IABSE -The First 80 Years

IABSE – The First 80 Years

The International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering IABSE was founded in the aftermath of World War I in 1929 to reconnect professionals who had lost contact through the isolation of war. From the very outset the Association established a worldwide platform for the spread of information on theoretical developments and the growing proliferation of engineering specialties and tasks, and it quickly became the international voice of the profession, forming a source of reference on the field and a basis for the social recognition of structural engineering as a political, economic and cultural force to be reckoned with in the development of the 20th century. In all these goals IABSE succeeded admirably, and this is the story of the development and the far-sighted founders and dedicated participants in the association’s steady growth. It documents the events, the personalities and their ideas, talents, strengths and weaknesses, as well as what motivated them and guided the Association through the difficult years of World War II and into the expansive development in the globalized arena of the latter part of the century.

IABSE The First 80 Years Tom F. Peters

Where we go from here is unknown, but where we come from is our history and the springboard from which the human race develops. It chronicles case studies in the evolution of ideas and the life of cultural organizations. This is the story of how, through whom, and why IABSE came to be what it is today.

Tom F. Peters

International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering Association Internationale des Ponts et Charpentes Internationale Vereinigung für Brückenbau und Hochbau

IABSE AIPC IVBH

The International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering The First 80 Years 1929–2009

Tom F. Peters

International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering Association Internationale des Ponts et Charpentes Internationale Vereinigung fur und Hochbau ¨ Bruckenbau ¨

IABSE AIPC IVBH

Copyright © 2011 by International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1 Publisher: IABSE-AIPC-IVBH ETH Z¨urich CH-8093 Z¨urich, Switzerland Phone: Fax: E-mail: Web:

Int. + 41-44-633 2647 Int. + 41-44-633 1241 secretariat@iabse.org www.iabse.org

Table of Contents

Foreword Introduction 1

Prehistory The 1922 Conference of the TKVSB The 1926 Conference in Zurich The 1928 Conference in Vienna

2

3

Acts That Founded IABSE The constituent meeting of October 29th, 1929 The first meeting of the Permanent Committee in 1930, a Belgian conference in Li`ege, and the Executive Committee meets in Paris The name of the new association The Organization of IABSE Mission Basic documents and their influence on the organization of the Association Bylaws Standing orders Long-range plan IABSE organs and committees The first category: management Permanent Committee, founded 1929 Executive Committee, founded 1930 Secretariat, established 1929 Administrative Committee, founded 1975 Auditing Committee, established 1975 Advisory Board to the Executive Committee, established 2007 Outstanding Paper Award Committee, established 1992 Outstanding Structure Award Committee, established 1998 The second category: National Groups The third category: intellectual content

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xi xiii 1 1 4 7 15 15 16 21 25 25 26 26 31 31 32 32 32 35 36 37 38 38 38 38 38 39

4

5

6

Technical Committee, founded 1975 Scientific Committees, from 1932 Working Commissions, from 1959 Task Forces Publications Committee, Editorial and Advisory Boards from 1979 Other organizational components and features Annual Meetings President’s Club Young Engineers Program (YEP) and IABSE Fellows BASAAR IABSE Logo Declarations IABSE Foundation for the Advancement of Structural Engineering, a closely related organization, from 1993

39 40 40 42 42 43 43 43 44 46 47 50

Other Related Organizations International organizations with similar objectives RILEM: R´eunion Internationale des Laboratoires d’Essais et de Recherche sur les Mat´eriaux et les Constructions IIW: International Institute of Welding FIB: F´ederation Internationale du B´eton IASS: International Association for Shell Structures CIB: Conseil Internationale du Bˆatiment ECCS: European Convention of Constructional Steelwork CTBUH: Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat ICOSSAR: International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability CERRA: International Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association IABMAS: International Association of Bridge Maintenance and Safety Liaison Committee, founded 1958 Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS)

55 55

57 58 58 61

The Early Quadrennial Congresses and Political Survival Through World War II Paris Congress 1932: The founders act A Congress planned for Rome: Political maneuvering Berlin–Munich Congress 1936 A politically delicate event Warsaw 1940: The Congress that did not take place and the war years Li`ege Congress 1948: Peace re-established Cambridge Congress 1952: A full rehabilitation

63 64 67 69 74 78 80

The Mature Development of IABSE Events Lisbon-Porto Congress 1956: Professionalism takes precedence over theory Stockholm Congress 1960 Rio de Janeiro Congress 1964, the first outside Europe The meeting schedule expands London Symposium 1967: “Design Philosophy and its application to precast structures”

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

51

55 55 55 56 56 56 56 57

83 84 84 84 85 86

New York Congress 1968: New York Symposium 1968: “On wearing surfaces for steel bridges of lightweight construction” London Symposium 1969: “On concepts of safety of structures and methods of design” Madrid Symposium 1970: “Design of concrete structures for creep, shrinkage and temperature changes” Prague Symposium 1971: “On mass-produced steel structures” London Colloquium 1971: “Design of plate and box girders for ultimate strength” Amsterdam Congress 1972 Lisbon Symposium 1973: “Resistance and ultimate deformability of structures acted on by well-defined repeated loads” Quebec Symposium 1974: “Design and safety of reinforced concrete compression members” Bergamo Colloquium 1974: “Concrete structures subject to tri-axial stresses” Dresden Symposium 1975: “Steel and composite structures for user needs” Paris Colloquium 1975: “On column strength” Tokyo Congress 1976 Munich Symposium 1977: “Problems associated with design and construction in developing countries” Moscow Symposium 1978: “Main trends in the development of steel structures and modern methods of their fabrication” Bergamo Colloquium 1978: “Interface between computing and design in structural engineering” Bergamo Seminar 1978: “Construction in seismic zones” Zurich Symposium 1979: “Bridges” Copenhagen Colloquium 1979: “Plasticity in reinforced concrete” The 50th Anniversary Congress in Vienna, 1980 London Symposium 1981: “The selection of structural forms” Delft Colloquium 1981: “Advanced mechanics of reinforced concrete” Washington Symposium 1982: “Maintenance, repair and rehabilitation of bridges” Lausanne Colloquium 1982: “Fatigue of steel and concrete structures” Tokyo Workshop 1982: “Health and safety in construction” Bergamo Workshop 1982: “Informatics in structural engineering” Venice Symposium 1983: “Strengthening of building structures—diagnosis and therapy” Rigi Workshop 1983: “Quality assurance within the building process” Copenhagen Colloquium 1983: “Ship collision with bridges and offshore structures” Vancouver Congress 1984: Luxemburg Symposium 1985: “Steel in buildings” Stockholm Colloquium 1986: “Thin-walled metal structures in buildings” Tokyo Symposium 1986: “Safety and quality assurance of civil engineering structures” Zurich Workshop 1986: “Organization of the design process” Delft Colloquium 1987: “Computational mechanics of concrete structures— advances and applications” Paris/Versailles Symposium 1987: “Concrete structures for the future”

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

86 87 87 87 88 88 88 88 89 89 89 89 89 91 91 91 91 91 92 92 94 94 94 94 94 95 95 95 95 95 96 96 96 97 97 97

Bergamo Colloquium 1987: “Monitoring of large structures and assessment of their safety” Helsinki Congress 1988 Lisbon Symposium 1989: “Durability of structures” Bergamo Colloquium 1989: “Expert systems in civil engineering” Lausanne Workshop 1990: “Remaining fatigue life of steel structures” Brussels Symposium 1990: “Mixed structures, including new materials” Brussels Short Course 1990: “Composite steel-concrete construction and Eurocode 4” Stuttgart Colloquium 1991: “Structural concrete” Nyborg Colloquium 1991: “The interaction between major engineering structures and the marine environment” Leningrad/St. Petersburg Symposium 1991: “Bridges: interaction between construction technology and design” New Delhi Congress 1992 Davos Conference 1992: “Structural Eurocodes” El Paular/Madrid Workshop 1992: “Length effect on fatigue of wires and strands” Beijing Colloquium 1993: “Knowledge-based systems in civil engineering” G¨oteborg Conference 1993 (jointly with CIB W75 ): “Structural serviceability of buildings” Rome Symposium 1993: “Structural preservation of the architectural heritage” Copenhagen Colloquium 1993: “Remaining structural capacity” Birmingham Symposium 1994: “Places of assembly and long-span building structures” San Francisco Symposium 1995: “Extending the lifespan of structures” Bergamo Colloquium 1995: “Knowledge support systems in civil engineering” Copenhagen Congress 1996 Delft Colloquium 1996: “Basis of design and actions on structures; background, and application of Eurocode 1” Istanbul Colloquium 1996: “Semi-rigid structural connections” Lausanne Workshop 1997: “Evaluation of existing steel and composite bridges” Innsbruck Inter-Association Conference 1997: “Composite construction— conventional and innovative” Berlin Colloquium 1998: “Saving buildings in Central and Eastern Europe” Stockholm Colloquium 1998: “Tunnel structures” Kobe Symposium 1998: “Long-span and high-rise structures” New Delhi Colloquium 1999: “Foundations for major bridges: design and construction” Phuket Colloquium 1999: “Concrete model code for Asia. Structural concrete: design, materials and construction, and maintenance.”

Malm¨o Conference 1999: “Cable-stayed bridges: past, present and future” Rio de Janeiro Symposium 1999: “Structures for the future—the search for quality” Lucerne Congress 2000 Malta Inter-Association Conference 2001: “Safety, Risk, and Reliability—Trends in Engineering”

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

97 98 98 99 99 99 100 100 100 100 101 101 101 102 102 102 102 102 103 103 103 103 104 104 104 104 105 105 105 105 106 106 106 107

Seoul Conference 2001: “Cable-supported bridges—challenging technical limits” Lahti Conference 2001: “Innovative wooden structures and bridges” Melbourne Symposium 2002: “Towards a better built environment—innovation, sustainability, information technology” Antwerp Symposium 2003: “Structures for high-speed railway transportation” Shanghai Symposium (Congress) 2004: “Metropolitan habitats and infrastructure” New Delhi Conference 2005: “Role of structural engineers towards reduction of poverty” Lisbon Symposium 2005: “Structures and extreme events” Copenhagen Conference 2006: “Operation, maintenance and rehabilitation of large infrastructure projects, bridges and tunnels” Budapest Symposium 2006: “Responding to tomorrow’s challenges in structural engineering” Weimar Symposium 2007: “Improving infrastructure worldwide” Helsinki Conference 2008: “Information and communication technology (ICT) for bridges, buildings and construction practice” Chicago Congress 2008 Shanghai Workshop 2009: “Recent major bridges” Bangkok Symposium 2009: “Sustainable infrastructure—environment friendly, safe and resource efficient”

107 107 107 108 108 108 108 109 109 109 109 110 110 111

7

Trends in Professional Interest as Mirrored in the Events and Meetings

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8

Special Aspects of the Development of IABSE Publications Congress Reports, from 1932 Publications (Memoirs), 1932–1976 Bulletin, 1933–1977 Membership list, from 1932 Technical dictionary, 1935–1941 and from 2008 Reports of the Working Commissions (IABSE Reports), from 1965 Periodica, 1977–1990 Structural Engineering International, from 1991 Structural Engineering Documents, from 1982 Website, from 1996 IABSE Newsletter, from 2001 e-Learning, from 2007286 Membership Fees and finances IABSE honors, awards, distinctions, and prizes Honorary President, 1938–1993 Honorary Member, from 1949 International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering, from 1976 IABSE Prize, from 1983 Outstanding Paper Award, from 1991 Outstanding Structure Award, from 2000 Young Engineers Outstanding Contribution Award, from 2002

121 121 121 121 122 122 122 122 123 123 124 124 125 125 126 127 129 130 130 130 130 130 130 131

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE Foundation Award Anton Tedesko Medal, from 1998 9

The Sociopolitical Aspect: Personalities and Activities of Influential Contributing Members of IABSE Andreae, Charles (1874–1964), 2nd IABSE President (1938–1951) Bleich, Friedrich (1878–1950) Brunner, Ueli (b. 1957), Executive Director from 2005 Bryła, Stefan (1886–1943) Cambournac, Louis (1886–1973) Campus, Ferdinand (1894–1983) Combault, Jacques (b. 1943), 11th IABSE President (2007–2010) Cosandey, Maurice (b. 1918), 4th IABSE President (1966–1977) Edlund, Bo L. O. (b. 1936) Faltus, Frantiˇsek (1901–1989) Golay, Alain (b. 1943), Executive Director (1971–2005) Gretener, Lily (1903–1966), Secretary (1931–1964) von Gunten, Hans (b. 1930), 6th IABSE President (1985–1993) Hanson, John M. (b. 1932), 7th IABSE President (1993–1997) Hirt, Manfred A. (b. 1942), 10th IABSE President (2004–2007) Ito, Manabu (b. 1930), 9th IABSE President (2001–2004) Jutila, Aarne (b. 1940) Karner, Leopold (1888–1937) Kl¨onne, Moritz (1878–1962) Kokubu, Masatane (1913–2004) Maeda, Yukio (1922–2005) Oberti, Guido (1907–2003) Ostenfeld, Asger (1866–1931) Ostenfeld, Klaus H. (b. 1943), 8th IABSE President (1997–2001) Pigeaud, Gaston (1864–1950) Rohn, Arthur (1878–1956), 1st IABSE President (1929–1938) Roˇs, Mirko (1879–1962) Schneider, J¨org (b. 1934) Silman, Robert (b. 1935) St¨ussi, Fritz (1901–1982), 3rd IABSE President (1951–1966) Th¨urlimann, Bruno (1923–2008), 5th IABSE President (1977–1985)

Appendices: Membership Development Detailed listing of Congress sessions Keywords—An attempt to detect shifts in professional interest over the years IABSE office holders Presidents President-elect Vice-Presidents Scientific Secretaries/Technical Advisors General Secretaries Chair of the Technical Committee Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee Secretary of the Technical Committee Administrative Committee

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131 131 135 136 137 137 138 139 139 140 141 143 144 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 150 151 152 152 153 153 154 156 156 158 159 160 160 162 167 167 178 191 191 191 191 193 193 193 194 194 194

Secretary/Executive Director IABSE Foundation for the Advancement of Structural Engineering Presidents Honors, awards, distinctions, prizes Honorary Presidents, 1938–1993 Honorary Members, from 1949 International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering, from 1976 IABSE Prize, from 1983 Outstanding Paper Award, from 1992 Anton Tedesko Medal, from 1998 Outstanding Structure Award, from 2000 Young Engineers Outstanding Contribution Award, from 2002

195 195 195 195 195 195 196 197 197 198 199 201

Source Information

203

Index of Names (Associated with IABSE)

213

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Foreword

I am pleased to hold in my hands an unfolding history of IABSE which, until now, was a legend. Many of us, even long-time Members, did not know most of the early history of IABSE. We have heard stories of the past from longstanding Members but none of us had all the historical facts. Now we know and I feel that my being a Member has a more complete and fuller meaning for me.

It was important to write this history now to benefit from the living memory of past presidents and longstanding dedicated Members. This project was initiated upon the retirement of Executive Director, Alain Golay, who served the organization for over 30 years. It was also important that this history be written because, as the author quotes IABSE Foundation Past President Jean-Claude Badoux, “No history, no memory, no future!� The 80th anniversary of IABSE was a good milestone at which to initiate writing this History.

This is a wonderful, easy to read book and the author, Prof. Dr. Tom F. Peters, should be commended on his successful research and presentation of the historic facts. Our thanks go to all who shared their memories and contributed to this book. Special thanks should go to the IABSE Foundation without whose support this book would not have been possible. I hope you will enjoy reading and get as much pleasure from this book as I did.

Predrag L. Popovic President of IABSE

xi IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Introduction

In 2009, IABSE decided to publish a history of the Association from its inception to celebrate their 80th anniversary. This was made possible by generous financial support from the IABSE Foundation for the Advancement of Structural Engineering. Generally we tend to think of history as a luxury, the luxury of contemplation and a passive preoccupation for one’s retirement years. Elementary school spoiled it for most of us because the subject was never treated as an intellectually challenging pursuit. It was taught as a series of bald facts and dates concerning iconic heroes and battles; but facts are to history as numbers are to mathematics: they merely form its alphabet. History is really the examination of case studies from a distance, and case studies are familiar to engineers as one of the chief methods by which the field of engineering develops. Case studies look at the “why” and “how” of a development more than the “what” it was and “who” did it, and these are questions that are relevant to us in our current work. History involves memory, a key human characteristic, and it deals directly with the questions we constantly pose to our development. Memory is what forms our experience, and experience is what teaches us how to ask questions and develop answers to the problems that concern us. So, history is actually an interactive planning tool. As our questions change over time, so must history be periodically rewritten. IABSE Foundation Past-President, Anton Tedesko Medal Laureate, and Honorary Member Jean-Claude Badoux put it most succinctly: “No history, no memory, no future!”1 This account examined many archival documents for the first time in detail with the goal of discovering the reasons for founding IABSE, the mechanisms by which that happened, and for the changes that occurred in its development over the decades, and, although the general outlines of IABSE’s history as known from the 50th anniversary Jubilee brochure published in 1980 were confirmed as correct, many hitherto unknown details were uncovered that revealed new aspects and the long forgotten work of many unsung pioneers. An organization as complex and successful as IABSE does not thrive on the ideas and the decisions of the presidents alone, but also on the work of those who suggested, amplified, supported, and implemented them. The diverse cultural backgrounds, characters, and thoughts of all these contributors – and their agreements and disagreements – are important to the story and flesh out the bare facts.

For the first time also, the difficult period bracketing World War II was examined fully and the role evaluated that those responsible played who shepherded the young and fragile Association through this period.

Technical site visit during the Shanghai Workshop in 2009 xiii IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

I wish to express my profound gratitude to many of the participants in the events and developments described in this account. They helped me with information and personal recollections, and they made access to the material in the archives easy.

The staff of the Secretariat, especially Executive Director Ueli Brunner and Marketing and Communications Manager Sissel Niggeler were always open for questions and supplied many contacts and insights into people and events.

Executive Director Ueli Brunner and Marketing and Communications Manager Sissel Niggeler form an excellent administrative team; they share a light moment at the Weimar Symposium registration desk in 2007 while the image of the Executive Committee looks on

Niggeler also ferreted out many issues that had long lain dormant, and senior members of the Association, especially Past-Presidents Jacques Combault, Maurice Cosandey, Hans von Gunten, John M. Hanson, Manfred Hirt, Manabu Ito, and Klaus Ostenfeld gave generously of their time and recollections that helped bring these issues to life. Other active participants in IABSE’s development also provided valuable information and help. Prominent among these were Jean-Claude Badoux, Mourad Bakhoum, Bo Edlund, former Executive Director Alain Golay, Aarne Jutila, and J¨org Schneider. Edlund, Golay, von Gunten, Hirt, and especially Schneider took the trouble to comb through the text multiple times – a time-consuming and painstaking task – and offered invaluable help in organization and fact checking. All of these deeply committed Association members helped define the questions for which they and I had to find the answers. They also helped evaluate the facts and their interpretation to accord them their proper balance in the story, and through that they contributed substantially to the project and helped minimize my mistakes and lacunae. I regret that a few of these may unfortunately persist.

Tom F. Peters, 2011

xiv IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Chapter

1

Prehistory

The 1922 Conference of the TKVSB Like all new ideas, the IABSE originated in a combination of events. The beginning is marked by the general assembly of the TKVSB (Technische Kommission des Verbandes Schweizerischer Br¨uckenbau- und Stahlhochbau-Unternehmungen – Association of Swiss Bridge and Steel-Structure Contractors’ Technical Commission) on September 29th–30th, 1922. The TKVSB had been formed as a support group by Swiss steel industrialists before World War I. By 1921 the six founding industries had been joined by representatives of the railways, the technical universities, the machine industry, and the government. Its president at the time was the dynamic industrialist and bridge builder Rudolf Wartmann, and it was now ready in the post-war era to expand its purview beyond Switzerland by engaging the international arena.

The 1922 meeting was held at the ETH (Eidgen¨ossische Technische Hochschule – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich. Two of the initiators of what was later to become IABSE and who gave the primary impetus for this meeting were the TKVSB’s secretary Mirko Roˇs and the ETH representative to the Association, Professor Arthur Rohn. Both were bridge builders and Roˇs was also a materials expert and the spiritus rector of the meeting.

