Bažant Elected Life Member of ASME
Northwestern Engineering’s Zdeněk P. Bažant has been elected a Life Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) by the organization’s Board of Governors.
Bažant, McCormick Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering, has been honored previously by ASME. In 2023, ASME announced the creation of the Zdeněk P. Bažant Medal, recognizing an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of mechanics through research, practice, teaching, and/or outstanding leadership. In 2017, he received the ASME Medal.
With a PhD from CSAV Prague earned in 1963, Bažant joined the Northwestern Engineering faculty in 1969. Among engineers, he is well-known for his definitive analyses of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, and of the excessive deflection and subsequent tragic collapse of the Koror-Babeldaob Bridge of record span in Palau in 1996. He made a number of lasting contributions to solid mechanics, the most impactful being the Bažant size effect law, the crack band model, the microplane constitutive law, the gap test, and the AAEM method for aging creep effects in concrete structures.
His work has been implemented at structural engineering firms and companies such as Boeing, Chrysler, and Ford, and has improved the safety, sustainability, and efficiency of structures such as bridges, dams, buildings, aircraft, cars, ships, sea ice, and nuclear containments.
Bažant’s work has earned him several prestigious commendations. He’s a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of London. He’s also a member of the national academies of Austria, Japan, Canada, Czechia, India, Italy (Lincei), Greece, and Spain. In 2016, he received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.