 35 Ph.D. and more than 100 Master of Science theses. Many of his students hold significant positions in industry, academia and government in over 12 countries. He has contributed to projects for a number of international companies and other agencies such as the World Bank, GSK, Shell, AstraZeneca, Minorco, British Nuclear Fuels, Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, Mott MacDonald, British Airport Authority, Alstom Power, the Greek, Turkish and Indonesian Governments, Federal Highway Administration, National Geographic Society, US AID, among others. He is currently leading a large project for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and State Emergency Management Agencies.

Research Overview: 

      Dr. Elnashai's technical interests are multi-resolution distributed analytical simulations, network analysis, large-scale hybrid testing and field investigations of the response of complex networks and structures, on which he has more than 250 research publications, including  approximately 120 refereed journal papers, many conference, keynote and prestige lectures (including the Nathan Newmark Distinguished Lecture), research reports, books and book chapters, magazine articles and earthquake field mission reports.

   

More on Newmark!

Nathan M. Newmark

Structural Dynamics Innovator Extraordinaire

Nathan M. Newmark. Courtesy of Civil Engineering Department, University of Illinois.

As one of the most recognized and respected pioneers in the field of structural dynamics and seismic design for more than a half of a century, Nathan "Nate" Mortimore Newmark elevated the stature of the U.S. civil engineering profession in those disciplines to the top tier internationally. He developed countless innovative theories, analysis procedures and design criteria for seismic soil-structure interaction for building earthquake-resistive structures that remain in wide use today.

The Latino Americana Tower, Mexico City’s tallest highrise. It has withstood several large magnitude earthquakes with little or no structural damage. Courtesy of Civil Engineering Department, University of Illinois.

His cutting-edge methods continue to be applied to the analysis and design of a wide range of complex structures including high-rises, large dams, bridges and nuclear reactor facilities, both in the U.S. and abroad. Along with his theories for such construction are included the universal design criteria he developed for U.S. military protective projects and nuclear reactor facilities. Among his noted consulting projects were the Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) and the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline.

According to William Hall, a longtime colleague of Newmark at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), "Professor Newmark developed simple yet powerful and widely used methods for analyzing complex structural components and assemblies under a variety of conditions of loading, and for calculating the stresses and deformations in soil beneath foundations. He contributed significantly to a better understanding of the behavior of structural materials under various environments including fatigue and brittle fracture. He added materially to knowledge of the behavior and design of highway bridge decks and floor slabs in buildings, and structures subjected to impact, periodic excitation, wave action, wind, blast and earthquakes."

For Newmark’s "special contributions to the advancement of engineering knowledge of structures subjected to earthquake or blast, and for inspiration to others in improving man’s environment," Newmark was honored with two prestigious national recognitions: first, the 1968 National Medal of Science presented by President Lyndon B. Johnson; then, the 1969 Washington Medal from the Western Society of Engineers and several other major U.S. engineering societies.

Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the fall. Courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

The importance and practicality of his work in structural dynamics and seismic analysis was showcased when one of his projects -the Latino Americana Tower, Mexico’s City’s tallest building at 600-plus feet, counting its 138-foot television antenna - withstood two large earthquakes unscathed, one in 1957, the other in 1985. It proved to be a case study in how properly designed high-rise buildings can successfully survive major seismic activity.

A year before the 1957 earthquake, Newmark (along with Mexico City consulting engineer Leonardo Zeevaert, one of his former students) had presented a seminal paper on the innovative design of the Tower at the World Conference on Earthquake Engineering at the University of California. In their presentation, they delineated the crux of their design, emphasizing the project’s unusual characteristics. They said, "The building is nearly twice as tall as any other building in the city, and because of poor foundation soils, a light but rigid structure was designed to rest on a foundation comprised of a floating concrete box set upon piles."

So successful was Newmark’s seismic analysis for the structure that Engineering News-Record (ENR), in reporting on the 1957 disaster, wrote, "The most encouraging news from earthquake-struck Mexico City is that the city’s one true skyscraper, the 43-story Latino-Americana Tower, rode the shock waves undamaged, even to its window glass and partitions."

Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s. Courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

Nate was born on September 22, 1910, in Plainfield, New Jersey, to Abraham S. and Mollie (Nathanson) Newmark. After receiving his early education in North Carolina and New Jersey, Newmark graduated from Rutgers University with high special honors in civil engineering in 1930. He immediately enrolled in graduate school at UIUC. When he arrived there, its civil engineering department was blessed with a stellar staff that included three world-renowned icons in the structural engineering field - Wilbur Wilson, Harold Westergaard and Hardy Cross,

In Newmark’s first encounter with Cross, the engineer-philosopher asked where each student had studied. When Newmark answered Rutgers, Cross looked down his nose at him and commented, "You’ve got a lot of things to unlearn." In time, the two developed a mutual admiration for each other - and a broad spectrum of interests. Their relationship was based on the interplay and exchange of ideas, not only in engineering but also in a wide range of subjects. They discussed politics, philosophy, art, and the classics with equal relish. Newmark once remarked that his part of the discussions "must have been audible for blocks because Cross was so deaf I had to yell just to be heard."