Both men were convinced internationalists and concerned to overcome the four-year hiatus 1914–1918 in intellectual professional activity during World War I and the consequent professional isolation of engineers in the former combatant countries.

Isolation hindered communication, and Roˇs and Rohn were of the opinion that an international exchange of ideas would rekindle the development of bridge building, both in a literal and in a philosophical sense. They were convinced that Switzerland, that had stayed neutral during the four-year conflict, could play a constructive mediating role. As a result and in addition to the 80 Swiss participants (subsequent authors erroneously claimed fewer)2 they solicited and received communications from bridge engineers from 12 countries including the USA and India.3 Four of these were present in person at the Zurich meeting.4 Arthur Vierendeel came from Belgium. He was renowned for his work on the truss form that bears his name. Two Germans also attended. The first of these was Friedrich Bohny, a famed expert on the use of nickel steel.5

View of Zurich around 1922 showing the ETH where the TKVSB conference was held (photo courtesy: ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, image archive) 1 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Forty-nine of the participants of the 1922 TKVSB conference photographed at the Zurich Tonhalle restaurant after the official luncheon; Rohn’s assistant Karl Hofacker and Arthur Vierendeel stand at the back right, Robert Maillart and Roˇs in the middle right, Arthur Rohn left front with possibly ETH Rektor Walter Wyssling above his right shoulder and Fran¸cois Sch¨ule, director of EMPA seated below at his left (photo: gift of Karl Hofacker, now in IABSE archive) Bohny (known fondly in professional circles as “der alte Bohny”) was Director of the Bridge Division of the Gutehoffnungsh¨utte in Oberhausen and had worked on Germany’s highest ¨ railway bridge, the M¨ungsten Bridge over the Wupper River, 1893–1897.6 His book Uber die Verwendung hochwertiger St¨ahle im Br¨uckenbau (1916) was widely read. The second German was Emil Heinrich Probst, a pioneer in the analysis and theory of reinforced concrete, whose two most prominent publications were the articles: “Das Zusammenwirken von Beton und Eisen” (1906), an early analysis of the bond between steel and cement, and “Untersuchungen an durchlaufenden Eisenbetonkonstruktionen” (1912), an equally early study of monolithic structure in concrete. The fourth international participant was Alfred Hawranek from Brno in Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic). Hawranek was a theoretician, and his inaugural lecture as professor in 1913, “Grenzgebiete der angewandten Elastizit¨ats- und Festigkeitslehre” as well as his recently published “Nebenspannungen von Eisenbeton-Bogenbr¨ucken” (1919) were widely appreciated. The presence of these eminent guests, none of whom gave a paper however, was in part certainly due to personal contacts – Rohn, for instance, had been Bohny’s predecessor as Head of the Bridge Division of the Gutehoffnungsh¨utte in 19007 and Roˇs had worked there in 1908.8 These foreign visitors, and the fact that their presence was stressed in all reporting, reflected a desire to internationalize the meeting through personal contacts 2 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

and to incorporate the latest in theory, practice, and material studies in steel and concrete. An exhibit of testing apparatus accompanied the meeting, probably as an afterthought, but it proved a success among the participants. The idea to exhibit visual and object materials reappeared much later, at the Vienna Congress of 1980, in the form of poster sessions.

Rohn was the political and institutional organizer of this meeting and Roˇs was its intellectual father, and his conceptual approach to the field of structural engineering set the tone of the conference, in particular regarding materials and their testing in bridge building. The program reflected Roˇs’s maxim that experience and experiment were equal partners in the advance of the field (“Der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und der Erfahrung muss das gleiche Mitspracherecht einger¨aumt werden”)9 whereas Rohn postulated the more traditional German and Swiss combination of theory and practice,10 although it was he who had always insisted in his teaching at the ETH on the importance of the humanistic side of an engineer’s education.11

Arthur Rohn (1878–1956), reserved and a statesman, one of the five initiators of the Association and the first IABSE President

Over the years Roˇs implemented his maxim and contributed to the advance of monolithic structural systems through his pragmatic testing of the pioneering concrete bridges of Robert Maillart in the face of all conservative academic resistance to new concepts, a resistance espoused in particular by Rohn. Roˇs’s experiential/experimental view predetermined the concept of the later IABSE and strongly influenced the development of the whole field of structural engineering in Switzerland and beyond, and he subsequently gave this viewpoint additional weight when he became Professor of Materials and Materials Testing at the ETH and Director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Testing Materials (EMPA) in 1924. Roˇs was Mirko Roˇs (1879–1962), temalways convinced that technology has an important interna- peramental, with charm and tional connective role to play,12 and he enhanced this role humor, another of the five through his humor, his playful spontaneity, and his social initiators of the Association skills.13 As a full-blooded engineer, he knew that techno- (photo courtesy: ETH-Bibliology has an eminently cultural role to contribute to human thek Zurich, image archive) experience.14 This conviction has characterized his brainchild, the IABSE through the years, as for example demonstrated in IABSE President Bruno Th¨urlimann’s article “Technology and Man?” in the 50-year Jubilee Brochure 1979.15 Quite apart from Roˇs’s professional concept however, social contact was also writ large at the 1922 conference: “The social high point was a lively banquet at which President R. Wartmann welcomed the participants with their spouses in the name of the hosting VSB [Verein Schweizerischer Br¨uckenbau-Unternehmungen – Association of Swiss Bridgebuilding Companies]. All speeches, so pleasantly interspersed with musical performances and even a short dramatic presentation, stressed the need for collegial interaction as an intellectual bridge between nations. All were happily willing to forget what separated them, at least for a few brief hours, and to enjoy what united them, and all were grateful to colleague M. Roˇs who had so successfully acted as the driving force not only behind 3 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

the scientific but also the human intentions of the Technische Kommission.”16 Perhaps in contrast to the extremely reserved Rohn,17 the gregarious Roˇs was acutely aware that the real work of a conference often occurs through chance individual encounters that provide the social and professional “glue” to underpin and legitimize official acts and presentations, and this stress on the social aspect of international contact was subsequently to play a continually important role in the ensuing Association.

The Belgian Ferdinand Campus (always known to IABSE as “Fernand”), an extremely active member and later IABSE Vice-President, remembered one such personal interaction that may stand as representative of many fruitful encounters in the train of later IABSE meetings: “I remember walks along the shore of Lake Geneva at Montreux-Territet as evening fell in 1933 with Maillart and [Luigi] Santarella. As great swans glided majestically on the softly lapping waters, Maillart explained in detail how he had solved structural difficulties in a bridge bordering the lake, and Santarella evoked the religious rites of ancient Rome to enhance the ability of bridge builders and discussed the broad scope of the research projects he was then planning and that his death would soon interrupt.”18 Arthur Rohn with students on a site visit around 1925 (photo: gift of Fritz St¨ussi, now in IABSE archive)

The 1926 Conference in Zurich A mere four years after the end of the devastation of World War I, the TKVSB meeting had been among the early attempts to reactivate and reinternationalize the profession, and the participants decided in their final session to create a true international bridge and structures conference on September 20th—21st, 1926, also to be held at the ETH in Zurich. The organizing committee members were the TKVSB’s new President E. Holder, the Association’s Secretary E. Bolleter, Professor Fritz H¨ubner of the Federal Transportation Department in Bern, Rohn, who had by then become Rektor (Provost) of the ETH as chair of the committee, Roˇs, who was by then Director of EMPA as its Secretary, ETH Professor Max Ritter, former Technical Director of the firm Z¨ublin & Cie., then President of the SIA’s (Swiss Engineer and Architects’ Association) Concrete Committee and who had built several important concrete railway bridges, and Adolf B¨uhler, Director of the Bridge Division of the National Railway System who had recently rebuilt the Grandfey Viaduct in Fribourg encasing the original iron pylons in a concrete Melan-arch bridge. These seven men met on June 14th, 192619 and the invitation was

4 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

published in the SIA’s journal Schweizerische Bauzeitung (SBZ) on July 17th.20 The organization of the conference was modern in concept with 300-word abstracts solicited from potential presenters and a limit of 15 minutes for presentation with discussion at the end of the sessions.21 The program was later extended by a day to September 22nd.22 The intention of the conference was to engender a “discussion of burning questions concerning bridge and structural engineering.”23 Frantiˇsek Faltus, later a prominent member of IABSE, was a young attendee of this conference. He had found it advertized in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung and convinced his boss to attend and to take him along. “For a young graduate two years out of school in Vienna it was an experience to encounter and meet so many prominent scientists and practitioners, to follow their animated discussions and to experience so much that was not taught at school. School knowledge, science and practice, respect for building codes and unfettered creativity do not follow congruent paths.”24

Frantiˇsek Faltus (1901– 1989) in later years (1980), one of the world’s eminent structural welding pioneers and the first permanent committee member from Czechoslovakia – today the Czech Republic

The conference was well organized. Each participant received a voluminous collection of 26 offprints in an elegant black folder, probably from the Bauzeitung entitled “Schweizerische Ingenieurbauwerke in Theorie und Praxis,” or in the French version “Construction du Domaine du G´enie Civil en Suisse” (Theory and Practice in Swiss Structures).25 The motto of the conference was “An international discussion of current questions in bridge and structural engineering,”26 and the topics were grouped into three main themes: A. General Interest to be held in a plenum session chaired by Rohn; B. Iron Construction, split into two sessions, one chaired by Roˇs and one by B¨uhler;27 and C. Masonry, Concrete and Reinforced Concrete, also split into two sessions, chaired by H¨ubner and Ritter.

Each of the three conference topics was further subdivided into materials, testing, statics and construction, and current case studies. The organizers were again Rohn and Roˇs, this time with Rohn who had by now been appointed president of the governing board of the ETH (Swiss Board of Higher Education – Schweizerischer Schulrat) assuming the role of host along with the new ETH Rektor, Charles Andreae. Several Swiss professional associations and government bodies lent their official support, and this meeting gathered around 190 participants from 16 nations.28 Among the participants was also Gaston Pigeaud, Inspecteur G´en´eral des Ponts et Chauss´ees from France29 who was later to prove one of the seminal founders of IABSE. “The chairman Prof. Dr. Ing. A. Rohn, President of the Swiss Board of Higher Education and his collaborators, above all the always genial Prof. Mirko Roˇs and Professors Karner30 and Ritter etc. understood how to unite the polyglot and heterogeneous group to collaborate fruitfully.

The very paper presentations were perfectly disciplined. Even the most prominent presenters had to adhere to the planned time limits. One of the most discussed and humorously recounted events was the lecture by Dr. [Fritz] Emperger, then one of the leading exponents of reinforced concrete construction. When in the course of his expansive presentation on ‘Experiments with

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columns in spirally constrained concrete and cast iron,’ he stated: ‘Gentlemen, now that I have briefly outlined the subject of my talk. . .’, the session chairman stood and said: ‘I am sorry, but your time is up. I thank you.’ The auditorium applauded and the confused presenter had to sit down. Later that afternoon, in a free quarter hour, Dr. Emperger was able to give a shortened version of his lecture.”31

Fritz von Emperger (1862– 1942), an early expert in reinforced-concrete and one of the two first permanent committee members from Austria (photo courtesy: Dr. Karl-Eugen Kurrer, Berlin)

As a result of an interesting presentation on welding in bridge construction by an engineer from Bern named Fr¨ohlich and the animated discussion it engendered, Faltus returned to Pilsen determined to pursue the issue. A few years later he became (after Stefan Bryła, another prominent early Association member) one of the first engineers to design and build a fully welded long-span bridge in 1931 and a life-long expert in the field.32 This is the first recorded instance of a long list of influences that international conferences and especially the IABSE events later exerted on young engineers and through them on the development of the field.

Once again the conference was accompanied by an exhibition of test apparatus and images of Swiss bridges,33 the topic of many of the presentations that the Swiss engineers excelled in, and this time a site visit organized by the Swiss National Railway took the participants to see the north ramp of the Gotthard Railway on the day following the conference.34 At the end of this site visit, after the usual banquet and several speeches of thanks, The 1649 H¨aderlis Bridge, sometimes known as the Sprengi the participants hiked back Bridge was the oldest standing bridge on the ancient Gotthard over part of the ancient GotPass route when the conference participants crossed and “load thard Pass mule track through tested” it in 1926 after their excursion to the Gotthard Railway the Sch¨ollenen Canyon and ramp (photo: Schweizerische Bauzeitung 1926) over the masonry arch of the 1649 “Sprengi” Bridge (also known as the “H¨aderlis Bridge”), thereby “load-testing” the oldest bridge still standing on the pass route!

Such convivial social events were typical of the tenor of the conference and probably owed much to Roˇs’s influence.35 The conference was deemed a great success, and on the final evening, a banquet was held at the elegant Dolder Waldhaus Hotel at the edge of the Z¨urichberg forest above the city.

Roˇs, in his role as secretary of the organizing committee took the opportunity to express his 6 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

maxim coupling experience and experiment and Chairman Rohn, pleased at the success of the conference that capped his 18-year career as professor at the ETH, announced that Austrian “Ministerialrat” Anton Hafner had extended an invitation to hold the Second International Conference on Bridges and Structures in Vienna and proposed the first half of September 1928 as the date.

By 1926, the development had snowballed, and international technological conferences had become common. The Zurich meeting, innovative though it was, was no longer unique, the most international, or even the largest such event. Among others, a Congress of Worldwide Energy had been held in Basel from August 31st to September 8th with pre-published contributions in four languages.36 The following two weeks (September 6th–19th), saw the far larger Fifth International Congress on Roads with 53 countries represented and about 2000 participants in Milan,37 and the ETH itself had hosted the second International Congress for Technical Mechanics the week before at which meeting Rohn invited the participants to take part in the immediately following TKVSB conference.38 On September 18th Roˇs participated in the planning meeting at the ETH for a further international congress on Technical Materials Testing to be held in Amsterdam the following year.39 Shortly thereafter Vienna hosted an International Congress for Housing and Urban Design,40 and Berlin-Charlottenburg would host the International Congress for Photogrammetry in November.41

The 1928 Conference in Vienna In Switzerland at the end of July 1928, ETH Professor Leopold Karner, one of Rohn’s two successors as Professor at the ETH (the other was Max Ritter, as Rohn’s chair had been split into two fields, steel and concrete), sent out invitations to the Second International Conference on behalf of the Viennese organizing committee.42 The purpose was simply to be a “Second International Meeting for Bridge and Structural Engineering,”43 behind which was an unspoken political agenda: to establish an association. Therefore the organization was far more political and ample than it had been in Zurich. As befitted Austrian usage, in which social standing plays an important role even today, honorary presidents were the presidents of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers of the UK, and the Society of Civil Engineers of France, the general secretary of the Fascist National Syndicate of Italian Engineers, the president of the Swiss Board of Higher Education, and the chairmen of the German Association of Iron Construction and the German Concrete Society. No one of any political importance was to be left out. Patrons of the meeting were to be the Austrian Minister for Trade and Transportation and the Mayor of Vienna.

As Karner informed the Schweizerische Bauzeitung’s readers, the main presentations were to be prepublished.

A committee consisting of two professors from the TH Vienna, Friedrich Hartmann and Rudolf Saliger, an early reinforced concrete engineer,44 organized the conference as chair and vicechair respectively, and Friedrich Bleich, co-founder of the journal Der Eisenbau, as secretary who also wrote the official final report.45 Bleich, who was one of the original founding members of the Association together with Pigeaud and Roˇs, remained a very active member of what was to be the IABSE until the political situation in Austria forced his resignation in 1938.46 In one of three plenary addresses, Hartmann spoke on bridge aesthetics, a subject he taught at the Vienna Technische Hochschule and had just published in book form.47 This set the tone for an overarching understanding of the field of bridge (and building) construction 7 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Technical visits to bridges and other structures of note formed an integral part of all conferences from the beginning and fostered informal professional contact and unofficial networking; the 1928 conference visited this railway bridge in Vienna (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive)

The conference participants on the box truss railway bridge in Vienna 1928 (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive) as a cultural endeavor. Paul Ludwig Roth prepared the session on steel construction, and the well-known Fritz von Emperger, founder of the Betonkalender and the influential journal Beton und Eisen, prepared the reinforced concrete session. A very successful tour of bridges in Vienna served to cement the social aspect of the conference.

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View of a conference plenary session in the Imperial Hofburg Ballroom, Vienna, September 1928 (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive)

Detail view of one of the working sessions in Vienna, September 1928, showing the famous German theoretician Otto Mohr seated in the middle of the second row (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive) 9 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

The Vienna Conference took place from September 24th–27th and was even more successful than the last measured in terms of number and breadth of participation. Almost 600 engineers registered and they came, as the report euphemistically claimed: “from almost all the countries in the world.”48 Among them were the most celebrated names in bridge construction at the time. Karner, reporting in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung,49 stressed particularly the section on materials testing that he judged to be forward-looking and fruitful for future development.

Robert Maillart (1872–1940), Swiss reinforced-concrete pioneer (photo: commemorative publication by Mirko Roˇs 1940, collection Tom F. Peters)

Emil Moersch (1872–1950), German reinforced-concrete theoretician

Asger Ostenfeld (1866–1931), early concrete theoretician as a young man; one of the two first permanent committee members from Denmark and an enthusiastic supporter of the Association (from the private collection of Klaus Ostenfeld)

Robert Maillart, the Swiss concrete pioneer, also wrote a report in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung,50 in which he particularly appreciated the contribution of Emil Heinrich Probst from Karlsruhe, a veteran of the 1922 conference in Zurich, who discussed dynamic and periodic loading and its effect on cracking in reinforced concrete, as well as the papers by Asger Ostenfeld from Copenhagen, an enthusiastic founding member of the ensuing Association (who sent his paper as he was prevented from participating in person),51 and Alfred Hawranek from Brno, another 1922 veteran, who agreed with Maillart’s own opinion that model testing was the only way to examine lateral stability in concrete bridges. Maillart himself was most impressed by Albert Caquot’s and Eug`ene Freyssinet’s papers on their newest bridges. Freyssinet had just patented the invention of prestressed concrete that year. However, Maillart also criticized the celebrated theoretician Emil Moersch’s paper as antiquated in its premise. Moersch, one of the most active of the early reinforced concrete pioneers in Germany, had published the first and most authoritative theory of reinforced concrete in 1902.52 From 1904–1908 he had occupied the chair of concrete construction at the ETH in Zurich before returning to Germany and private practice and then to Stuttgart University. Curiously, Moersch appears not to have been subsequently active in IABSE. Whether this might have been due to resentment that he had left the ETH is unknown.

The Dane Asger Ostenfeld had been taken with the idea of an international association from the start, and had possibly discussed the idea with Rohn and Roˇs at the previous TKVSB meeting in 1926. “A growing interest had been observed abroad for founding an international professional association to foster structural theory and practice. In early May 1928 he [A. Ostenfeld] sent out an invitation to a group of engineers involved in his own field and 14 of them met at his laboratory office the evening of May 15.”53 The group founded a Danish association on October 9th, 1928 under the auspices of the 10

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Dansk Ingeniørforening (Danish Engineers’ Association) with its own journal. Ostenfeld’s assistant Alfred Moe was a member and one of the initiators of this group.54 This predated the founding of IABSE and may have been the first association with this particular focus.

Later, on December 14th, 1929, Ostenfeld subsequently also founded the Danish chapter of IABSE in his office. Ostenfeld remained Danish representative to the Permanent Committee until his death in 1931.

Thanks to Rohn, Roˇs, Ostenfeld, and others, the idea of a focused international professional association was thus beginning to proliferate among the participants at Vienna, and the decision was taken to establish a committee to prepare a proposal. The instigators were Roˇs, Pigeaud from France, and Bleich, the Secretary of the Vienna Conference from Austria. Ostenfeld who was very much involved with the idea was not present in Vienna for health reasons, but his assistant Alfred Moe, was. Moe later wrote that one of the chief reasons behind the formation of the Association, aside from international contact and exchange of information, was the proliferation and growth of specialized fields within structural engineering that had taken place in the field after World War I.55 Pigeaud, who had been designated delegate to the Vienna conference by the French Minister of Public Works together with his friend Th. Godard,56 also officially invited the group to hold their next conference in Paris and suggested 1931 or 1932 as the date.

