Charles Roeder

AISC Distinguished Achievement Award 2014Charles W. Roeder earned the BSCE with Special Honors from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1969, the MSCE from the University of Illinois, Urbana in 1974, and the PhD from UC Berkeley in 1977.

He worked in the building construction industry for several years in several US locations, and also as a structural design engineer for the construction of offshore platforms. He served for two years in the US Army in Fort Polk, Louisiana, and Vietnam. In 1977 he joined the faculty of the University of Washington Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

He has authored more than 75 journal articles and numerous other reports and publications. He has performed a wide range of research related to bridges and the seismic performance of steel and composite buildings, including studies of the development of design methods for improved seismic performance of concentrically braced frames and their gusset plate connections, evaluation of pile to wharf connections for port facilities, and development of economical and efficient concrete filled tube applications.

As a member of a number of professional organizations including the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Steel Construction, the Earthquake Engineers Research Institute, as well as the Structural Engineers Association of Washington, Dr. Roeder has served on the Board of Directors of the Applied Technology Council, as a member of the Institutional Board of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, and as a member of the Executive Committee for the ASCE/Structural Engineering Institute. He participated in developing the FEMA Guidelines for Seismic Rehabilitation of Buildings.

He received the 1979 ASCE J. James R. Croes Medal and the 1984 ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Prize for his research and publications, the 2002 AISC Special Achievement Award, the 2002 Puget Sound Engineers Council Academic Engineer of the Year, the 2010 ASCE Earnest E. Howard Award, and the 2011 AISC T. R. Higgins Lectureship Award.

In March 2014, Professor Roeder received the AISC Distinguished Achievement Award, recognizing exceptional contributions to the advancement of the structural steel design and construction industry making a difference in the fabricated structural steel industry's success, presented at NASCC: The Steel Conference in Toronto. The recognition statement notes: "He has dedicated the majority of his university career to the structural steel industry through his research, teaching and service to AISC. He has been at the forefront of developing engineering design and analysis methods for numerous structural steel systems for both buildings and bridges, and has established an international reputation as an outstanding researcher and lecturer in structural steel design. His contributions to seismic engineering of structural steel systems, including moment resistant frames, concentrically and eccentrically braced frames and older steel structures, have changed structural design practice."

Posted March 2014