Newmark received his master’s degree in engineering from UIUC in 1932, the same year he married Anne May Cohen. Over the years, they raised one son and two daughters, Richard, Linda and Susan.

Two years later, in 1934, Newmark received his PhD. He continued on at Illinois as a research assistant - the first of several positions he would hold at UIUC. He was appointed research professor of civil engineering in 1943 and became head of the Department of Civil Engineering in 1956.

From 1947 to 1957, he chaired the Digital Computer Laboratory at the University where he participated in developing one of the country’s first large-scale digital computers (ILLIAC II). This triumph marked the beginning of applying computer science to engineering and establishing an entire new department at the University - its Digital Computer Department - which spawned numerous spin-offs and expansion into supercomputing nationwide.

His lifelong tenure at the institution resulted in many rewarding recognitions for himself and his alma mater. Hall stated, "Newmark carried his university [UIUC] with him wherever he went, even into professional practice. Engineers, young and old, who came into contact with this man, sensed an intense intellectual and educational challenge. His penetrating insight, his keen engineering judgment, and his genuine interest in people have been a constant source of inspiration to all who have had the privilege of working with him."

When geotechnical engineer Ralph Peck - Karl Terzaghi’s protégé - began teaching at Illinois in 1942, the 30-year-old struck up a close relationship with Newmark. Both were emerging pioneers in analyzing the effects of seismic forces and motions on soils - and on the structures bearing on the soils. Recalled Peck, "Since my wife and I were only slightly younger than Nate and Ann Newmark, we became included in their circle of friends, and much of our social life was with them."

Newmark (right) with his protégé and frequent collaborator William Hall examining a reinforced concrete beam-column specimen being tested for flexure and shear. Courtesy of Civil Engineering Department, University of Illinois.

One particular social event in 1957, which turned into a night of intense seriousness, has stuck in Peck’s mind over the years. At the time, Peck had persuaded his friend and colleague, the newly knighted English engineer Sir Alec Skempton, to spend time in the U.S. to give a series of lectures at UIUC. One evening, the Newmarks, who had just completed a new house with a large, long combined living and dining room that was suited for entertaining large groups, invited the Pecks and their famous guest over to christen the place.

After dinner, the three men moved to the living room end and the two wives settled at the far end, lost in the dining area. Since Skempton was currently heavily involved in the early design and analysis of the Mangla Dam in Pakistan - and because of Newmark’s intense interest in the dynamics of all structures, including large earth dams - the men’s conversation quickly turned to slope stability. Their conversation became heated and loud, and several back-of-the-envelope sketches were produced - and new theories instigated.

The results of that night, which led to the development of the "Newmark Analysis" for structures and slope stability, are still being felt. According to Peck, "The ‘Newmark Analysis’ today carries a specific meaning in the field of seismic stability of dams. As I reflect on the conversation that evening in 1957, I realize I was present at its conception, the product of the interactions of two great minds, probing and reinforcing each other."

During World War II, Newmark served as a consultant to the National Defense Research Committee and Office of Scientific Research and Development, spending part of his service in the Pacific war zone. From the mid-1950s onward, he was involved in developing key design criteria - including the hardness standards - for the Minuteman program and missile launch facilities.

In 1964, Newmark became deeply engaged in seismic resistance codes for nuclear power reactors throughout the country. He and Hall published U.S. Nuclear Regulation Committee Report NUREG/CR-0098 Development of Criteria for Seismic Review of Selected Nuclear Power Plants, which is still in use today.

Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the winter. Courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

In 1969, the pair also published a paper - delivered at the Fourth World Earthquake Engineering Conference in Santiago, Chile - on a straightforward method for computing and sketching seismic design spectra, now a classic document. Shortly after, Newmark was chosen to be the intermediary between the U.S. Department of Interior and the oil companies in shaping the seismic design of the Trans-Alaska Petroleum Pipeline. (Hall, a member of Newmark’s original team, still serves as a consultant for the project.)

A founding member of the Engineering Mechanics Division of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Newman received many of the division’s awards for individual achievements. His ASCE honors include the James Croes Medal, Mosseiff Award, Norman Medal, Ernest Howard Award, and Theodore von Karman Medal.

Earthquake Spectra and Design (Engineering monographs on earthquake criteria, structural design, and strong motion records)

Cover of one of Newmark’s most popular books Fundamentals of Earthquake Engineering. Courtesy of Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc.

In his later years, he received the John Fritz Medal, an all-engineering society award, and the Gold Medal from the Institution of Structural Engineers of Great Britain - only the second American to receive this prestigious award. The other was one of his mentors, Hardy Cross. In 2006, Newmark was named as one of the top ten U.S. seismic engineers of the 20th century by ENR and the Applied Technology Council (ATC).