As a result of the Vienna conference, Karner, who reported on the event for the Schweizerische Bauzeitung, made three recommendations to improve the next congress. He praised the idea to pre-publish the papers. This meant, he wrote, that the papers had to be ready at least six months in advance and that the theme groups had to be determined well ahead. On the one hand, this would allow discussions to be prepared in advance and more in detail, but what had happened in Vienna was that the prepared discussions often themselves became independent papers that in some cases had little to do with the topics they reacted to. Karner also regretted that the steel and concrete sessions were conducted simultaneously and in different venues as well, which did not allow participants to cross borders between the two fields. He regretted the loss of so much interesting information. Finally, the 13member Vienna committee that had prepared the themes, had been far too large, and the number of papers, which in Vienna was 43, was also too large. Karner pled for a leaner congress that would generate less fatigue and more fruitful discussion.

What Karner did not mention until later,57 was an agreement of great foresight: the creation of a standing committee, referred to in English as the “Permanent Committee” to

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Gaston Pigeaud (1864– 1950), one of the first three IABSE Vice-Presidents and one of the five initiators of the Association

Leopold Karner (1888– 1937), the first IABSE General Secretary and one of the five initiators of the Association (Photo: Schweizerische Bauzeitung 1937)

View of one of the sessions on concrete at the Vienna conference on September 24, 1928 with many of the most prominent founders of the field seated in the first two rows; the simultaneously held steel and concrete sessions did not allow participants to follow both fields (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive) contact between the second congress and the proposed third congress in Paris. This Permanent Committee that became the highest organ of IABSE and fulfilled the requirement of the “Generalversammlung� or General Assembly required by the Swiss law governing associations, was probably formed on a proposal by Rohn, whose political and diplomatic ambitions and skills were indisputable.

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IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Chapter

2

Acts That Founded IABSE

The Constituent Meeting of October 29th, 1929 Roˇs sent out an official letter of invitation on October 7th, 1929 in the name of the Vienna adhoc committee consisting of Gaston Pigeaud, Friedrich Bleich, and himself.58 This letter must have been the confirmation of a previous agreement, because the large constituting committee, encompassing the national representatives of 14 countries: Germany, the UK, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia,59 as well as prominent representatives from government, research, and industry, met in Zurich almost immediately thereafter on October 29th, “Black Tuesday” in the scenario of the stock market crash in New York that led to the Great Depression, but this had no effect at all on the proceedings that day. From Austria came the representatives Friedrich Bleich and Fritz von Emperger, from Belgium Ferdinand Campus, from Denmark Asger Ostenfeld, from France Gaston Pigeaud, from Germany five including Moritz Kl¨onne and Wilhelm Petry, from the Netherlands and Italy each two (including Luigi Santarella for Italy), from the UK John Mitchell Moncrieff, from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Norway, Poland, and Sweden one each, and from Switzerland six: Arthur Rohn, Adolf B¨uhler, Leopold Karner, O. Ziegler (penciled into the list for Robert Maillart), Max Ritter, and Mirko Roˇs.60 These delegates, of whom only those of later importance for the development of IABSE are mentioned here by name, were the Association’s founders. They decided then and there to form a permanent association. All this must have been worked out before to have progressed so smoothly and quickly. The actual founding act took place in the ornate ceremonial auditorium, the “Aula” of the Eidgen¨ossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) and must have been a solemn occasion.61 The meeting enacted bylaws that had been designed by the Vienna ad-hoc group, Bleich, Pigeaud, and Roˇs, the summer before and presented to the Swiss Group at a meeting in the second-class railway station restaurant in Olten on the invitation of Roˇs on July 19th.

Many had been unable to attend that preparatory meeting, but had sent notices of their interest, and B¨uhler, Ziegler, Karner, Maillart, Gustav Bener who was the engineer of the Rhaetian Railway, and Roˇs had been among those present.62 The bylaws consisting of eight articles were subsequently discussed at the founding meeting in Zurich in October, and the “Articles of Association” as they were then

View of Zurich around 1930 showing the ETH in the distance, the venue of the 1929 meeting (postcard view courtesy of ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, image archive) 15 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

called in English, voted on and passed. These remained essentially unchanged until 1974 (see later).63 The constituting assembly chose Zurich as its seat, at first tentatively, and then in 1931 permanently. The choice of Zurich was on the one hand to recognize Switzerland as the originator of the proposal for international collaboration, and on the other hand to take advantage of the international political situation of neutral Switzerland. As prime mover responsible for calling the meeting into existence, the Permanent Committee chose Rohn as the first IABSE President, a position he retained until 1938.64 His guiding maxim was that engineers are not only predestined to build material bridges, but also intellectual ones.65 The October 29th meeting was thus the founding act of the Association,66 and it was followed, as has been noted, by the official founding of the Danish Group in December.

Karner who functioned as Secretary of the Association from the very beginning subsequently sent a letter to all who had attended the constituent meeting requesting names of members, asking for public relations work from all attendees and generally organizing the Secretariat in Zurich. Furthermore, he reported in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung that: “The association’s purpose is the collaboration between professionals of the various nations and the exchange of ideas, the results of experience of theoretical and practical nature, and the results of research. A special working group will prepare an expos´e of the currently most pressing questions and problems and make recommendations as to how they might be attacked and how most effectively to coordinate and rationalize their discussion in the various countries. Reports and other publications will present the research results and communicate the experiences gained and distribute them to all members.”

“In addition to this ongoing collaboration, the association shall organize congresses at appropriate intervals to foster and expand the work of the Permanent Committee through personal contact with the membership at large.”

“The organization as defined in Zurich consists of the ‘Permanent Committee,’ to which each country shall delegate one or two members all depending on its number of registered individual or collective members (each member shall have up to two deputies). (Up to 49 members, each nation was represented by two delegates, and over that by four).67 The Permanent Committee shall elect [an Executive Committee, consisting of] a President who manages the association, three Vice-Presidents, a General Secretary, and two Scientific Secretaries, each of whom shall have one deputy.”68

If we were to distill the foundation of IABSE into a single sentence, it would state that Roˇs and Rohn recognized the need, Roˇs, Pigeaud, and Bleich developed the concept, Rohn guided the international politics and statecraft, and Karner defined and built the organization. These five men were the origin of IABSE and need to be recognized as such.

The First Meeting of the Permanent Committee in 1930, a Belgian Conference in Li`ege, and the Executive Committee Meets in Paris The first meeting of the Permanent Committee was set for April 4–5th, 1930 in Lugano. This is where the actual election of IABSE’s Executive Committee took place.69 From the outset it was decided that the president would reside in Zurich for practical reasons, but it was self-understood without being expressly stated that this meant that he would be Swiss and that 16 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

this would guarantee the political neutrality of IABSE (see the heading “bylaws” in Chapter 3 for details). This policy was only changed at the meeting of the Permanent Committee in New Delhi in 1992. The three vice-presidents were to be chosen one from each of the three official language groups: German, French, and English, and the seat of the Association was to be at the ETH in Zurich.

Members from the 14 founding countries that had attended the Zurich meeting took part. Among them were Maillart in the Swiss delegation, Asger Ostenfeld and his former assistant Anker Engelund (both professors at the DTH in Copenhagen) in the Danish, Pigeaud in the French, Bleich and von Emperger in the Austrian. Engineers from six further nations joined at that time: the Free City of Danzig (now part of Poland), Spain, Finland, Latvia, Romania, and the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Moreover, individuals from ten more applied for membership and some National Groups sent representatives too: Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Luxemburg, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Turkey, and the USA. Thus by this first meeting of the Permanent Committee, engineers from 20 states had joined or expressed interest, and a total of representatives from 30 countries participated.70 Karner reported that in certain cases (Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, and the USA) there was no national committee that solicited or organized memberships. That would all be coordinated from the central IABSE Secretariat. In others (Austria, Belgium, Danzig, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland) there were such national groupings to coordinate membership, and only business transactions would be coordinated in Zurich.71 A third category of countries possessed their own official organizations (Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and the UK) that organized all business and maintained a centralized relationship with Zurich. The IABSE Secretariat had ongoing contacts with Bulgaria, Greece, Luxemburg, Portugal, Russia, and Turkey, and had initiated contacts with Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, the USA, and the then British colonial dominions of South Africa, Australia, and Canada. The total tally of members was uncertain at the time, but was estimated to be 800 individual, and 600 collective members.72 This was overly optimistic, as the official numbers a year later were far lower (see graph in the Appendix for details).

Moritz Kl¨onne (1878–1962), German steel engineer and industrialist, one of the first three IABSE Vice-Presidents

John Mitchell Moncrieff (1865–1931), President of the Institution of Structural Engineers of the UK and one of the first three IABSE VicePresidents (photo courtesy: the Institution of Structural Engineers, London)

President Rohn, who was already in office, was to be seconded by the three vice-presidents elected in April. These were Moritz Kl¨onne, bridge engineer and contractor in Dortmund for ´ Germany, Gaston Pigeaud, Vice-Director of the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chauss´ees and Inspecteur G´en´eral des Ponts et Chauss´ees in Paris for France, and John Mitchell Moncrieff, President of the Institution of Structural Engineers for the UK. After Moncrieff’s death in 1931, Sir Thomas Hudson Beare of Edinburgh and London replaced him. The appointment of the general secretary was delegated to the Swiss representatives of the constituting body to facilitate coordination with the central office. The group chose Leopold Karner of the ETH. Karner had worked for the Gutehoffnungsh¨utte (as had Rohn and Roˇs), and had also worked 17 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

for Moritz Kl¨onne’s firm from 1922 to 1927 as well.73 Friedrich Bleich and Ferdinand Campus from Li`ege, Belgium were elected as the Scientific Secretaries (later renamed Technical Advisors in the bylaw revision of 1974) and Th. Godard from Pau, France, a close friend of Pigeaud, and Wilhelm Petry, Chairman of the German Concrete Association (Deutscher Beton-Verein) from Oberkassel-Siegkreis were chosen as their respective deputies.74 Both steel and concrete construction was well represented, and with two successful conferences and ongoing contacts between many of the participants already to its credit, the new association was off to an excellent start.

It was surprising that the cofounder of the whole movement Roˇs was not elected to an official function in the Executive Committee, although he did, like Maillart, remain a Swiss representative to the Permanent Committee for many years. There is no record whether this was his own wish, due perhaps to his many other official duties, or whether it was a sign of the coolness that had grown in the relationship between Rohn and Roˇs over for instance the value of Robert Maillart’s pioneering work in reinforced concrete,75 and his unsuccessful candidacy for a professorship at the ETH. Carl Jegher, the influential editor of the Schweizerische Bauzeitung had thrown the full weight of his opinion behind Roˇs in this argument. Rohn resented that and also disagreed theoretically with Maillart on his research into the center of shear.76 Both explanations are possible and even probable, especially since the characters of the two men were so different, Roˇs being a spontaneous, playful, and gregarious character and Rohn, reserved and statesmanlike, but since both remained to the end discreet in their personal opinions of others, no information is available. One pragmatic explanation is to be found in a comment of Karner’s that he and Rohn were working closely with Roˇs, the “General Secretary of the New International Association of Materials Testing.”77 Roˇs therefore evidently decided to concentrate his efforts there. Whatever the personal interaction may have been, Roˇs had already put his stamp on the tenor of the Association in advance, and his spirit continued to reverberate in its future work. Karner, who was by then General Secretary of the Association, was Viennese by birth and apparently gifted with the same collegiality and enthusiasm as Roˇs.78 As Roˇs retreated from active participation in the organization of the Association, his role as animator of the social aspects of the young Association apparently fell increasingly to Karner.

The Executive Committee immediately proposed that its members were not to be considered national representatives but international members, obviously to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. As there was no contradictory opinion, this proposal was accepted.79 A discussion broke out over a second proposal that as many national representatives as possible should attend the Permanent Committee meetings so that they would be privy to all discussions. As to the relationship with the new International Association for Materials Testing, Italy suggested a merging of the two, but it was decided to keep them separate. Italy acquiesced after discussion. The definitive separation between IABSE and the International Association for Materials Testing may have marked the beginning of Roˇs’s withdrawal from official IABSE participation.

The previous year in Vienna, the French ad hoc representative Pigeaud had already proposed his city, Paris to host the third conference, and Paris was therefore easily decided upon as the site for the next international conference, or congress, as it came to be called. It would be held in 1932. No sooner was this officially agreed upon than the Italian delegate made a first mention of Rome as a possible venue for the following congress.80 The meeting also concerned itself with the idea of evaluating the interest expressed by the various National Groups involved and especially to decide on the program and mode of further collaboration.

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Karner was evidently an excellent organizer and proceeded building the Association quickly.

The second Permanent Committee meeting took place in Zurich on April 9th–11th, 1931, and Karner reported that the membership goals defined in Lugano were not reached, but that 420 individuals and 140 collective members was nevertheless a respectable number for the first full year of operation.81 The Belgian Group held its own engineering conference: “Congr`es International de la Construction M´etallique” as part of the centenary celebrations of Belgium’s independence under Professor Campus in Li`ege September 1st–5th, at which Roˇs spoke and Rohn participated as chair of one of the three sessions,82 and at which the delegates petitioned the Association’s Executive Committee specifically to make quite certain that both materials, steel and concrete would be treated equitably in Paris. Their interest was that this should not only be reflected in the constitution of the Executive Committee and the membership, but also that the member countries could conduct research in both materials independently of one another if they so desired. According to Louis Grelot (Honorary Member from 1963) writing in 1949, Pigeaud was also concerned that both materials be treated equitably.83 This was the beginning of a shift in focus toward exclusive steel and concrete work and away from Roˇs’s overarching questions and therefore unifying issues of materials, testing, statics, and construction, and current case studies. This trend, with the addition of a focus on methods of analysis and calculation that began with the very first Congress in 1932, would last until the Stockholm Congress of 1960 and it reverberated after that and even until the Amsterdam Congress of 1972 a nascent interest in overarching questions and system theoretical aspects began once again to strengthen the link between materials.

The Belgian petition was to prove especially fortuitous for the development of IABSE. No one could have foreseen that the relatively new material reinforced concrete would develop in tandem with tried-and-true steel construction and that eventually the two would collaborate so effectively in today’s mixed and composite systems. The petition was discussed at the Executive Committee meeting held in Paris on December 15th–16th, 1930 at which the participants also recognized that research collaboration across national boundaries was obviously hampered by the fact that there was no centrally located coordinator.

Communication in the early and mid-20th century was slow compared to what we have come to take for granted via the Internet. Contact was either by government mail service, which was as slow as it still is, by telegraph which was cumbersome, or by telephone, and international telephone calls were expensive, connections were of haphazard quality, and one was often forced to wait more than a day to connect.

To alleviate the situation, President Rohn and GeneralSecretary Karner proposed to coordinate all research endeavors via the Association’s secretariat at the ETH and suggested creating a co-General-Secretary position to share the workload. They proposed Max Ritter.84 Karner himself would coordinate research in steel and Ritter in concrete and masonry to assure that both materials would receive equal treatment. Ritter was both a theoretician and 19 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Max Ritter (1884–1946), second IABSE General Secretary, and the first for concrete (photo courtesy: ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, image archive)

a practitioner and had demonstrated his border-crossing interest in his Ph.D. dissertation “Contributions to the theory and calculation of arched plate girders without crown hinge.”85 Campus, evidently a far-sighted thinker, later remarked how well the two complemented one another: Karner the gregarious and vivacious Viennese and Ritter the calm, serious, and more stolid Germanic Swiss who avoided all representation functions,86 but assured that all was well organized, especially later in the politically difficult preparation of the 1936 Congress in Berlin. It seems that neither the question of independent research in the two materials, nor the overarching unification of issues was discussed. Rohn communicated the solution proposed by the Executive Committee to the Belgian Group and stressed that “. . .each country enjoyed complete organizational freedom to determine the degree to which they would work with the central organization and that each Interest Group could always communicate with the appropriate General Secretary.”87 This meeting also agreed with the Paris organizing committee that only papers approved by the Permanent Committee would be permitted at the Congress and that no others would be tolerated. This decision was taken in reaction to the somewhat chaotic situation that had prevailed in Vienna as Karner had reported. Since unplanned, so-called “free” papers were usual at conferences in those days, the meeting suggested that the congress might permit such contributions to be circulated in printed form.

There were to be a total of six half-day sessions, three for steel and three for concrete, and the national committees were to propose a total of three to four papers for each. The sessions were to be held sequentially so that the delegates could attend all of them. That too had been a complaint in Vienna. The chair of each session would be chosen so that each of the three official languages (determined in the bylaw modifications of 1931) was represented in both the steel and the concrete group. Translators were to be provided for each session. The chairs and their deputies would summarize their sessions with a working group that included the corresponding general-secretary and present these for approval to the final plenary. The papers, discussions, and these final reports were to be published and distributed for a fee to the delegates.

Abstracts of the accepted papers were to be translated into all three official languages and distributed in advance of the congress to all members, while the full text was only to be distributed among the presenters. After receiving the abstracts, members and delegates could register as discussants with the Executive Committee. This dragged on as the minutes of the Executive Committee on June 5th, 1931 reported.88 At the conference itself, the presenters would talk about their papers for 15 minutes and the remaining time was to be devoted to discussion.89 Finally, at the same meeting, a first part-time office manager with the title of Secretary was appointed in the person of bilingual Pierre E. Soutter, who was also part-time Secretary of the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects in Zurich. Soutter was a practicing engineer and bridge builder and later involved in the founding of the FEANI (F´ed´eration europ´eene d’associations nationales des ing´enieurs—European Federation of National Engineering Associations) in 1951 and another, now inactive organization, EUSEC (Europe – United States Engineering Conference). He was thus the ideal person at the time to combine practice, administration, and international as well as border-crossing contact between engineers and architects. Soutter’s appointment completed the organization of the Executive Committee and the staffing of the Secretariat office and guaranteed further useful contacts for the young Association.

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The Name of the New Association Although Rohn’s mother tongue was French, he was a perfect German speaker and his focus lay on “Br¨ucken” as well as “Hochbau,” and therefore the German name of the new association became Internationale Vereinigung f¨ur Br¨ucken- und Hochbau IVBH. The two German-language construction concepts are limited to construction above ground, only one of which, “Br¨ucken” (bridges) has an exact English or French equivalent. “Hochbau”— everything else constructed above ground, especially tall structures—has no parallel in either language.

The French term “charpentes” in the title Association internationale des ponts et charpentes AIPC, is now used for steel frames too. But “charpenterie” is structural carpentry, and thus its meaning resonates strongly as the historical idea of traditional timber framing, especially of pitched roofs or half-timbered houses. Charpentes does not really encompass reinforced concrete framing or massive, non-frame construction, as does “Hochbau” because the latter is material-neutral in German. The French name was adopted to reflect the French Association fran¸caise des ponts et charpentes AFPC that still serves both as the French professional association and simultaneously the French Group of IABSE. The English version of the name avoided the linguistic problem by choosing the name International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering IABSE, although this is somewhat redundant, as bridges are certainly understood as structures in English.

Because of the difficulties of translation, several members of the French contingent proposed at the December 1930 meeting in Paris to change the name to “Association internationale pour les constructions en acier et b´eton arm´e” and the German-speaking group supported this with an exact translation: Internationale Vereinigung f¨ur Stahl – und Eisenbetonbauten.

The English-speaking group that was seemingly underrepresented at that meeting was to be consulted on an English version. This may have been an idea developed by the Belgian Group perhaps supported by Vice-President Pigeaud, as their concern was that both materials be equally represented in the Association, and it was to prove both a farsighted approach inasmuch as the incorporation of reinforced concrete was concerned, and a limiting one as it excluded other materials and overarching issues, but nothing was ultimately changed, although the proposal would have reflected the concentration of the Association on bridging the gap between engineers working and researching in the two materials, rather than the somewhat arbitrary grouping in bridges and other above-ground structures.

Had the founding ideas originated in an Anglo-Saxon environment, the name might have simply been International Association for Structural Engineering, a collective term that has no exact German equivalent, but that does include subterranean construction. However, as Shakespeare’s Juliet remarked: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” Indeed none of the names in any of the three official languages encompasses all that the Association did or does, and none of them excludes precisely what it does not do either. To take one example: although they themselves lie underground, both foundations and soil problems are part of what the Association has always concerned itself with as the basis for structures above ground, whereas tunneling and geological issues were originally excluded (although they are no longer excluded since they form part 21 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

of the Association’s current concentration on infrastructure engineering). Thus, the name as it ultimately and ambiguously evolved is an excellent example of the spirit of the Association as an exercise in international understanding and the spirit of amicable accommodation through negotiation, if not necessarily of compromise. The awareness of such issues and the will to deal subtly with them was therefore from the very outset part of the founding idea of the Association. Switzerland as a successful multicultural and multilingual federation that exists by political consensus was thus a happy choice as founding site for both political and conceptual reasons.

