The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering is proud to host a talk by William F. Baker, the American Institute of Steel Construction's (AISC) 2013 T. R. Higgins Lecturer, on Tuesday, September 17.
The talk is free and open to the public, but RSVPs are requested to be sent to daniela.estrada@ce.gatech.edu by September 12. A 6 p.m. reception in the Klaus Atrium will preceed the 7 p.m. lecture in Klaus 1443.
A structural engineering partner with the Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, Baker is well-known for his work on the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, located in Dubai.
His talk, "Structural Innovaton: Combining Classic Theories with New Technologies" is based on a paper of the same name, and will explore concepts and methodologies for creating and understanding efficient geometries in the design process.
"The deflection of a truss can actually be decreased by removing material," he writes. "This amazing result can be achieved if one creates a geometry that has a shorter total load path. In the early stages of the design process, an engineer sets the geometry of the structure. The decisions made about the layout of the structure will determine the overall efficiency that can be achieved and the magnitude of the forces that must be accommodated."
Baker is a Fellow of both the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Institute of Structural Engineers (IStructE), and is the recipient of numerous distinctions, including ASCE's OPAL Lifetime Achievement award, IStructE's Gold Medal, and the Fritz Leonhardt Prize.
Each year, the AISC awards a T.R. Higgins Lectureship to an outstanding speaker and author whose technical paper or papers, published during the eligibility period, are considered an outstanding contribution to the engineering literature on fabricated structural steel. In 2009, CEE's Dr. Donald White was the recipient of this prestigious national honor.