Newmark was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an honorary member of ASCE, American Concrete Institute, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, International Association for Earthquake Engineering, and Seismological Society of America. He was a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

He was the recipient of honorary degrees from Rutgers University, University of Liege (Belgium), University of Notre Dame, National Civil Engineering Laboratory of Lisbon (Portugal), and UIUC. His honorary doctor of science degree from UIUC came with this citation: "Graduate study in structural engineering today bears his indelible imprint as a result of the large group that he attracted to Illinois to work with him. His style, combining rigorous analysis with a sophisticated appeal to experience and intuitive leaps, while inimitable, has provided generations of graduate students with a model of engineering creativity at its best."

Cover of one of Newmark’s most popular books Earthquake Spectra and Design. Courtesy of Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc.

Newmark published more than 200 papers, and numerous books and book chapters. His seminal books included Design of Multi-Story Reinforced Concrete Buildings for Earthquake Motion (with John Blume and Leo Corning), Fundamentals of Earthquake Engineering (with Emilio Rosenblueth), and Earthquake Spectra and Design (with William Hall).

Elevation of Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Courtesy of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.

In 1973, Newmark became UIUC Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor in the Center for Advanced Study, taking emeritus status from 1976 until his death on January 25, 1981, in Urbana, Illinois. To honor his legacy, UIUC officially renamed the Civil Engineering Building the Nathan M. Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory later that same year.▪

Nathan M. Newmark

All you guys study in Civil Engineering will certainly know Nathan Newmark. He is one of the most brilliant civil engineer in the world. For his bio, Nathan Mortimore Newmark (September 22, 1910 - January 25, 1981) was an American structural engineer and academic. He was awarded the National Medal of Science for engineering.
Early life

Newmark was born in Plainfield, New Jersey to Abraham and Mollie Newmark. After receiving his early education in North Carolina and New Jersey, he went on to attend Rutgers University. Newmark graduated from Rutgers in 1930 earning High Honors and Special Honors in civil engineering. He married Anne Cohen in 1931.

Newmark then attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he worked under Hardy Cross, Harold M. Westergaard, and Frank E. Richart.
At the University of Illinois

In 1932 and 1934 he received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, respectively, in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduating from UIUC, Newmark was appointed to many prestigious positions in the department. He became Research Professor of Civil Engineering in 1943. He served as Chairman of the Digital Computer Laboratory of the University from 1947 to 1957 and in 1956 he was appointed head of the Civil Engineering Department and held the position until 1973. Newmark held many important leadership positions and the reputation of the longest tenure on the University Research Board. He continued as a professor there until he retired with a rank of Professor Emeritus. Under his leadership, the program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign soared to new heights. The civil engineering laboratory on campus now bears his name.

Achievements

During World War II Newmark consulted for the National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development, for which in 1948 he received the President's Certificate of Merit. He served on numerous Department of Defense boards and panels, with major contributions to the Minute Man and MX missile systems.

In 1959, Newmark introduced what became known as the Newmark-beta method of numerical integration used to solve differential equations. He later helped to develop the first digital computers, the ILLIAC II, which was one of the first transistorized computers. It was also designed to use transistors that were not even invented yet. The ILLIAC-II eventually led to the development of computer software for engineering.

Another of Newmark's achievements was the Torre Latinoamericana (Latin American Tower) in Mexico City, Mexico, the tallest building in Mexico City until 1984. Newmark was the consulting engineer on the project. He designed the building to be supported by the muddy soil underneath the structure and be able to withstand earthquakes. The design was put to the test in 1957 when an earthquake struck the city, and again in the stronger earthquake of 1985. The Torre Latinoamericana withstood the quakes and is still standing today as a witness of progress in earthquake engineering. He also developed the seismic design criteria for other large projects including the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the proposed Alaskan Natural Gas Pipeline, and about 70 nuclear power plants.

Throughout his career Newmark developed a simple, yet powerful and widely used method for analyzing complex structural components and assemblies under a variety of conditions of loading and for calculating the stresses and deformations in soil beneath foundations. He also was an engineer on the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Since there was an oil and energy shortage, high unemployment rate, and high inflation in the 1970s, the country had to do something to help conserve and utilize the natural resources available to them inside the country. Once oil was discovered in Alaska, there was a need for a design to get the oil quickly and efficiently down to the refineries. The Alaskan terrain offered many diverse challenges for a normal underground pipeline, thus Newmark was consulted to design sections of the pipeline near the fault lines. Since Newmark had done numerous studies on the effect of earthquakes on structures, he had the ideal background to tackle such a revolutionary feat.

Newmark also made significant contributions to geotechnical engineering. He developed a new method (named after him) of calculating displacements in earth dams and slopes due to earthquakes. His work was acknowledged with an invitation to deliver the 5th Rankine Lecture of the British Geotechnical Association, entitled Effects of earthquakes on dams and embankments.

The American Concrete Institute awarded Newmark the Wason Medal for Most Meritorious Paper in 1950.[1] In 1968, he was recipient of the National Medal of Science for Engineering Sciences. He was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received the 1979 John Fritz Medal and several other awards. The American Society of Civil Engineers has named a medal after him, which is awarded "to a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers who, through contributions in structural mechanics, has helped substantially to strengthen the scientific base of structural engineering." [2] In 1964 he contributed to the founding the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and two years later became a member of National Academy of Sciences (NAS). [3]