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IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Non-Technical Technical

Auditing Committee

Permanent Committee

National Groups

Executive Committee

Administrative Committee

Technical Committee

Non-Technical Groups

Technical Groups

Non-Technical Groups

Technical Groups

- SEI Advisory Board - Sub Groups Executive Committee - Outstanding Structure Award Committee - Outstanding Paper Award Committee - Young Engineers Board

- Working Commissions - Working Groups - SEI Editorial Board - SED Editorial Board - E-Learning Editorial Board - Scientific Committees

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Secretariat

Chapter

3

The Organization of IABSE

Mission The bylaws of 1929 defined IABSE’s mission: “The objects of the Association are: To promote the international cooperation of representatives of science, manufacturing and building industry in the field of bridge and structural engineering, and to provide facilities for the interchange of ideas as well as for the publication of the results of research work and practical experience. . . For this purpose congresses will be held at intervals of 3 to 6 years. Moreover the association may apply any other means in pursuance of the objects of its foundation. It will publish reports and promote scientific research work and practical experiments.”

This statement was gradually expanded and adapted to new ideas in various revisions, especially in the revision of 1990 that introduced the definitions and concepts adopted in the first Long-Range Plan of 1989. The mission was now stated to be: “to exchange knowledge and advance the practice of Structural Engineering worldwide, in the service of the Profession and Society.” Instead of the creative ambiguity that had characterized the name of the Association and its goals in 1929 and that had allowed the gradual inclusion of new areas of expertise, the Executive Committee now felt that precise, inclusive definitions were necessary. It therefore defined structural engineering as “the science and art of planning, design, construction, operation, monitoring and inspection, maintenance, rehabilitation and preservation, demolishing and dismantling of structures, taking into consideration technical, economic, environmental, aesthetic and social aspects.” The term “structures” was stated to “include bridges and all types of civil engineering structures, composed of any structural material.”90 Interesting was the official appearance of societal and environmental terms, as well as the expansion of the definition of structures. This could now include all materials whether currently used or those to be developed in the future (fiber-reinforced concrete or polymers, structural glass, and nanotubes come to mind) and underwater or outer-space construction as well. The late 1980s and the early 1990s marked a period of increasing research into new materials and the development of the international space station.

Current organization diagram of IABSE 25 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

A typical example of international contact and collaboration: Vice-President and Conference Organizer J¨org Schneider (Switzerland), incoming President Klaus Ostenfeld (Denmark) and President John M. Hanson (USA) at work in Innsbruck, Austria 1997

Basic Documents and their Influence on the Organization of the Association The basic documents organize the functions of the Association and consist of the bylaws that define the objectives and the organization and responsibilities of the organs of the Association, the standing orders that are set procedures for managing the Association’s activities, and the Long-Range Plan, a working paper that guides the development of IABSE for a period of 3–5 years.

Bylaws The original bylaws, called “Articles of Association” in English were adopted by the constituting group on October 29th, 1929 and consisted of eight articles: There was at the outset no requirement determining the nationality of any officers of the Association, however, especially after World War II, a tacit agreement prevailed that the president should be a Swiss to guarantee the political neutrality of IABSE. The opinion had been universally accepted in the Association that the president, the general secretaries, and secretary had to be of Swiss nationality as well (and originally all of them were). This was, however, not so: the bylaws had never stipulated any nationality requirement for office holders and had only stated that the president (and from 1931) the general secretaries, and secretary had to live in the town in which the Secretariat was located, i.e., Zurich. Aside from the issue of political neutrality that was of overriding importance until the 1960s, one of the reasons for this was that the administration of IABSE should be physically close to the 26 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

English version of the first IABSE bylaws “Articles of Association�, 1929 Secretariat,91 to save funds among other reasons, by ensuring that the Association could avoid having to hire a full-time secretary. This arrangement remained in effect until 1993 when it was officially abandoned and John M. Hanson (USA) was elected president. By dropping the residence requirement in 1974 and then abandoning the tradition that these officers had to be Swiss in 1992, the Association recognized that the political as well as the communication and 27 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

travel situation had changed and the internationalization of the world had progressed. PastPresident Bruno Th¨urlimann was interested in guaranteeing the international pre-eminence of IABSE by binding US members more closely into the management of the Association, and the then President von Gunten was interested in involving and rewarding active Japanese participation.92 In 1931, two years after the first “Articles of Association,” the Permanent Committee made a few adjustments and clarifications, defining the Executive Committee as the president, three vice-presidents, two general secretaries, four technical advisors, and a secretary, and the officers of the Association were no longer described as honorary appointments. A new article provided for the appointment of a temporary fourth vice-president to represent the country hosting a congress. This was first implemented in 1941 with the choice of Stefan Bryła, the organizer of the proposed third congress in Warsaw that never took place.93 Another new article defined the official languages of the Association as English, French, and German, and if a congress were to be held in another language area, that language would also be sanctioned for the duration of that congress.

Further revisions in 1937, 1939, 1946, 1948, 1951, 1952, 1957, 1962, 1963, 1968, and 1969 were all minor with a few exceptions: following World War II, the 1946 modification barred all members who were not from the allied or neutral countries. This was modified in 1948 and abandoned in 1951 (see Chapter 5). In accordance with a requirement of Swiss law to allow the Association to be registered as a tax-free entity, the 1951 revision determined how IABSE property was to be distributed in the event that the Association should be dissolved,94 and allowed greater freedom in choice of president.95 In 1968, membership fees were deleted from the bylaws so that they could be adjusted every two years, and the Permanent Committee was empowered to elect the chairs of the Working Commissions who would become members of the Executive Committee while serving. Three Working Commissions had existed as early as 1963, one for steel, one for concrete, and the third with a varying focus. All three titles were now defined.96 In 1969, the National Groups were mentioned for the first time although they had existed ever since the Association’s founding, the publications were detailed, and a third General Secretary added for general questions.

The revision of 1974 was the broadest and most important in the history of the Association. It stressed that IABSE included the whole of structural engineering from planning, concept, calculation, and structural detailing to construction, utilization, and maintenance including the eventual demolition of bridges and structures. One of the main tasks was the reconfirmation of the equivalence of focus between steel and concrete that many felt had become biased toward steel during the presidency of Fritz St¨ussi. It also stated that the Association organizes three types of events: congresses, symposia, and colloquia, an expansion that had already existed for almost a decade.

J¨org Schneider (b. 1934), IABSE Vice-President, chair of numerous committees and one of the most active developers of the Association from 1970 to the present

J¨org Schneider chaired the committee for this revision working closely with Angelo Pozzi who was particularly gifted in organizational and management matters and who developed many of the ideas.

The goal of the revision was to keep up with current developments in the field of structural engineering and its 28

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

internationalization, to make IABSE a more efficient organization, and to ensure that an ongoing supply of fresh ideas would continually rejuvenate the Association.97 To this end, term limits were introduced for all office holders. An Administrative Committee was established to support the work of the Executive Committee and advise the president and the executive director. The executive director was a new position, in essence an expansion of the duties of the secretary, because the many added functions of this revision required the expansion of the secretariat. Among these new functions was the creation of the Technical Committee as the technical partner of the Executive Committee to plan and coordinate the scientific and technical activities of the Association and to oversee all Working Commissions. At the same time, the general secretaries and technical advisors (formerly scientific secretaries) were replaced by the chair, vice-chair, secretary, and members of the new Technical Commission.

Angelo Pozzi (b. 1932), contributed to the revision of the bylaws, and was for many years active as general secretary, then as member of the Administrative Committee

Up to that time there had only been first two, and then three Working Commissions from 1963, and this limit was now abandoned. The publication activity that expanded and changed in 1974 was also now the purview of the Technical Committee: the yearly and sometimes biyearly Bulletin and yearly Publications (also known in English as the Memoirs) became the quarterly Periodica with five sections: Surveys, Journal, Proceedings, Structures, and Bulletin.

The Congress Reports and Working Commission Reports (now known as the IABSE Reports) remained separate.

The 1974 bylaw revision also limited the office of president to a single, four-year term instead of two as before, and the now redundant residence requirement was dropped. The residence requirement was never taken literally either: the first General Secretary Karner lived an hour away from Zurich up the lake in Herrliberg, and President Cosandey who was elected in 1966 lived more than half a day away in Lausanne (travel times were much longer then than they are now). President Cosandey’s residence was, by the way, the reason that Executive Director Golay requested one of the first fax machines to be used in Switzerland in 1971. As the

The Bylaws Committee 1989: Milcho Brainov, Yukio Maeda, Tippur Subba Rao, J¨org Schneider (Chair), Giorgio Macchi; Alain Golay (Executive Director) 29 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

machines, of which there were then not more than about ten in Switzerland, cost around CHF 10,000, his request was not granted at the time.

Another idea that surfaced in meetings discussing the revision of the bylaws in 1974 was the creation of the post of executive vice-president to support and represent the president. This was discussed and considered not to be necessary as the Administrative Committee could fulfill that function.

In the 1980s, the Executive Committee proposed that the official language of the Association be henceforth redefined as only English, because it would simplify the secretariat’s work and save money in organization and publication. The idea had appeared before. The question of rationalization had come up earlier and in the Permanent Committee meeting of 1967 in Delft, it was decided on the recommendation of the Executive Committee that future IABSE publications would be published in full in their original official language with summaries in the other two.98 At the Permanent Committee meeting of 1979, the Executive Committee proposed to discard French and German for oral presentations at meetings while continuing to provide simultaneous translation. This was, however, voted down.99 By the 1980s, English had certainly become the language of choice for almost all activities of the Association and 83% of all articles published during the 14 years of the IABSE Periodica were submitted in that language in the original and only 9% in German and 8% in French, but especially the opposition of French-speakers among the members led to the abandonment of the proposal. As Hans von Gunten remembers: “When the French members heard of this, they sent a delegation to Zurich where I met them as President in the ETH Rektor’s office. The French members threatened to resign en bloc from the Association if the measure were to be adopted. I therefore recommended that the Advisory Committee drop the issue.”100 Alain Golay remembers that a German delegation was also present at the meeting, and that it was only after the German members had intervened, that the French delegation vigorously protested.101 Nevertheless, since then, lack of time, finances, and manpower at the secretariat have made English the de facto IABSE language although the three-language policy was to remain official policy until 2010.102 Since the major changes in 1974, the revision of 1992 established formally that the president did not have to be Swiss, and in 1999 the presidential term was reduced to three years in order to allow a president to make his or her mark, but at the same time to allow a quicker rotation and not to Hans von Gunten (b. 1930), oblige such senior members as were chosen to neglect other obligations. Another unspoken hope was that each president sixth IABSE President would inspire an increase in membership from his or her country. This has, however, not materialized. The revision of 1999 also simplified election rules and established the IABSE flowchart that defined each group’s tasks and responsibilities as well as its reporting lines. It was also proposed to replace the permanent Working Commissions with ad-hoc technical groups to make their organization more flexible and adaptable. This proposal did not go through, but the ad-hoc groups were added. Since then, in the revision of 2008, the Technical Committee was increased by the chairs of the three editorial boards, documenting the increasing responsibility of the Technical Committee for all technical and scientific aspects of the Association.

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Standing Orders Standing orders are another organizational tool and are set procedures for managing the Association’s activities. The intention behind their introduction was to simplify bylaw revisions by removing routine organizational material and to help coordinate IABSE activities, in particular those that are not of primary importance to the Association’s function. Bulletin 3/77 defined these routine issues as: membership, organizational units, and meetings.103 Among these routine issues are also the distinctions that, consist of Honorary Membership, International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering, IABSE Prize, Outstanding Paper Award, and Outstanding Structure Award. J¨org Schneider and Alain Golay worked out a proposal for the standing orders that has, however, never been fully implemented.

Long-Range Plan The Long-Range Plan results from ongoing brainstorming sessions that present a program in the form of a working paper with proposed objectives to guide the development of IABSE for a period of 3–5 years. Long-range plans are documents that attempt “to produce fundamental decisions and actions that form and guide the Association: what it is, what it does and why it does.”104 It was and is understood as an ongoing process.

Alain Golay proposed the establishment of the first long-range plan in 1986 after returning from a meeting of the International Society of Association Executives in the USA. It was common practice in the USA but an unusual idea in Europe at the time, and Golay was able to convince the Executive and Permanent Committees of its desirability. The first longrange plan was developed by a subcommittee consisting of Vice-President Milcho Brainov from Bulgaria, Technical Committee Chair Yukio Maeda from Japan, Tippur N. Subba Rao, specialist in prestressing and in solar energy from India, J¨org Schneider from Switzerland, Giorgio Macchi from Italy, known especially for his work in saving the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Executive Director Alain Golay.

This subcommittee met over a period of two years from 1987 to 1989 and set the program for the 1990 revision of the bylaws. The members developed a proposal by means of a series of interviews under the presidency of Hans von Gunten. The document it produced proposed the revised mission statement that was incorporated into the bylaws in 1990. The plan also proposed the establishment of the journal SEI and continuing education programs, the creation of the IABSE Foundation, and a revision of the bylaws.

Golay insisted that a long-range plan was not a one-time effort but that it had to be an ongoing concern, so a second long-range plan followed in 1996 under the presidency of John M. Hanson and added as a further member, the president of the recently founded IABSE Foundation, Robert Fechtig from Switzerland to the committee.

This second document stressed the relevance of structural engineering to society and encouraged collaboration with other professional societies. The recruitment of new members was a priority, as was the issue of professional ethics, and the expansion of awards and recognition of members.105 Since 1996, the idea of a coordinated planning effort has lapsed however, and work on long-range goals currently results from impulses in individual areas. As an example, President Klaus Ostenfeld introduced a document entitled “Reflections about IABSE and its 31 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Future” for discussion in 1999 that led, among other innovations, to the next revision of the bylaws.

IABSE Organs and Committees IABSE is based on its members who can be any person or organization interested in the goals of the Association and the National Groups that may define their own more limiting rules for membership, and delegate members to the Permanent Committee.

A first group of IABSE organs and committees is composed of the nontechnical bodies that manage, control, and promote the activities of the Association. These include the Permanent and Executive Committees and the Secretariat, the Administrative, the Auditing, the Outstanding Structure Award and the Outstanding Paper Award Committees which all report to the Executive Committee. They are described in the bylaws, each with its mission and organization. Since 1990, the term of office for members is four years except for the chair, with one term only for the chair and the possibility of a second term for members.

Elections take place every other year, on odd years at the Annual Meetings. Other nontechnical committees can be created as needed to study specific topics.

A second category are the National Groups that are independent entities but with responsibilities to the Association as a whole. They have their own bylaws.

A third category of committees forms a professional group that is responsible for the intellectual content of the Association. This group includes the Working Commissions, the Scientific Commissions, Task Forces, and Editorial Boards and they all report to the Technical Committee. They consist of a chair, a vice-chair, and 2–16 members. The Task Forces are called into being by the Technical Committee or the Executive Committee to address a specific problem and are disbanded when their mandate is completed. The development of their topics reflects the development of the profession’s interests.

The First Category: Management Permanent Committee, founded 1929 This committee was formed on October 29th, 1929 and is the highest organ of the Association.

It determines IABSE’s long-term objectives and encourages, promotes, and controls its activities, and it ensures that the necessary means are available. It consists of delegates from all National Groups that are represented by delegates proportional to their size. Originally in 1929, each nation with up to 49 members was represented by two delegates, and above that by four.106 In the minutes of the meeting of May 26th, 1931, the 35 delegates to the then 16-nation committee—only European nations at that time—shows the initial interest in the Association as follows:107 Austria, 2 Belgium, 3 Czechoslovakia, 2 Denmark, 1 Finland, 1 France, 4 32 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Germany, 5 Hungary, 1 Italy, 1 Netherlands, 2 Norway, 3 Poland, 1 Romania, 1 Switzerland, 4 United Kingdom, 2 Yugoslavia, 2

Facsimile of signature list of participants at the Permanent Committee meeting in Paris 1932, the earliest such document in the archive By the first Congress in Paris in 1932, the organization of IABSE had stabilized and found the form that it still has, bar a few minor adjustments over the years. The Permanent Committee meets yearly, and from 1933 on, it was decided to hold the meeting of both the Permanent and the Executive Committees at the same time and in the same place for organizational simplicity.108 After being in abeyance during World War II, the Association reconstituted itself at a meeting in Brussels in 1946 (see Chapter 5). Originally, the Permanent Committee was to elect a new Executive Committee at each international congress. (This interval was later changed first to 33 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

a two-, then a four-year term, with now a three-year term for the president.) The congresses have taken place at four-year intervals from 1932 with the exception of a hiatus between 1936 and 1948 during World War II, so that the length of service of the individual members of the Executive Committee has varied somewhat, also of course, when death or resignation called for replacement elections.

In 1939, Vice-President Kl¨onne suggested that the number of delegates be amended so that each country with 1–24 members be represented by one member, 25–50 by two, 51–150 by four, and above that by five.109 In 1967 this was further amended,110 and in 1969 one additional delegate for every fraction of 100 more over 199 members. There has only been one change in representation since then as the membership has grown substantially since the late 1960s. Now four delegates represent 100–199 members and five delegates above that.

The number of delegates has grown over the years with growing membership. Today the Permanent Committee has around 100 members from 47 countries. The Permanent Committee elects the president and vice-presidents of IABSE, the chair of the Technical Committee, and the auditors. It approves the accounts, the budget, and sets the membership fees. It decides on new membership categories and makes amendments to the bylaws.

The Permanent Committee meetings have always served as occasions for intensive international networking among the delegates, and correspondingly excursions and banquets are regularly scheduled to facilitate contact.

Social networking was always held to be as important to the development of the field as the exchange of professional information; an excursion of the Permanent Committee ˚ members and accompanying persons to Adalsliden at the 1949 Stockholm meeting with lunch on the roof of the generator building (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive) 34 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Both informal and formal social events developed a congenial and personal atmosphere that includes accompanying persons, and that still permeates the Association and all its committees and organs; Permanent Committee banquet at the 1955 Copenhagen meeting (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive) Executive Committee, founded 1930 The first meeting of the Permanent Committee in 1929, actually then the founding committee, elected IABSE’s first president, Arthur Rohn and appointed the secretary, Leopold Karner, but the Executive Committee itself was elected at the second meeting on April 4th–5th, 1930 in Lugano. This committee consists of the IABSE president as chair, the president-elect (since 1993), 5–11 vice-presidents, and the chair of the Technical Committee. Other members of the Administrative Committee and the executive director participate in its meetings. Originally these members had voting rights too, but that was discontinued after some differences of opinion.111 The Executive Committee governs the Association under the Permanent Committee and represents it to the public. Until 1998 it met once, and from March 1999 twice a year. The Executive Committee controls the overall agenda of the Association. The day-to-day management of IABSE has been delegated to the Administrative Committee since 1975.

The Executive Committee changed slightly over the years, most notably with the addition of more vice-presidents and in 1974 when the general secretaries and technical advisors (originally two scientific secretaries and their deputies), were replaced by the chair, the secretary, and three further members of the Technical Committee. At the same date, the secretary became the executive director (see Appendix for names of the office holders over the years).

35 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Secretariat, established 1929 The Secretariat was established in 1929 in Zurich as the organizational base of the Association.

Its role is to collect, organize, and coordinate all the activities of the Association and its committees on a daily basis, including events, membership, public relations and publications, archive, and finances. One of the reasons for establishing IABSE in Zurich was that the ETH originally hosted the Secretariat at no cost to the Association thanks to the support of President Rohn. Originally all help was pro bono and the office was briefly located under the roof of the main ETH building.

The Secretariat was never an official organ of the ETH nor was it quite separate from the Association president’s professorial chair, and it was not clear whether the budgets of the professors of Construction and Statics or the ETH itself paid the secretarial help and provided space for the three-room office, the second home of the Association at a small campus-owned buildHaldeneggsteig 4, the second home of IABSE in a “recycled” ing located at Haldeneggthree-room apartment 1933–1976 steig 4.

This ambiguous situation that is common to many start-up societies, lasted in this case over half a century until a bookkeeper absconded with the Association’s funds in 1987 and a newspaper reporter erroneously wrote of an embezzlement of funds at the ETH. Upon reading this in the daily papers, the ETH’s financial officer made inquiries and the Secretariat has paid rent ever since.

The first pro-bono part-time Secretary Pierre E. Soutter filled the same position at the SIA (Swiss Engineer and Architects’ Society), and this provided a useful connection for the young Association.

Shortly after his appointment in 1931 the very competent and quadri-lingual Lily Gretener was hired as a partLily Gretener, the indispensible Secretary of IABSE for time employee.

33 years 1931–1964 at a Permanent Committee outing in Baden Baden in 1957 (photo: gift of Alfred Moe in IABSE She replaced Soutter as head of the Secretariat in 1946 archive) and remained the contact person throughout her employment, running the office for a total of 33 years until the end of 1964 when ill health forced her to retire. According to her obituary writer Ernst Gehri, it 36 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

was the preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Congress that exhausted her.112 Older members still fondly remember the wiry Gretener as the formidable and yet self-effacing, redhaired gatekeeper for all contacts. She ran the office efficiently, dealt with problems before they became apparent, and kept her staff of young women in line. Upon her advancement to head of the Secretariat in 1946, Gretener was elected member of the Executive Committee with full voting rights in recognition of her invaluable work, the only woman member ever elected to that committee to date. She was replaced part time first by Ernst Gehri in 1965 whose primary employment was with the firm Alusuisse, and then after a very brief and unsuccessful intermezzo with another employee, by Alain Golay in 1971, who worked part time for Elektrowatt.

Alain Golay (b. 1943), IABSE Secretary and then Executive Director 1971–2005

After the bylaw revision of 1974 Golay held the newly established, full-time position of Executive Director until 2005 when he retired and Ueli Brunner replaced him. The role of the Executive Director is to head the Secretariat, set priorities for the management of the Association, organize and oversee a staff that has grown over the years to five fulltime equivalents. Many National Groups maintain their own secretariats as well.

In 1976, the Secretariat moved along with the Department of Civil Engineering and several others to the HIL building in a new ETH campus on the Hoenggerberg outside Zurich where it remains to this day. The Secretariat also maintains the IABSE archive that exists currently as a partly organized collection of materials dating from the founding period on.

Ueli Brunner (b. 1957), IABSE Executive Director from 2005

Administrative Committee, founded 1975 This committee, created in the revision of the bylaws in 1974, meets five to six times a year and consists of the president of IABSE as chair, the chair of the Technical Committee, the presidentelect of IABSE (after the position was established in 1993), two additional IABSE members, and the executive director. This committee The HIL building, the third home of IABSE at the ETH manages the Association on a H¨onggerberg under construction and shortly before occupaday-to-day basis for the Exec- tion in 1976 utive Committee and reports to it. The Administrative Committee has become increasingly important through the internationalization of the presidency as a link between the Executive Committee, the president, and 37 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

the Secretariat that are no longer located in the same city.

President von Gunten expanded the responsibilities of the committee even before the first non-Swiss IABSE President John M. Hanson was elected in 1993. This was intended to facilitate continuity in the work of the Association, and it proved especially efficient when future presidents lived outside Switzerland.113 Auditing Committee, established 1975 This committee is a subsidiary body of the Permanent Committee. Its establishment is a requirement of Swiss law governing associations, and it consists of two internal auditors and a substitute. This committee checks the accounts of the Association, which are then submitted with their report to the Permanent Committee for approval. The internal auditors also check the implementation of the instructions issued by the Permanent and Executive Committees, and recommend the appointment of the external auditors, a professional auditing company, that are then appointed by the Permanent Committee.

John M. Hanson (b. 1932), seventh IABSE President

Advisory Board to the Executive Committee, established 2007 This board, originally named the Advisory Group was established in 2007 to serve as the advisory body to the Executive Committee. It consists of all the past members of the Executive Committee unless they renounce their participation. The Advisory Board normally meets once a year and has frequent correspondence between meetings.

Outstanding Paper Award Committee, established 1992 At the New Delhi Congress 1992, the Executive Committee under President Hans von Gunten decided to create an award for an outstanding paper published each year in SEI. The rules were worked out by then Vice-President John M. Hanson and J¨org Schneider. Each Working Commission is represented in the jury, and the first two awards for 1991 and 1992 were presented under President Hanson at the Rome Symposium in 1993.

Outstanding Structure Award Committee, established 1998 This committee determines the publically most prominent distinction awarded by IABSE. It recognizes, in different regions of the world, some of the most remarkable, innovative, creative, or otherwise stimulating structures, but not necessarily the largest, longest, highest, or otherwise record-breaking. Sustainability and respect of the environment are important factors in deciding the recipient of the accolade.

The Second Category: National Groups Properly speaking the IABSE National Groups are quasi-independent entities and not organs of IABSE as a whole, but they are defined in the bylaws as organizations of all members of the Association within one country. The groups are expected to be responsible for the active recruitment of members, for the support of the objectives of the Association within their field of influence, and they nominate qualified members for election to the different IABSE 38 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

committees. They may hold their own activities, such as conferences and produce publications, and their organization varies from country to country. Although the National Groups have no statutory function, their chairs advise the IABSE president. Since 1996 the president calls a meeting of the chairs of the National Groups each year prior to the annual meeting of the Permanent Committee.

The first National Group was formed in Denmark by IABSE cofounder Asger Ostenfeld in 1929, the same year as the Association itself. The Danish Group has always been particularly active within IABSE and has introduced new topics and organized many important meetings.

It was also seminal in truly internationalizing and maturing the Association beyond what Aksel Frandsen (Honorary Member since 1996) and Hans-Henrik Gotfredsen described to J¨org Schneider as the “Swiss mafia” in a friendly discussion over a whisky in Greenwich in 1981—by which they meant the preponderance of Swiss influence that had gradually grown unnecessary for the Association’s survival after World War II.114 Among the many Danish innovations were the first workshop on informatics held in Bergamo in 1982 and the first international colloquium of collision between ships and structures in Copenhagen in 1983.

Although the Danish group was the first, by the following year, 1930, there were already 16 more in various stages of organization: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Free-City Danzig, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and Yugoslavia. After the readmission of Austria, Finland, Hungary, and Italy in 1948, the corresponding National Groups were reestablished and a Chinese Group was formed after the Revolution of 1949. Brazil formed its group in 1954. The existence of these groups on an official level seems to have fluctuated. Bulletin 16 of 1957 listed only 13 official National Groups: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China (PRC), Denmark, Germany, Egypt, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland. Australia and the USA, for instance, with their several very active members are not mentioned at the time. Later in 1957 the dynamic Indian Group was established with its own journal and publication program. By 1986 it had 238 members and was IABSE’s fourth largest.115 Currently there are 47 such National Groups.

Some National Groups are more active than others and this fluctuates. During the early period when the very engaged Moritz Kl¨onne was chair of the German group, it boasted the largest number of members; since then the Swiss group has formed the largest contingent. The number of members from each country varied with the political situation as well. As an example, the Permanent Committee meeting of October 4th, 1946 in Brussels reported that Louis Cambournac had inquired about participation from the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). President Andreae reported that the Secretariat had invited all Russian members to send delegates to the Brussels meeting, but had received no reply. He had then contacted the new Russian Legation in Bern, but with no success.116

The Third Category: Intellectual Content Technical Committee, founded 1975 Founded in the bylaw revision of 1974, the Technical Committee replaced the work of the general secretaries and the scientific and technical advisors. This committee is the technical equivalent of the organizational Executive Committee to which it reports. It consists of a chair, a vice-chair, and 8–16 members. It is responsible for the scientific and technical activity of the Association, and from 2008 also for all publication activities with the addition of the three chairs of the editorial boards as members. It promotes, coordinates, and assesses the activities of the Working Commissions, the Working Groups, and the Ad-hoc Groups, Editorial Boards 39 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

or Task Forces. It also is responsible for the Association’s publications and sets up Scientific Committees for the conferences. In the early years, and perhaps until the 1979 Annual Meeting and Symposium in Zurich and the 50th anniversary celebrations at the 11th Congress in Vienna the following year, the emphasis always lay on the seriousness of the “scientific” nature of engineering research. As proof of this, the early Congress Reports and the accounts of the various congresses in the engineering press always stressed the profundity and excellence of the technical presentations. From the presidency of Klaus Ostenfeld on (1997–2001), one may note a new emphasis and an awareness of the emancipation of professional, technical work.

Klaus H. Ostenfeld (b. 1943), ninth IABSE President

As Klaus Ostenfeld said in an interview when asked which was the most important IABSE Committee: “Since we are a technical organization, the most important committee is the one involved in the technical work and I do not hesitate to say that it is the Technical Committee. The Technical Committee should be composed at any time of people who have the imagination and fantasy to look into the future and identify future challenges. It has to be IABSE’s think-tank, the best of the best. It should create ad-hoc technical groups and working groups, dealing with specific topics and produce useful documents that the engineering profession as a whole considers to be reference documents of the best kind.”117 The categories fantasy and imagination that Klaus Ostenfeld considered important stood in complete contrast to earlier attitudes.

Scientific Committees, from 1932 These were the earliest committees that were originally set up under the general secretaries for steel and concrete to prepare and organize the professional content and the form of the congresses, the first of which took place in Paris in 1932. With the proliferation of at first the symposia from 1968, and then other conferences and events, the Scientific Committees were entrusted to a chair and professional group with expertise in the corresponding fields, while the event organization itself was delegated to an Organizing Committee that generally was set up by the country and the National Groups or other organizations that hosted the event. Ever since the reorganization of 1974, the Scientific Committees have been set up by the Technical Committee.

Working Commissions, from 1959 The technical groups include Working Commissions, Task Forces, and Editorial Boards. These are called into being by the Technical Committee or the Executive Committee to address a specific topic or problem. Some of them like the Working Commissions are unlimited in duration, whereas others are disbanded when their mandate is complete.

Although the first two Working Commissions: Steel and Light-Metal Construction, and Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete were created as the responsibility of the two general secretaries in 1929, they were first named such and officially constituted as groups in 1959 at the same time that CEB (Comit´e Europ´een du B´eton—European Committee for Concrete) also created its Working Commissions under the presidency of Franco Levi, an eminent researcher known for his work on the theory of plasticity and creep in concrete as well as his seminal influence on Eurocode development. Among the tasks of the Working Commissions was to help the general secretaries develop and work out proposals for the themes of the congresses.118 Originally, the chairs of the Working Commissions were the general secretaries. Since the 40 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

bylaw revision of 1974, when the general secretary category was abandoned, the chairs of the Working Commissions are members of the Technical Committee.

However, already by 1963 the then three Working Commissions had chairs that no longer were identical with the general secretaries. These chairs were reconfirmed in their positions in 1967119 and the commissions still fulfilled the task of defining the congress themes:120 1: Steel and Light-Metal Construction121 2: Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete 3: Prefabrication In 1968, the three commissions were redefined in the revision to the bylaws and once again chaired by the now three general secretaries, although the Permanent Committee had been charged since 1967 with the chair appointment:122 1: Basics and General Questions 2: Steel and Light-Metal Construction 3: Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete After the bylaw reform of 1974, there were five commissions in 1975.123 The number of commissions was expanded to accommodate new issues and they were no longer exclusively material driven as previously, but were also more problem-oriented. In the same reform, the position of general secretary was abandoned, so that the chairs were again specially appointed: 1: 2: 3: 4: 5:

General Problems Steel, Metal, and Timber Structures Concrete Structures Contractor and Construction Design Concepts

Over the years, the titles of the commissions changed slightly. New ones were created and some of the old disbanded. In the 1980s, Working Commission 4 was renamed “Construction Management” while Working Commission 5 became “Design Methods and Processes.” Working Commission 7 was “Building Physics.” It took a long time to flourish, in part because the chairs initially saw their role as fostering the development of their own discipline rather than as a service to structural engineering, and so it was finally dropped in the 1990s and eventually replaced by “Sustainable Engineering.” The maximum number of Working Commissions was reached with eight at one point: 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8:

Structural Performance, Safety, and Analysis Steel, Timber and Composite Structures Concrete Structures Construction Management Design Methods and Processes Information Technology Sustainable Engineering (Building Physics until 1996) Operation, Maintenance and Repair of Structures

In 2004, Commission 4 was dropped and Commission 8 renumbered as 4, so that up to the present seven of these have remained active.

1: Structural Performance, Safety, and Analysis 2: Steel, Timber and Composite Structures 41 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

3: 4: 5: 6: 7:

Concrete Structures Operation, Maintenance and Repair of Structures Design Methods and Processes Information Technology Sustainable Engineering

Ever since 1997, the Working Commissions have organized special BASAAR (Briefings About Structural Applications And Research) exhibits at the IABSE symposia to publicize their work and canvass new members.

Task Forces Task Forces are sometimes referred to as Task Groups and from the early 1990s called Working Groups. These are formed for a limited period and with a very specific mandate to study and report on a narrowly defined problem. For instance, in 1979 there were four: Use of Computers in Structural Engineering, Probabilistic Methods in Structural and Construction Engineering, Building Physics (of which the first and third developed into Working Commissions), and Aesthetics and Structural Engineering.124 Aside from the technical Working Groups, several nontechnical groups were established in the 1990s for the study of specific nontechnical topics such as ethics, public affairs, and membership. In 2009, there were seven such groups: Glass Structures; Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Structures; Guidelines for Design Competitions for Bridges; Vibrations of Structures; Bearings and Joints; Bridge Construction Equipment; and Earthquake Resistant Structures.

Publications Committee, Editorial and Advisory Boards from 1979 In the early years of the Association, all the editing of the Publications (Memoirs) was done by the general secretaries after each congress and in all three languages. Then the general secretaries’ ETH staff, especially Rohn’s assistant and later professor Karl Hofacker was an invaluable aide in this laborious process from 1936 as was a retired engineer named Richard L¨ossl in the 1960s. A Publications Committee took over the task from 1974 until 1990.

Although it had functioned ad hoc from 1974, the original Publications Committee was officially established in 1979 to be responsible for the Periodica. It consisted of a chair, the executive director, and five to six elected members. This committee, with mostly Swiss membership, was seconded by an Editorial Board of more than 200 international members who volunteered to review manuscripts for publication. From 1991 onward the Publications Committee expanded its membership internationally and became primarily responsible for the new SEI journal. Two years later in 2003, the Committee officially changed its name to SEI Editorial Board at the request of the then chair Simon Bailey.125 From then on it had seven members plus the chair, and a new supporting entity, named the SEI Advisory Board, was established in 2009. The reviewing members remained a resource but without official status. In addition, correspondents were named to report from about 16 to 20 countries. They meet once a year at the annual meetings.

Karl Hofacker (1897–1991) (photo courtesy of ETHBibliothek Zurich, image archive)

The Executive Director used to be the ex-officio member of the SEI Editorial Board, the elected chairs influenced the content and development of the journal. The first chair was J¨org Schneider who carried his function over from the original Publications Committee (1974–1979–1993), followed 42

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

by Eugen Br¨uhwiler (1993–2001), Simon Bailey (2001–2009), and H. H. (Bert) Snijder (from 2009).

Sking in Toggenburg, Switzerland (2006), after the SEI Editorial Board meeting: Executive Director Ueli Brunner (middle) and Editorial Board Chairs, Simon Bailey (left) and H. H. (Bert) Snijder (right).

In 2003, a new SED Editorial Board was established to plan and select technical contributions for Structural Engineering Documents. This board also has a chair plus seven members. Geoff Taplin, who had served as secretary to the Organizing Committee of the Melbourne Symposium in 2002, was elected as chair of this board until 2007 when Mikael Braestrup succeeded him.

In 2007, the e-Learning Board was established to develop and edit material and the Association’s e-learning website with Mourad M. Bakhoum as chair. Main task was to develop “E-Learning”, this received financial support from the IABSE Foundation. Since 2008, the chairs of all three boards: SEI, SED, and e-Learning are ex-officio members of the Technical Committee.

Other Organizational Components and Features Annual Meetings The Association lives from year to year through the Annual Meetings. These are the actual working sessions of the Association and they form and implement the political and technical aspect of IABSE’s mission. The meetings gather all the IABSE committees once a year over a 2–3 day period and the president of IABSE also holds a meeting with the chairs of the National Groups at that time. Since 1968, the symposia are held in conjunction with these meetings to give the gatherings attractive professional and technical content and thereby draw the largest possible number of participants.

The Honorary Member distinction was introduced in 1949 and the program has gradually grown over the years to encompass many categories. At first the presentation took place at the opening ceremony of the Annual Meeting. Since 1968, the award ceremony has become a function of the symposium and takes place at that opening ceremony, with the exception of the two inter-association conferences in Malta (2001) and Innsbruck (1997) that replaced the annual symposia and where the award ceremony took place at the end of the Annual Meeting.

“President’s Club” Another function held in conjunction with the annual meeting is the President’s Lunch during the Annual Meetings. The Club is not a formal organ of the Association established in the bylaws, but an informal institution established by President von Gunten in 1986. It 43 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

President Hans von Gunten created the “President’s Club” that held its first gathering at the Helsinki Congress in 1988 gathers present and past members of the Executive and Administrative Committees, Honorary Presidents and Members, and selective few.

Young Engineers Program (YEP) and IABSE Fellows Begun under the Presidencies of Klaus Ostenfeld and then Manabu Ito in 2001, these two entities were originally separate, but the Fellows and the Young Engineers Program are now linked.

At the beginning the Fellowship was established to increase the Association’s income from members. The first year, 88 members from 28 countries joined.126 The YEP, on the other hand, was originally a vague idea that really took on form when, while planning the Melbourne Symposium in 2002, the chair of the Scientific Committee Paul Grundy, agreed to help the then Vice-President Manfred Hirt set up a support mechanism to allow young engineers to attend the event at reduced registration fees.

A Young Engineer Program recruitment brochure

Hirt, who felt uncomfortable with the idea that the Fellows had no purpose other than to support the Association financially, suggested linking the YEP with the IABSE Fellowship by using their support to fund the fee reduction, for which they then received due recognition. At the 2004 Shanghai

44 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Symposium, President Hirt further intensified this link by marking the Fellows’ nametags with a yellow dot as a sign that they were willing to talk to the young engineers and thus take over a mentoring role.127 In this way, the traditional and ad-hoc mentoring that has always been one of IABSE’s important educational characteristics became a quasi-officially established function.

The objective of the YEP has also expanded beyond the mere reduction of registration fees, and aims to involve young engineers in the activities of IABSE and maintain the existing high level of structural engineering thanks to the intellectual contributions of tomorrow’s leaders. The reasoning that drove the development of this program was as Klaus Ostenfeld said: “. . .the darkest cloud you can possibly imagine is that the Association dies with the present generation, i.e. that we do not renew our membership to maintain a reasonable age profile in the Association.”128 Yukio Maeda had pinpointed this weakness in the Association’s organization in an interview with J¨org Schneider as early as 1991. He had joined IABSE, he said, because it had excited him to meet world-famous colleagues, and when asked whether this had not meant that it was an association where “bosses enjoy[ed] talking to each other. . .” he replied: “It is partly true, but partly untrue as well. In the former days IABSE was run by famous old bosses and there was almost no opportunity for young members to contribute. Year by year, however, the power of the old bosses

Manfred A. Hirt (b. 1942), tenth IABSE President

Yukio Maeda (1922–2005) served on many committees and contributed many ideas to the development of the Association

Poster sessions provide an excellent opportunity to young engineers to present their work and receive feedback from senior Members 45 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

has been disappearing and the younger members are becoming more active in the Association.

It is quite clear: we have to include younger engineers. . .”129 This concern had troubled quite a few of the members, and it was this that the linkage between the Young Engineers Program and the category of Fellows was configured to remedy. Over the space of a few years, therefore, the IABSE Fellows became what they are now: dedicated and eminent senior Members of IABSE who have accepted the President’s invitation to join the support and mentoring group. Their contributions continue to allow the Association to support the YEP. From Melbourne 2002 and until 2007, the YEP facilitated the attendance of over 510 young engineers at the IABSE symposia and conferences. Of these, 270 have made personal presentations at the symposia, which were accepted on the basis of their value as reviewed by a scientific committee. The Fellows also cofund the Young Engineers Outstanding Contribution Award which is an annual prize awarded at a conference. It recognizes outstanding contributions presented by engineers under the age of 35 at the annual IABSE Symposium or quadrennial Congress. The award consists of a diploma and prize money awarded by an ad-hoc jury at the closing ceremony of the corresponding event. From 2002 to 2004 firms, National Groups or Organising Committees of conferences sponsored the awards, and from 2009 onward they have often been funded exclusively by the IABSE Fellows. The recipients are listed in the Appendix.

BASAAR From 1997, the Working Commissions have organized individual expos´es of their work at the IABSE symposia. Called BASAAR (Briefings About Structural Applications

Ian Firth in a lively discussion of Working Commission 5 at the BASAAR event in Weimar 2007; WC5 chair William V. Anderson stands in the background 46 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

And Research), these present some of the technical work of the commission sessions to make the information accessible to all symposium participants. There had been a smallscale and limited similar idea that preceded the BASAAR, when in 1983 the Technical Committee had introduced the “Engineering Forum” that consisted of short presentations by committee members on new developments in their respective countries,130 but this had only addressed a limited group.

The idea originated in a “think tank” consisting of Bo Edlund, J¨org Schneider, Manfred Hirt, and Alain Golay. Edlund (Honorary Member since 2009), as chair of the Technical Committee organized the first just before the Innsbruck Symposium in Bo Edlund (b. 1936), one of 1997.131 The concept is a “market of ideas” to show the mem- the most active members of bers what the Working Commissions do by means of small the Association exhibits at “market” stands manned by specialists from the Working Commissions who present the technical part of the commission sessions in a form that makes them accessible to all symposium participants whether engineers, public authorities, researchers, or teachers. The goal of BASAAR, that has enjoyed great success in subsequent meetings, is to engender discussions about technical topics, raise questions, and present solutions to disseminate knowledge and especially to canvass younger IABSE members to join a Working Commission.

IABSE Logo The current Association logo was originally created by the Japanese Group as the symbol of the 10th Congress of IABSE in 1976. As the Executive Committee had tried for several years on the urging of J¨org Schneider to develop an appropriate logo without success, the Executive Committee inquired through President Maurice Consandey whether the Japanese Group would be interested in allowing the Association to adopt their elegant and successful symbol. The Japanese Group was delighted and felt honored by the request and quickly had a silk banner sewn that they officially presented to the Association at the closing session of the Tokyo Congress. The design represents the Chinese and Japanese ideogram for “human being” and it represents at the same time an image of the sacred Mount Fuji with its slopes covered by green pine-trees aflame in the setting sun. It can also be understood as a roof. These multiple meanings capture what is fundamental in all IABSE’s technical expertise: mankind, nature, ecology, shelter or construction, and spiritual endeavor. It has represented the Association on all official documents ever since. An IABSE logo created for the 1956 Lisbon Congress 47 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Another logo design for the Permanent Committee meeting in Istanbul, September 1958

The 1968 New York Congress logo

Despite the strict tradition not to include any national symbolism in any printed IABSE material, a tradition that may have derived from the misuse of insignia at the 1936 The 1972 Amsterdam Congress logo Congress in Berlin, several countries have since incorporated national symbols and even flags into the logo.

A curious offshoot of the use of the IABSE logo has been the issuing of stamps by several countries to commemorate the congresses held in several years.

Presentation of the logo banner by the Japanese Organizing Committee to President Maurice Cosandey at the end of the Tokyo Congress in 1976; since then, this logo has been the official IABSE insignia 48 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

The staff of the secretariat in 2008 with the official IABSE logo banner in front of the HIL building, ETH-H¨onggerberg

Adaptation of the IABSE logo for the Vancouver Congress in 1984 using the national symbol from the Canadian flag

Adaptation of the IABSE logo for the New Delhi Congress in 1992 using the national symbol from the Indian flag

Adaptation of the IABSE logo for the Croatian Group incorporating the Croatian national flag

49 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

An official postage stamp issued by the Austrian government in 1980 with the IABSE logo to celebrate the 50th anniversary Vienna Congress

First Day cover of the stamp issued by the Government of India to celebrate the New Delhi Congress 1992

Declarations For many years, members have on occasion attempted to formulate leitmotifs in document form to sum up a meeting or to instigate a change in the goals of the Association.

Several of these have become declared IABSE principles that have been communicated to members as wish lists, although they have had no repercussions on the organization of the Association.

Sudhangsu Chakraborty (b. 1937), advocate for poverty reduction issues

The first is the Ethical Principles for the Practice of Structural Engineering. This was an idea that Past-President Bruno Th¨urlimann and President John M. Hanson introduced into the discussion, and that resulted from the second long-range plan. The idea was influenced by discussions in the Liaison Committee and formulated in a document approved in 2002.

50 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

The second, third, and fourth are the IABSE Declarations for Sustainable Development, for the Reduction of Poverty, and on the Mitigation of the Effects of Natural Disasters. In a way, each of these documents emerged as an extension of the idea of the ethical principles. Robert Silman, the 2004 recipient of the Anton Tedesko Medal, was instrumental in introducing the concept of sustainability into the discussion in the mid1990s. Similarly, Sudhangsu Chakraborty (Honorary Member since 2007) introduced the issue of poverty reduction and led the work that resulted at both the New Delhi Conference in 2005 and the subsequent discussion and the formulation of the declaration, and Paul Grundy, expert in the performance of structures in hostile environments (and Honorary Member since 2006), chaired the Task Group following the Asian tsunami of 2004 that wrote the Declaration of the Mitigation of Natural Disasters in 2006 and 2007.

Paul Grundy (b. 1935), specialist in the performance of structures in hostile environments

IABSE Foundation for the Advancement of Structural Engineering, a closely related organization, from 1993 The Foundation is legally a separate entity from IABSE, but it was founded with the objective of supporting the Association’s mission. It was established in 1993 as a nonprofit institution.132 The Foundation encourages exchange between theory and practice, research and education, decision makers and the public. To this end the Foundation solicits, receives, and provides funds for special IABSE activities, educational programs, and other activities consistent with the objectives of the Association.

Initial funding came from a surplus of CHF 64,000 in the ample funds that had been successfully solicited by Robert Fechtig, a gifted fundraiser, and donated by various sources as a deficit guarantee for the 1992 IABSE conference that had been planned for Dubrovnik.

When the Balkan War that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia forced the conference to move to Davos instead, a surplus of funds ensued and, the initiators of the IABSE Foundation idea: Fechtig, President Hans von Gunten, and J¨org Schneider approached the donors with the suggestion of applying those funds as seed money to establish a foundation. Following the positive result of their inquiry and the decision to proceed, several members of the Executive Committee pledged sums personally, and since then more than 48 donations have been received from individuals, firms, and National Groups so that the total endowment exceeds CHF 500’000.

The Foundation is managed by a self-governing council consisting of a president and ten members. Since its establishment, the council has had four presidents: Robert Fechtig, IABSE Past-President Hans von Gunten, Jean-Claude Badoux, and currently IABSE Past-President Klaus Ostenfeld. The council identifies suitable uses of the funds.

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A priority is the transfer of technology to less developed countries by •

providing aid to selected universities, offering courses to engineers, • providing books and SEI subscriptions to university libraries, and • sponsoring or financing prizes within structural engineering and related fields.

Robert Silman (b. 1935), border-crosser between engineering and architecture and advocate for sustainable design issues

Among the Foundation’s ongoing activities are:

The Anton Tedesko Medal, which was created in 1998 and is presented biannually. This award consists of two components.

The first is a medal awarded to a Laureate in recognition of his or her contribution to the advancement of structural engineering. The second is a stipend of CHF 25,000 for a Fellow, a young engineer designated by the Laureate, to be used to organize and finance a study leave with a prestigious engineering firm. The list of Laureates and Fellows can be found in the Appendix.

Talent support: This is financial support awarded annually to individuals, groups, institutions, or organizations with technical or scientific interest. The goal is to support the Foundation’s objectives within structural engineering.

The Foundation Council meeting before the 17th IABSE Congress in Chicago in 2008, standing, from left: Hajime Ikeda, Thomas Glanzmann, Aarne Jutila, Manfred A. Hirt, Anton F. Steffen, Tobias Zordan, Mourad Bakhoum; sitting form left: Klaus H. Ostenfeld, Chair; Ann Schumacher, missing from photo: W.J. Nugent, Hai-Fan Xiang 52 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

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Chapter

4

Other Related Organizations

International Organizations with Similar Objectives Just as IABSE was founded as an outcome of the TKVSB conferences of 1922 and 1926, and of the Vienna Conference of 1928, so have many organizations including IABSE fostered a multitude of specialized engineering groups that developed into professional or scientific/technical associations in their own right. Many of these were founded by forceful personalities who felt the need to develop their own international associations. Among these are several that the Liaison Committee was subsequently founded to coordinate: RILEM: R´eunion Internationale des Laboratoires d’Essais et de Recherche sur les Mat´eriaux et les Constructions The International Association of Testing Laboratories and Research on Materials and Structures was founded in 1947. IABSE Vice-President Ferdinand Campus was instrumental in setting up this organization and it was also one of those that were instrumental in founding the Liaison Committee.

IIW: International Institute of Welding The IIW was conceived in 1947 and founded in 1948 with interested engineers from 13 countries. It became the largest international organization to concentrate on connection technologies and in 2010 had members from 53 countries with 25 technical commissions and working units.

FIB: F´ederation Internationale du B´eton The International Concrete Federation was created out of the merger of two older organizations, FIP (F´ed´eration Internationale de la Pr´econtrainte – International Federation for Prestressing) and CEB (Comit´e Europ´een du B´eton – European Committee for Concrete). Both were members of the Liaison Committee from the outset. The former, FIP, was founded in Cambridge in 1952 at the same time the IABSE Congress was held there. The first presidents On occasion IABSE holds joint events with related organizations; one of the largest was the 1997 Innsbruck Inter-Association Conference on composite construction 55 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

were also prominent IABSE members: Eug`ene Freyssinet, Eduardo Torroja, Yves Guyon, and Franco Levi. The latter, CEB, was founded in Luxembourg in 1953 by IABSE members Hubert R¨usch, known especially for his concrete shell structures for the German firm Diwidag, Georg W¨astlund, known for his research into the structural characteristics of steel, concrete, and plywood, and Levi and Torroja among others. Like several of the other associations devoted especially to concrete, these were founded partly in reaction to the bias that the influential steel specialist Fritz St¨ussi appeared to be giving IABSE – even before he became president in 1951 – and perhaps also in part out of an understandable desire others harbored to head their own organizations.133 CEB subsequently became the Comit´e Euro-International du B´eton – Euro-International Committee for Concrete in 1976. The CEB was first domiciled in ´ Paris, then from 1980 in Geneva, and from 1985 at the EPFL – Ecole Polytechnique F´ed´erale de Lausanne – in Switzerland. After discussions that began in 1996, FIP and CEB merged in 1998 to become FIB that is headquartered at EPFL. IASS: International Association for Shell Structures Originally ICSS (International Committee for Shell Structures), this association was founded in Madrid in 1953 by IABSE member Torroja in another attempt to avoid the domination of St¨ussi and his bias toward steel in IABSE. It became the IASS the year after the Liaison Committee was established in 1959. It is now known as the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures. Ever since its founding, the association’s headquarters has been at the Laboratorio Central de Estructuras y Materiales of the Centro de Estudios y Experimentaci´on de Obras P´ublicas in Madrid. It joined the Liaison Committee when it was founded, but relinquished membership for a number of years, before rejoining in 2001.

CIB: Conseil Internationale du Bˆatiment The International Council of Building has been known as the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction since 1998. It was established in 1953 with the support of the United Nations for international collaboration and information exchange between governmental building and construction research institutes. Its goal was to help redevelop building and construction research in Europe after World War II. CIB began with 43 member institutes, most of them in Europe. As of 2010 it had about 500 member organizations worldwide. CIB is a member of UATI and joined the Liaison Committee in 1962.134 ECCS: European Convention of Constructional Steelwork The ECSS was founded in 1955. It operates through 15 technical and advisory committees and five governing units. It represents associations and steel-making industries in 26 countries in Europe, Asia, and North America. Its purpose as stated in its publications is to develop the market for constructional steel in the service of the national and international associations, which are its full, associate, or supporting members. The Convention stimulates the application of practical standards and codes, proposes research and development to the benefit of the industry, encourages the specification of steel structures early in the design process through education, training, and information, and promotes new methods of construction management, building procurement methods, and new products and processes.

CTBUH: Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Originally, the founder Lynn Beedle of Lehigh University (Honorary Member from 1977) suggested expanding IABSE to include all issues related to tall buildings. He was extremely 56 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Lynn Beedle (1918–2003) at table with, left to right, President Bruno Th¨urlimann, J¨org Schneider, Yves M. Giroux, Executive Director Alain Golay, and Archibald N. Sherbourne at the Lisbon Symposium in 1973 enthusiastic and active in promoting his idea, although he was ultimately unable to form an IABSE group despite great lobbying efforts appearing at each Permanent Committee meeting carrying a paper shopping bag filled with promotional material that he explained at every possible moment. In this, his efforts were similar to those that gave rise to CEB and FIP. Beedle ultimately succeeded in establishing his field as a joint effort of ASCE and IABSE in 1969.

CTBUH was based for 30 years with Beedle at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and originally called “Joint Committee on Tall Buildings”; it changed its name in 1976. Since 2003 it has been based at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and it functions as an interdisciplinary rallying point for all fields connected with problems generated by tall structures and increasingly by dense urban environments.

ICOSSAR: International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability The ICOSSAR was officially founded in 1985 although it had been organizing conferences since 1969. Like the JCSS (Joint Committee on Structural Safety) that is described further on, this organization grew out of one of IABSE’s Working Commissions. However, in contrast to the JCSS, ICOSSAR functions solely as an association for the purpose of organizing conferences.

CERRA: International Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association The CERRA was formed in 1971 to promote professional analysis of risk and reliability in association with civil engineering systems. It is one of the many international associations 57 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

that have no professional connection with IABSE although the aims of its members lie in closely related fields, and its principal function is to organize conferences through ICASP (International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering).

IABMAS: International Association of Bridge Maintenance and Safety IABMAS was founded in 1999 by IABSE member Dan Frangopol with the purpose of advancing the fields of bridge maintenance, safety, and management, an area to which IABSE was hesitant to devote a main thrust. The association that is organized along the same lines as IABSE deals with bridge repair and rehabilitation, management systems, economic issues such as financial planning including whole life costing and investment, safety, and risk. To do this IABMAS, like IABSE, organizes congresses, conferences, symposia, workshops, seminars, and short courses. The association also endorses a peer-reviewed research journal.

Liaison Committee, founded 1958 National and international engineering groups proliferated soon after World War II and the IABSE was concerned to maintain contact and to receive information about as many of the relevant groups and their events as possible. IABSE President St¨ussi, together with others and especially Torroja and Levi of CEB, conceived the idea of a Liaison Committee to coordinate their offerings and also perhaps research efforts.

Although not an IABSE committee, the foundation of the Liaison Committee throws some light on the political travails of the Association.

Fritz St¨ussi (1901–1982), steel specialist and theoretician, third IABSE President

Eduardo Torroja (1899– 1961), Spanish concrete-shell pioneer (photo courtesy: IETcc-CSIC)

In the course of the expansion of engineering activity in the post-World War II years, attempts to coordinate the various new technical associations became more and more urgent. The Permanent Committee delegated IABSE President Andreae and Vice-Presidents Louis Cambournac and Ferdinand Campus in 1950 to attend a UNESCO meeting on coordinating technical associations that resulted in the foundation of UATI (Union des Associations Techniques Internationales – Union of International Technical Associations) with Cambournac as its president,135 and Campus had reported on possible collaboration between his RILEM and IABSE at the same meeting.136 IABSE joined the UATI in 1951.137 In 1952, IABSE was invited to the meeting of FIP (F´ed´eration Internationale de la Pr´econtrainte) held in Cambridge alongside the IABSE Congress.138 Given this growing inter-association activity, St¨ussi wrote to the Executive Committee in May 1958 that the previous April 24th he, Cambournac, and General Secretary Pierre Lardy had called a meeting with the presidents of RILEM, FIP, CEB and ICSS. This meeting had been the result of prior discussion between Cambournac, Louis Grelot, and Levi, then President of CEB, whose website claims that the initiative originated with Levi.139 58

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St¨ussi’s goal was to create a group to coordinate the events organized by these various associations to avoid scheduling conflicts because many IABSE members were also members of one or more of these new groups. Secondarily, he hoped perhaps to establish some form of research collaboration as well. St¨ussi suggested that if the members of the Executive Committee were in agreement he would present a proposal for the foundation of a committee to the following meeting of the Permanent Committee and to recognize Lardy as the Liaison Committee’s president as the founding group had agreed.140 The goals of the Liaison Committee were reported by Torroja at the following ICSS meeting in Berlin on May 5th with Levi present:

Franco Levi (1914–2009), Italian concrete theoretician and advocate for Eurocode development (photo courtesy: Fabio Levi, Italy)

1. To give a description of their (the five associations’) general designs and of their field of activities.

2. Study together the program of the meetings which they meant to hold in the following years stating exactly the subjects they meant to discuss, places, and dates, also the character of these meetings (open to everyone or subject to invitation). The object of these exchanges of ideas should be that of avoiding interferences, double uses, and excessive dispersion.

3. Study the means of establishing and publishing reports of a synthetical character destined to the mutual information of the members of the five associations.141 IABSE’s Permanent Committee ratified the idea and St¨ussi’s choice of his personal friend Lardy at its meeting in Istanbul on September 2nd, 1958, but Lardy died suddenly at the end of October 1958 and before the Liaison Committee met for the first time in Zurich on February 18th, 1959. The second meeting was subsequently hosted by Torroja and chaired by Cambournac on September 16th, 1959 in Madrid.

The beginnings of the Liaison Committee were fraught with difficulties and several misunderstandings, not the least of which was due to the lack of a president because of Lardy’s untimely death. One might have expected an easier beginning because many prominent IABSE members were also in the other participating groups, among them Hubert R¨usch, J´ulio Ferry Borges (Honorary Member from 1989), Fritz Leonhardt (Honorary Member from 1979), Nicolas Esquillan who, with Freyssinet and Pier Luigi Nervi, was building the three-cornered vault of the CNIT exhibition hall in Paris D´efense together at the time (1956–1958), Levi, and W¨astlund in CEB, Torroja, Alan Harris, Freyssinet, and Hans Wittfoht in FIP, Campus, Torroja, Mirko Roˇs, W¨astlund, R¨usch, and Inge Lyse in RILEM, and Torroja, Esquillan, and Levi in ICSS/IASS. However, it became a political tug-of-war between conflicting personal ambitions.

The Liaison Committee had agreed for instance at its first meeting not to admit the International Institute for Welding IIW and yet several members had discussed this possibility and the candidacy of yet another group. The ICSS changed into IASS under Torroja as an international organization in 1959 without informing the other members of the Liaison Committee. St¨ussi’s acerbic protests and, as it later proved, somewhat exaggerated reaction especially to Levi’s initiatives, reveal his well-known intemperate nature.142 Levi, also a forceful character, reacted.

The dispute suggests a disagreement between St¨ussi and Levi for control of the new committee with Cambournac involved as St¨ussi’s deputy and the person who had chaired the Zurich and Madrid meetings.

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On the CEB side, Nicolas Esquillan, Yves Saillard, and Torroja, another forceful personality, supported Levi. St¨ussi the ardent proponent of steel construction, generally opposed those who espoused concrete. What supports the interpretation as a power struggle between two ambitious men of strong character is that the official CEB history states that it was that organization that took the initiative in creating the Liaison Committee.143 Part of the problem was that St¨ussi was apparently intent on linking the Liaison Committee closely with IABSE that he wanted to remain the pre-eminent and indeed the only international engineering association, while others wanted it Louis Cambournac (1886– to be more independent. St¨ussi was in all probability anxious 1973), French railway engi- that IABSE should not loose its international standing and neer and early researcher in relevance to structural engineering through the proliferation of composite construction professional organizations. To accomplish this for instance, the first meeting had designated the IABSE Secretariat as the support office for the new committee, and Torroja had requested at the second meeting that Lily Gretener, IABSE’s Secretary and Executive Committee member be personally designated as the support staff rather than the IABSE’s office. Thus, while this may at first appear to be a semantic rather than a substantive problem, it was political. Gretener became embroiled in the dispute and was obliged to resign as Secretary of the Liaison Committee.144 However, in a letter to Cambournac on December 2nd, St¨ussi wrote that Gretener had indeed been Secretary of the Liaison Committee and so designated in Madrid,145 and at any rate she continued in her position with IABSE until her retirement in 1964. Cambournac wrote to St¨ussi on December 15th, 1960 that Torroja had proposed at Madrid that the secretariat of the Liaison Committee not be identical with that of one of the member organizations, and yet, both Lardy and Gretener had been designated. Levi responded satisfactorily to St¨ussi’s protests in a letter to Cambournac dated February 24th, 1961 that was co-signed by IABSE members Torroja, Lyse, and W¨astlund among others. St¨ussi replied on July 14th, 1961 to W¨astlund and Lyse with further corrections from his standpoint, implying that Torroja who had died in the interim and could thus not defend himself, had made incorrect or at least imprecise statements.

As a result of all these tendentious and sometimes intentional misunderstandings, the committee decided not to elect a president, that is a chair, or designate a secretariat (although Cambournac functioned as president at the time), to harmonize the efforts more adequately and to hold to the decision regarding new memberships from the minutes of the meeting of February 18th, 1959. On February 9th, 1960 St¨ussi seems to have capitulated to some extent. He replied that it would be better to leave the whole topic to be resolved at the IABSE Stockholm Congress where the waves were finally quieted by W¨astlund on June 29th, 1960 despite Levi’s and St¨ussi’s later interchange of letters.

Georg W¨astlund (1905– 1980), the Swedish concrete engineer

The Liaison Committee began to function after Stockholm and has met at least once a year since then to coordinate conferences and publications. The idea of coordinating research efforts did not materialize as envisioned. The committee does not work as originally proposed, and it seems not to be 60

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politically desirable that it do so. While the original intention was that the presidents and chairs of the participating organizations would meet regularly to coordinate their efforts at all levels, CEB under Levi, whose presidency ran from 1957 to 1968, began to delegate its Executive Secretary who remained permanent while the presidents of the other organizations rotated ever more frequently with the years and did not know one another or the committee as well, and the CEB representative was only interested in date coordination. As a result, common issues of interest were discussed less and the attending presidents began to lose interest in the work of the committee.146 The consensus among the member organizations seems currently to be that IABSE remain a general association and the others devote themselves to special areas.

Therefore, the Liaison Committee has essentially functioned since only to coordinate the event agendas of the member organizations to avoid scheduling conflicts. Currently it meets once a year.147 The Liaison Committee is today headed in a two-year rotation by a member of each of the organizations in turn. After being led by Cambournac, a president of the Liaison Committee was finally elected in 1961 in the person of Eduard Amstutz (RILEM), Roˇs’s successor as head of EMPA, followed by W¨astlund (CEB) in 1963 and Guyon (FIP) in 1965. The Committee has had various member organizations over the years, including CIB that joined as a member in 1962148 and apparently after a hiatus of some years, again in 1979. The IASS resigned from the Liaison Committee at some point, but rejoined later around 2001. Another that also joined around 1979, the ECCS has remained. In 1991, the Committee comprised CEB, CIB, ECCS, FIP, IABSE, IASS, and RILEM. The Committee has, however, organized at least one joint-sponsorship, a RILEM – IABSE – IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) symposium in 1962 on the use of computers in civil engineering,149 and several mixed commissions, for instance the JCSS founded in 1971 and the joint CEB – CIB – RILEM Commission on Statistical Quality Control.

The Liaison Committee also sponsored two successful Inter-Association conferences, one in Innsbruck in 1997 and the other in Malta in 2001. However, most of the organizational work for these two conferences was undertaken by the IABSE Secretariat. In 1993, the Committee charter was revised with the goal of optimizing joint meetings, commissions, and publications to allow members of the various organizations to attend as many meetings as possible without causing them undue financial burden.150

Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS) All the members of the Liaison Committee had established working groups or commissions concerned with issues of structural safety. IABSE Working Commission 1 “General Questions” dealt with problems of safety at the time. In 1971, at the initiative of IABSE and with major input from the Secretariat, the members of the Liaison Committee joined forces in this area with the aim of jointly improving knowledge in the field. The JCSS has remained the only subcommittee of the Liaison Committee. Its first President from 1971 to 1989 was J´ulio Ferry Borges, Portugal, followed by J¨org Schneider, Switzerland in 1990, R¨udiger Rackwitz, Germany, Ton Vrouwenvelder, the Netherlands, and currently Michael H. Faber, Switzerland.

Over the years, the JCSS has held over 40 meetings that produced over 200 papers and engendered several subcommittees with their own publications. These influenced the creation of several model codes. In 1985, the Committee was reorganized into two bodies, the Plenum with 12 members, chaired by the president (Ferry Borges at the time) and elected for a four-year term, and the Working Party with 10–12 especially active members chaired by the Reporter. In 1985, Marita Kersken-Bradley was elected the first Reporter.151 61 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

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Chapter

5

The Early Quadrennial Congresses and Political Survival Through World War II

The Third International Conference on bridges and structures in 1932 in Paris became the first IABSE Congress. As intended by the founders, the congresses developed into the international rallying point for contact in the Association, and they remained the only regular IABSE events until 1967. Congresses have been held in a four-year cycle ever since with one exception: the years 1940 and 1944 were missed during World War II. One event, the Shanghai Symposium in 2004 became a semantic anomaly although it fulfilled all the functions of a congress, and the 2008 Chicago Congress was also originally designated a symposium, but changed back into a congress for political reasons in the planning stage. The reasons are detailed in Chapter 6.

The four-year cycle was originally established to avoid scheduling conflicts with the congresses organized by the International Association for Testing Materials that Roˇs headed, but this did not work and the two were subsequently held in the same years. Thus, the Permanent Committee meeting of 1939 in Zurich discussed whether to shorten the interval to three years, but this idea was rejected, as the workload would have been too heavy for the Secretariat and the costs too great.152 The congresses have always functioned well as the networking, social events tying the IABSE together and presenting it to the outside world, albeit with a comprehensive technical and scientific program, while the later symposia (begun on a regular basis in 1967) functioned as the corresponding professional working meetings that dealt with well-defined scientific and technical issues. Apart from their professional role, the early congresses tested and, although the war prevented more than the first two from taking place, their professional desirability assured the political revival of the Association after the war years 1939 to 1945.

Therefore, it is of historical interest to examine the earlier congresses in detail, as these were the founding meetings that created the political as well as the social strength of the Association and that provided a solid basis for the development of today’s IABSE. The general political situation that conditioned the tenor of the congresses, especially on the eve and in the aftermath of World War II, merits detailed attention because it throws light on the role that international organizations were able to play in the preservation of civility and the development of professionalism in those trying times.

A group of participants and spouses at the 1932 Paris Congress with the famous Fritz von Emperger standing at the right of the second row (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, now in IABSE archive) 63 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Socially, the congresses were as important to the Association as their professional or political aspect. What older IABSE members fondly remember even today is that both the organization of the events as well as the meetings themselves formed an unofficial mentoring system. As Faltus’s comments in previous chapters regarding the pre-IABSE conferences in 1926 and 1928 testify, these events served the senior, more experienced engineers as a mechanism to support and encourage the Association’s younger members, helping thereby to develop the profession. They also helped to clarify and diffuse innovative ideas. In the Appendix, a graph of the themes that were discussed and when they first appeared shows what the current “hottopics” in the field were, and another appendix section deals with how the professional focus developed over the years.

Paris Congress 1932: The Founders Act IABSE’s preliminary contacts and operational modes had been prepared in the two Zurich Conferences in 1922 and 1926, and in the Vienna Conference in 1928. The Association had been founded and its organization cautiously tested against the political realities of the time, adjusted, and gradually improved upon in the intermediate years. The Executive Committee and Secretariat could set to work with the local committee in Paris in a mature fashion right away. Originally, the Congress date had been proposed for 1930, but as the Belgian government was celebrating the centenary of the country’s independence that year and was proposing conferences that included structural engineering, the Association agreed to move the date to 1932.153 A Patronage Committee had been proposed by Vice-President Gaston Pigeaud that included the Minister of Public Works as president and the Ministers of the Interior and Commerce and Industry as vice-presidents. The Organizing Committee was also a political body and included 14 politicians and members of professional bodies and the relevant schools, but the actual work was done under the chairmanship of Sylvain Dreyfus, Inspecteur G´en´eral

Group photograph of all the participants at the first IABSE Paris Congress in 1932 (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, IABSE archive) 64 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

des Ponts et Chauss´ees with the help of the Zurich office by Marcelin Duplaix as the organizer’s general secretary, who however died during the preparations.154 The conference took place from May 19th to 25th with about 500 participants, slightly fewer than that in Vienna. The drop in participation was certainly due to the effect of the Great Depression that was especially felt in Germany so that many of those German members who were able to attend had to leave before the congress ended because of lack of funds. The membership, however, had increased by then to around 500 individual, and 150 collective members from about 40 countries.155 The congress must have opened on a very ambivalent note. Someone from Zurich, surely Rohn, read a welcoming address in English as addendum to the one in German.156 Vice-Presidents Vittorio Fantucci and Moritz Kl¨onne also spoke at the plenary. Eight working sessions followed. The original plan to devote three sessions each to steel and concrete was expanded to eight, and apparently everyone was satisfied with the result as no comments were recorded to the contrary. The only recorded protest was a curious incident after the congress when the eminent Fritz von Emperger who had been one of the original Austrian representatives to the Permanent Committee resigned in anger over the fact that his name had not been mentioned in one of the general secretaries’ reports.

Complex issue-oriented questions dominated the paper sessions in a pragmatic fashion. This was a change from Vienna where everything had been clearly segregated in material categories.

The organizers were able to attract eminent speakers and accommodate Karner’s critique of the organization of the Vienna Conference to permit participants to attend both the more steel-oriented and the more concrete-oriented sessions.

Facsimile of President Arthur Rohn’s English welcoming speech in Paris 1932 65 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

All papers were pre-published in a 680-page report and presenters were instructed to talk briefly about their papers that all those who were interested had presumably read previously.

The discussants were restricted to three minutes each, and so the whole congress was severely regimented and thus a great deal was communicated in the brief time available.157 Among the most renowned speakers were Karl von Terzaghi, Fritz von Emperger, Mirko Roˇs, and Stephen Timoshenko, while the working sessions also had contributions by Robert Maillart, Eug`ene Freyssinet, and Fritz St¨ussi. Anker Engelund and Vittorio Fantucci spoke at the closing session.

A Swiss engineer named C. Hubacher reported on the congress in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung. He was intrigued by the fact that experts in widely differing fields could use similar analytical methods. Although he did not state it in so many words, he correctly identified this as a vindication of the border-crossing idea Roˇs had espoused from the beginning: Karl von Terzaghi the celebrated developer of the field of soil mechanics, determined internal stresses in soils using capillary forces and the equally celebrated Eug`ene Freyssinet used the same method to explain shrinkage in concrete.

This, Hubacher wrote proEug`ene Freyssinet’s 1923–1926 concrete Zepplin hangar in vided an excellent analytiOrly, a suburb of Paris cal method that practitioners could subsequently employ in many fields.158 President Rohn announced in the closing session the possibility that the Association might be able to fund individual research projects in the future that addressed topics of common interest without identifying where such funds might come from. A sour note at the end of the conference was sounded by several nationalistic chauvinist remarks in the closing session. This was, The impromptu IABSE technical site visit organized by Mirko after all, a period of economic Roˇs inside Freyssinet’s hangar in 1932 (photo: gift of Alfred depression and one that led Moe, IABSE archive) quickly to World War II.

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Despite the pall cast over the event by the Great Depression and the assassination of the French President Paul Doumer two weeks before the opening, the congress excursions were increased in number both during and after the working days to points of general as well as professional interest. They all disappointed Hubacher who only had words of praise for the one excursion that had not been on the program, but that Roˇs had quickly organized with Freyssinet: a visit to his celebrated shell structure, the Orly Zeppelin hangar.159 journal,160

Eug`ene Freyssinet (1879– 1962), French inventor of prestressing

In the following issue of the editor Carl Jegher tried to soften Hubacher’s somewhat harsh critique by mentioning another out-of-program event, a very pleasant dinner that the Parisian chapter of the Eidgen¨ossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Alumni Association Gesellschaft Ehemaliger Polytechniker (GEP) had offered all Swiss and ETH participants.

The Executive Committee met during the congress proposing to re-elect their members to serve until the following meeting to be held in Munich in autumn. A simpler solution was adopted “in order not to influence the work of the Congress in any way,” to postpone the election until Munich and then to hold elections at each subsequent congress.161 This idea was abandoned in later years because retirements and deaths necessitated irregular elections, sometimes yearly. Of interest at this meeting was the report that the individual membership of the young IABSE had almost doubled within a year from 421 in 1931 to 760 and the collective membership had grown from 139 to 211. Engineers from 15 new countries participated, and this in a period of severe economic depression and inflation.162

A Congress planned for Rome: Political maneuvering The success of the Paris Congress gave impetus to preparations for the next congress almost immediately and Rome was proposed at the 1932 meeting of the Permanent Committee in Paris.163 The Rome plan was then presented in detail at a later Permanent Committee meeting on April 10th, 1934. Vice-President Vittorio Fantucci, member of the Italian Parliament who had recently finished an important traffic study for Venice, was the Executive Committee member in charge. Arturo Danusso, an architect and engineer and founder of the famous Istituto Sperimentale Modelli e Strutture (Institute of Experimental Models and Structures) ISMES in Bergamo, who would later design many of Pier Luigi Nervi’s structures and especially that of Milan’s Pirelli Building (1956–1958), Alberto Fava, Italian representative to the Permanent Committee since its founding, who had just finished building the steel structure of Milan’s new railway station in 1931, Luigi Santarella, the second Italian Representative to the Permanent Committee since the beginning, known chiefly for his publications on reinforced concrete, and Ottorino Sesini, theoretician of mechanics and especially kinematics, were the Italian Permanent Committee representatives at that meeting. Together they were to organize the congress. Fantucci proposed to petition the Italian Government for permission to hold the event; a permit had been required by Italian law as of January 4th, 1934.164 He would do this through the National Fascist Italian Syndicate of Engineers and the international association it had co-founded: the European Federation of Engineers’ Associations in Rome.165 When the government’s permission was not forthcoming by 1935,166 Fantucci resigned as Vice-President and was replaced by Giuseppe Caffarelli, National Secretary of the Italian Fascist Engineer Syndicate.167 Simultaneously, a proposal was floated to allow the Executive Committee to 67 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

move the congress to Switzerland should all else fail. Vice-President Kl¨onne suggested asking the German government whether it might be interested in hosting the congress. Rohn responded that Switzerland would be easier, but that no move should be made as yet despite the late hour, in order not to insult the Italian group. Fava should be privately informed of the Executive Committee’s concern.168 In a letter dated November 18th, 1935, Rohn then informed the members of the Executive Committee that Caffarelli had obtained an indication from Rome that spring 1937 would be better. This referred surely to the ongoing war between Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and Italy that had begun in October 1935 and only ended the following May. In principle Rohn was inclined to agree to the change, but Rome did not pursue the matter further. Rohn, therefore, suggested to Caffarelli to change the Rome conference to 1940 and look for an alternative location in 1936. Caffarelli responded that he would receive an answer within a month.169 Time was growing short. At the last possible moment, on January 20th, 1936, Rohn wrote to each of the Executive Committee members that Kl¨onne had spoken with the IABSE German Group and that Fritz Todt, the builder of the new Reichs-Autobahn system and a personal friend of Reich-Chancellor Hitler, had consulted the German government that was willing to host the conference that autumn. He had accepted.170 He also wrote to Caffarelli, informing him of the decision, as he had not received any reply to his letters of November 16th and 18th, and repeated his invitation to hold the 1940 Congress in Rome.171 Five days later President Rohn and General Secretary Ritter, cosigned a circular letter in which they announced that the 1936 Congress would not be held in Rome, and that recently re-elected Vice-President Kl¨onne had proposed and offered Germany as a substitute.172 Certainly, the delay in granting a permit for the congress had contributed to this change, but the political reason behind this delay was not recorded. One idea was that the Italian conquest of Abyssinia was the reason for the government’s inaction.173 But the Italian government had been stalling since the previous year, which the war does not explain. Was it a manipulation between nations or rather between Hitler and Mussolini, with Germany wanting a political public relations platform? Was it a clash of personalities between the Italians and Kl¨onne or perhaps even involving the notorious Fritz Todt who then did organize the congress in Berlin? One can only speculate. At any rate, Rohn’s compromise proposal to hold the congress in Switzerland was evidently brushed aside.

Three days later on January 28th, another circular letter stamped “urgent” followed the first stating that the plan of the congress would essentially remain the same. “Slight alterations of the program will certainly be necessary, particularly if the country organizing the Congress expresses special wishes with which the Association can comply and in accordance with the decisions taken in Brussels.”174 Although the type of changes was not specified, from the wording it was clear that Karner and Ritter as scientific organizers (with Rohn of course in the background) were willing to make some concessions in personnel but not in content, and they would not permit anything that contradicted the spirit and agreements of the Association.

This was formulated in a general and ambiguous fashion: “In order to be able to consider the wishes and suggestions of the representatives of the other countries at this meeting, the undersigned Secretaries General request you inform them whether you have any wishes or suggestions concerning the programme which has been sent to you together with the Minutes of the last meeting in Brussels and the above-mentioned circular letter. In this programme the speakers and participants in the discussion are indicated. In case you should have any observation to make—if, for instance, you would like to add the names of personalities likely to accept a paper or to participate in the discussion, or you propose to remove one or the other name from the list—we ask you to let us know by return, as it will not be possible to consider 68 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

communications received later on.”175 The unmentioned understanding was, of course, that some participants might wish to cancel for ethnic or political reasons. Some may have and others not. Friedrich Bleich, for instance, published a research paper together with his son Hans in the preliminary report,176 and was scheduled as a lecturer for Working Session I in Theme I to speak to his topic “Calculation of statistically Indeterminate Systems based on the Theory of Plasticity,”177 but it is not known whether he was actually present. In an immediate follow-up on February 6th: “. . .the German Committee of Organization has requested the Government to approach at once the Foreign Governments interested in the Association, and to invite them to designate an official delegation for the Congress. Moreover, we ask you to be good enough to do your utmost to induce your Government to appoint an official delegation for the next Congress.”178 The political pressure is implied, and the Association’s resistance too. Rohn had delicate political work ahead to maintain IABSE’s political neutrality.

Several changes did indeed take place in the membership of some delegations, and in May, Rohn urged the national committees who had not yet responded, to expedite their appointments.179

Berlin–Munich Congress 1936: A politically delicate event The professional part of the second Congress was held in Berlin and the following social events in Munich for a week and a half on October 1st–11th, 1936. The event was almost twice the length of the first and the later third congress, and it taxed the political viability of the Association as a neutral, professional organization to the utmost. The entire event was organized by Fritz Todt, General Inspector of German Roads. Todt was a self-aggrandizing member of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) from its inception in 1922 and thus a “Blutordenstr¨ager” (Member of the Blood Order) and a close confidant of Hitler’s, who later built the “Siegfried Line” using the “Organization Todt” which was a euphemism for slave labor.

In contrast to the Paris Congress four years before where the opening and closing sessions had been eloquent speeches of thanks and recognition, the organization and speeches in Berlin stood squarely under the influence of the Nazi propaganda machine. The Committee of Honor included Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goering as well as several ministers.

As the Reich and Prussian Minister of Transportation, Paul Freiherr von Eltz-R¨ubenacht said at the beginning: “Gentlemen! (In the previous Paris conference and in subsequent ones, the address was always “Ladies and Gentlemen”). In the name of the Government of the German Reich I offer a welcome to the Second Congress of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. I have the special honor of conveying to you the greetings of the F¨uhrer and Reich-Chancellor, who takes a lively interest in your proceedings and is especially pleased that your meeting should be taking place in Germany.

The F¨uhrer has recognized the importance of your meeting by signifying his special wish that members of the Reich Government should be members of the Honorary Committee of the Congress.”180 Of course, this political influence found no overt mention in the final report as it was put together by Ritter and St¨ussi as general secretaries and by a young participant, a former assistant to both Rohn and Ritter, Karl Hofacker, later himself an ETH professor who undertook the monumental task of editing all reports in all three official languages. It was 69 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

interesting that this influence had made itself felt years before, as von Eltz-R¨ubenach claimed that: “The Government of the Reich have already shown their [sic] interest in your Association by giving their consent in 1932, at the instigation of your Vice-President, Dr. Kl¨onne, to the Second Congress of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering being held in Berlin in 1936. At that time the German invitation had to give way to an earlier Italian invitation to Rome, but special circumstances have since arisen which led to the Italian wish that the meeting in Rome might be postponed to another year, and it was a particular pleasure to me that this change led to a renewed German invitation to the Association to hold its Congress in Berlin and Munich.”181 This was, of course a politically euphemistic half-truth. In 1932, the German government had been the Weimar Republic’s, not the Nazi Reich’s government, and the diplomatic suppression of this information as well as of the change from Rome to Berlin smacks of a political coup for nationalistic public relations. Kl¨onne might not have been too pleased to have been coopted by the new government at the time, and the National Secretary of the Fascist Syndicate of engineers in Rome, Giuseppe Caffarelli, must have also been somewhat subdued when he welcomed the delegates in Berlin: “As representative of the Italian delegation I have the pleasant task of conveying the heartfelt greetings of Fascist engineers to members of the Second International Congress for Bridge and Structural Engineering. In this there falls to me the special honor of expressing to the German Organizing Committee, and its President, our sincerest thanks for the readiness with which they undertook the organization of the Congress when political circumstances arose which formed an obstacle to its being held, as we had hoped, in the Italian capital.”182 In his speech, Rohn, as president of IABSE and the political neutral in this minefield, mentioned his years as a young engineer working in Germany and praised German construction, in particular the new Reich-Autobahn, and he drew attention to the publication Todt distributed to the participants “Drei Jahre an den Strassen Adolf Hitlers” (Three years [working] on Adolf Hitler’s Roads).183 Rohn also quoted the way Hitler had described his friend Todt: “An idealist of the first water in his confidence in the work to be accomplished, at the same time a realist and thinker of greatest clarity in its realization. Is that not,” Rohn diplomatically added, “the finest definition of the engineer. . .?”184 The typescript of Rohn’s talk in the archive paints a less optimistic picture while stressing the optimism that had led to the founding of the Association in the first place, and it is not clear whether and at what event he read this one as well: “The laws of equilibrium—and we are all accustomed to applying them in our daily work—also govern every human enterprise, both political and economic. That is why I have particular faith in the structural engineer—in the part he will play in establishing economic and political equilibrium in old Europe. . . . It has needed a great deal of optimism to carry through an International Congress of a scientific nature under the conditions prevailing at the present time. And during these next few days I would urge you to cultivate this spirit of optimism which is the only means of ensuring the success of our Congress and which, in fact, is the only thing that can give mankind the necessary strength to go forward, courageously and in defiance of every difficulty, into the future.”185 The internationalist Moritz Kl¨onne, fluent in several languages and at home in various cultures, Vice-President of the Association, who otherwise gave a professionally focused welcoming speech, felt the need, and probably substantial political pressure to mention the German people arising once again to the “towering heights of dignity, honor and freedom. . . .”186 (Kl¨onne was a political conservative, but he resisted joining the NSDAP until 1940 and apparently retained passive contacts to military resistance groups until the end of the war.)187 70 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

It is interesting to note as a political footnote that, whereas Kl¨onne had been involved with IABSE from the outset and renewed his official engagement as Vice-President in the Association in 1954 after Germany was readmitted to membership in 1951, the Fascist functionary Caffarelli held his position as Vice-President of IABSE for only a single year, 1935–1936 and never again appears in any IABSE document. As to Todt, he never served in any form of official function in the Association, nor did he then or subsequently hold any official or honorary position in IABSE. This fact was, and still is, unusual for any congress organizer and especially for one as prominent as the builder of the Reich-Autobahn. Although this by no means constitutes definitive proof of the Association’s independence, it does qualify both Rohn’s and the Executive Committee’s political leanings, and it also indicates in some measure how Rohn and the IABSE tried to navigate the dangerous period and yet define their personal and collective integrity while officially maintaining a neutral stance. Leopold Karner’s role as social animator of the meeting must have been politically just as tortuous, and in his speech at the opening of the Li`ege Congress in 1948, Ferdinand Campus speculated that Karner’s premature death at 49 shortly after the Berlin Congress, may have been at least partly hastened by the stress of that effort.188 Nevertheless, the Berlin Congress certainly served Hitler’s government as a political platform.

In his keynote presentation at the opening session, the Nazi Todt declared: “. . . in accord with the will of our F¨uhrer, the Reichs-Autobahnen, which we designate as the ‘F¨uhrer’s Highways’, stand as a work of peaceful construction. . .”.189 As innocuous as this statement may have seemed to the na¨ıve among the participants, and the autobahns were indeed novel and admirable gigantic engineering works, their political intention was military and imperialistic from the outset.

Such comments were ominous signs of nationalistic propaganda and a shadow of things to come, especially with the inclusion of congress organizer Todt as plenary speaker in the opening ceremony.

The Nazi swastika hung huge and ominous over the speaker’s podium, and this may have been the origin of the IABSE tradition never to include any national symbol or flag in any official publications or promotional material. One wonders how many of those in the hall were worried. Despite the cloud hanging over the event, the personal warmth of the meeting surprised many. Carl Jegher, who reported on the Congress for the journal he edited, the Schweizerische

Freiherr Paul von Eltz-R¨ubenach opening the Berlin Congress in 1936. The Congress organizer Fritz Todt is seated to his left (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, IABSE archive) 71

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Bauzeitung, wrote that he had not expected such a pleasant reception, and he noted that the oneon-one relationship among the participants had apparently not suffered from the governmental change and what he diplomatically termed “national disagreements.”190 Despite the gathering storm, about 1000 participants (600 of them from outside Germany), twice the number than that which attended Paris, came from 37 countries to the event.191 The eight themes and many sub-sessions were as interesting as they had been in Paris and free, at least in their published form, from nationalistic hubris or political issues. In contrast to Paris, there were once again so-called “free papers” in Berlin that were, however, not published in the final report.

The working sessions took up eight days from October 1st to 7th. Carl Jegher’s report praised the simultaneous translations that were a novelty at the time.192 Every evening was taken up by musical performances, with the exception of Saturday, October 3rd when the participants could choose an excursion to either the Reich Sports Grounds at Wannsee or the viaducts of the ReichAutobahn in the Kalkberge mountains, and Sunday when the participants traveled over the Berlin-Stettin Autobahn to Niederfinow to see the ship lift that Kl¨onne had built or to Potsdam and Frederick IABSE excursion buses and cars on a site visit to the new the Great’s Baroque palace of Reich-Autobahn in Germany, 1936 (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, Sansouci.

IABSE archive) On the 6th the participants were invited to take part in a political event in the gigantic Deutschlandhalle with speeches

by Goebbels and Hitler which Jegher found unexpectedly sober and factual. Hitler, he wrote, sounded far more rational at that event than he did in his radio speeches!193 The remainder of the days after the closing ceremonies on October 7th was taken up with an excursion through Dresden and Bayreuth to Munich with over half the congress participating.

Nazi students’ honor guard in uniform on one of the IABSE excursions in Germany, 1936 (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, IABSE archive)

The trip was by rail and road accompanied by “charming” uniformed and jack-booted Nazionalsozialistische (NS) students (so different from the aggressively rude tone of their official journal Die Bewegung wrote Jegher)194 , and served by cheerful Bund Deutscher M¨adchen (BDM) girls, with a guided tour over the connecting autobahn segments and their bridges by Todt. Jegher was bemused and, it seems from his carefully understated disapproving account, a little shocked by the well-orchestrated and overly friendly public relations effort as well as the brutal contrast between the bombast of what was then modern and the lively Baroque in Bayreuth.

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Each evening saw a reception at one of the cities on the excursion route with musical performances, including a moment of silence while laying a wreath at the grave of Franz Liszt in Bayreuth! The last day, October 11th, the closing ceremony was held with much pomp and propaganda in the halls of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The Munich Gauleiter and Staatsminister made a political speech and the representatives of 40 countries spoke.

Rohn summed up the events of the congress and read a personal message, summing up the propaganda intent, sent to him by Hitler: “My sincere thanks to the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering for the words of greeting which you, Professor have transmitted to me. May the past days have shown all participants that the new Third Reich is putting forth all its strength to create works of order, of progress and of peace. With this in mind I greet all the participants in the assembly now closed.”195 Jegher wrote in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung that he skipped the closing session of the congress to visit a few of Munich’s celebrated museums and, “. . . as the final contrast between old and new cultural forms—a NS-Gautag (district day) rally on the K¨onigsplatz with 47,000 uniformed participants, a forest of flags, music and a speech by the Gauleiter (district leader), a very revealing spectacle for one’s awareness of the new Germany, in culmination of 16 days of all sorts of stark impressions.”196 The next congress was proposed for 1940. At the Permanent Committee meeting in Berlin on September 30th, 1936, Stefan Bryła, President of the Polish Group, officially proposed the next host country as Poland.197 No one referred again to the Rome proposal, and later, at the 1938 Permanent Committee meeting in Cracow, Bryła suggested Warsaw as the host city. Despite the politically difficult times, several countries were anxious to host a congress.

Robert Henry Sherlock in Ann Arbor represented by Stephen Timoshenko of the USA and Ewart Andrews of the UK proposed their nations to host a fourth congress in 1944.198 Rohn had perceptively indicated the shaky ground on which any international understanding and collaboration stood at the time in his valedictory words in Munich: “. . .there remains but one more thing for me to do, and that is to bid you farewell and good luck until our next Congress, which—God willing—will be held in 1940.” Rohn’s apprehension was correct, as this was to be the last congress to be held before the devastation of World War II. A 12-year hiatus ensued until 1948 when Europe had begun to recover economically and organizationally.

Stefan Bryła (1866–1943), one of the most active early Association members

Charles Andreae (1874– 1964), tunnel engineer, second IABSE President

No wonder then that Rohn was exhausted by the efforts of the Berlin Congress and its aftermath and, although he was pressured to remain president, he resigned in a letter of January 17th, 1938 pleading a heart condition, possibly with Karner’s recent death in mind, and suggested

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the multilingual Charles Andreae, former professor and provost at the ETH and recently retired to Zurich from a deanship in Cairo, as his choice for IABSE President.199 Rohn was to survive well another 18 years, and he had served the Association admirably during a politically harrowing few years.

Warsaw 1940: The Congress that did not take place and the War Years Preparations went ahead for the third Congress to be held in Warsaw in 1940. Stefan Bryła was the organizer. The Rome idea had evidently only been proposed as a sop to the sensibilities of the Italian group. So many papers were sent to Zurich that they could not have been published in the proposed 600- to 800-page format and a list of plenary speakers was established that included Alfred Caquot, Franz Dischinger, Maksymilian Huber, and St¨ussi.200 The war intervened and the proposal was abandoned: “Owing to the political situation, headquarters in Zurich consider it necessary to postpone the preparatory work for the third Congress of IABSE. As soon as the political conditions will allow it new decisions as to the date and place of this Congress will be taken.”201 The German army had overrun Poland on September 1st.

Andreae wrote these words on October 19th, 1939 when it had become abundantly clear that this was not an isolated event that would soon blow over.

During the war, the group in Zurich, now under the Presidency of Charles Andreae, tried to save the Association as best as it could and help members where possible through sporadic communications. Lily Gretener was especially concerned for the well-being of members in the combatant countries, all of whom she knew personally. As soon as the political situation had calmed after the armistice and surrender of the final Axis Power, a first letter was sent to the delegates for the allied and neutral countries on May 4th, 1946: “Gentlemen, As the war is over and travelling has become possible again, it is time to review the relations between the various groups and individual members and the Secretariat of the IABSE. The Executive Committee of 1939 held its first meeting in Paris on March 19th, 1946—without the German members, [i.e., Vice-President Kl¨onne and Scientific Secretary Erich Bornemann]—and decided to invite the delegates of the allied and neutral countries to a meeting in which the continuation of the Association should be discussed and a definite decision taken.

During the war we regularly informed all those of our members who could be reached on the activities of the Executive Committee, particularly those of its Zurich members. As we could not, however, write to all of them, we shall now give a short summary of the main facts.

On June 2nd, 1939, the Permanent Committee elected the Executive Committee according to the Statutes for a two-years’ term of office. As war broke out shortly after, making meetings of the Executive Committee and the Permanent Committee impossible, it was the task of the Zurich members of the Executive Committee not to allow the Association to founder in the general chaos.

They felt responsible in this sense to the Association and informed its members of their views in their circular letter of January 10th, 1940. In January 1941 No. 7 of the ‘Bulletin’ appeared.

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The Executive Committee’s official term of office expired in June 1941 and we had to make up our minds as to our responsibilities toward the Association. We informed the members of the Executive and Permanent Committees in our circular letter of June 10th, 1941, that, as there was no possibility of calling a meeting of the Permanent Committee nor even of the Executive Committee, the members of the latter living in Zurich [i.e., President Charles Andreae, and General Secretaries Max Ritter and Fritz St¨ussi] were willing to continue their office in the IABSE as trustees until a new election of the Executive Committee should again be possible. All answers agreed with our point of view.

Toward the end of 1941 these members of the Executive Committee had to take another important decision. The General Secretaries possessed numerous papers which had been sent to them either to be published in Volume 6 of the Publications [Memoirs] (1939/1940) or to be submitted to the Congress which should have been held in Warsaw in 1940. They were responsible to the authors of these papers. On the other hand the Secretariat disposed of large funds, which at that time still permitted the printing of one or even two volumes of Publications in Switzerland. It was for this purpose that the annual fees from which these funds derived were paid by the members. But it could not be foreseen what these resources would be worth in the future. As we did not want to neglect anything and as on the other hand it was clear that the main object of the Association was its scientific activity we decided in agreement with our Honorary President [Rohn had been awarded this title when he retired in 1938] and the Auditors chosen by the Permanent Committee in 1939 to publish one volume of the Publications. We informed the various national groups of this intention in our circular letter of November 5th, 1941. All the answers were favorable and we even received congratulations, for instance from the Belgian group.

Accordingly, Volume 6 appeared in February 1942. In the Introduction to this volume and in their circular letter of October 19th, 1942, the General Secretaries announced their intention—provided that conditions should allow it—of publishing Volume 7 in the course of the year 1943. This volume appeared in June 1944. These volumes were well received and found a ready market.

That was how the Zurich members of the Executive Committee elected in 1939 understood their duty to bring the IABSE safely through the war.”

After the almost debacle of Rome/Berlin and the abandonment of Warsaw, it was only Andreae’s and the Zurich group’s perseverance that carried the IABSE through the war years.

It was thus a matter of course, once the war was over and communication was again possible, to attempt once again to contact the members of the Executive Committee of 1939 (VicePresidents Moritz Kl¨onne, Ferdinand Campus, Louis Cambournac, Ewart Andrews, and Anker Engelund). After a first interchange of correspondence the allied and neutral members of the Executive Committee elected in 1939 met in Paris on March 19th, 1946.

“We regret to state that a number were missing. At the beginning of the war we lost Sir Thomas Hudson Beare and in 1944 Prof. S. Bryła, and, as we already informed you, Prof. Dr. M. Ritter, our esteemed General Secretary for concrete constructions on February 25th, 1946. Prof. Anker Engelund, who had been with Asger Ostenfeld, Danish representative to the Permanent Committee since its foundation, was prevented from coming to Paris at this moment, and so was Mr. Ewart Andrews, who was to have represented the British group instead of the late Sir Thomas Hudson Beare. We had, however, the pleasure of welcoming at our meeting, some French members and a Belgian member who did not belong to the Executive Committee of 1939.

The participants at this meeting unanimously agreed that the IABSE should be continued and that the delegates of the allied and neutral countries should meet in the first half of next October in order to take the necessary decisions for the future. Mr. Andrews wired that the British group had

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met a few days previously and desired that the IABSE be continued. Prof. Engelund sent us a similar communication.

We now invite the various groups in the above-mentioned countries to send as soon as possible to the Secretariat in Zurich a list of their delegates (Art. 5 of the Statutes). The invitation will be sent out together with the agenda, the accounts for 1939–1945, etc. as soon as the details of the meeting have been fixed. In the meantime we beg the delegates to reserve the above-mentioned date so as to be able to assist at the meeting in order that the future of the IABSE may be discussed and decided on the largest possible basis.

As the members of the Executive Committee of 1939, we intend to call them for a meeting in the afternoon of October 3rd, 1946, in order to prepare the assembly of the delegates.

Yours very truly, [signed] Prof. Dr. F. St¨ussi, General Secretary ad int., Prof. Dr. C. Andreae, President ad int.”202

At the meeting in Brussels on October 4th, 1946, Andreae reports: “As Mr. St¨ussi said in his report, headquarters in Zurich have done their best to save the Association. As you know, the continuation of the Association’s activity was discussed at a first meeting of the members of the 1939 Executive Committee in Paris and at a second meeting, which took place yesterday in this room. The Executive Committee unanimously proposes the continuance of the Association in its present form and the maintenance of the former bylaws, with, however, a fundamental restriction which should be incorporated in the bylaws as an interim resolution, the Executive Committee unanimously approved at its meeting yesterday the following text which it recommends to the Permanent Committee for approval: The delegates from allied and neutral countries assembled on October 4th, 1946 at Brussels have assumed the following temporary decision:” “In modification of the Bylaws of October 29th, 1929, revised on April 9th, 1931 and in 1937 and 1939, it is decided that, until any new decision is taken by the Permanent Committee constituted as above, only the scientists, engineers and manufacturers of the allied and neutral countries will be admitted as members of the Association.”203

The Swedish delegate Landberg204 inquired whether the Finnish group might be excluded from this decision as his government maintained friendly relations with that country, but President Andreae replied that making such an exception might cause problems and that the question could be revisited as soon as a peace treaty was concluded with that country.205 The former members in the Axis countries were informed of their status by letter on October 22nd, and Andreae wrote to Kl¨onne who had held the post of IABSE Vice-President ever since the foundation of the Association personally on November 3rd, to which Kl¨onne replied on November 22nd that he was of course disappointed with the decision of the Permanent Committee although he understood the issue very well. He deplored the murder of Stefan Bryła and wrote that “Upstanding Germans have suffered greatly under these inhuman events and they repudiate any association with such things. I recognize without reserve that it was difficult if not impossible for those abroad to differentiate between participants and bystanders, between the culpable and the innocent. The entire German populace was burdened with this mortgage of terror and madness.”206 True as this was, it reads a little hollow from a former, albeit late member of the NSDAP and SS. A further suggestion was made at the Permanent Committee meeting held in The Hague in May 1947 to exclude all former collaborators in all countries from membership and 76 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

to add this stipulation to the bylaws. This was impossible to implement, and so it was decided that the Secretariat would only accept members recommended by the National Groups.207 The participation at that meeting was small due to the problems of international travel at the time. President Andreae reported that the Secretariat had received various requests from Austria, Italy, and Hungary for readmittance of members to the Association in time for the Li`ege Congress in 1948. Sweden had also raised the same issue regarding participation from Finland in 1946 and since then again. As the Executive Committee could not take such action on its own, it had approached Belgian Vice-President Ferdinand Campus because Belgium was to host the next Congress and also because Belgium had been one of those countries that had suffered most during the war.

A. Devall´ee, President of the Belgian Group at that time and designated organizer of the Li`ege Congress reported that the Belgian government wished to extend invitations to all those countries with which it had diplomatic relations, among them all those named, and Campus added with the exception of Austria with which Belgium had not yet signed a treaty, but that the government was amenable to accept Austrian participants as well. It was up to the Permanent Committee to take the official step. The Swiss delegate Henry Favre wished to abstain from voting as Switzerland had not suffered during the war, but would welcome a positive decision. President Andreae had received written positive reaction to the proposal from those countries that were not represented at that meeting, Luxemburg, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, and the USA. Only the Dutch representative had reservations as this could lead, he felt, to the readmission of Germany and Japan, which his country firmly opposed, a protest in which the others readily acquiesced. He insisted that former members who had compromised their integrity during the war should also remain barred from membership.

The question was discussed at length at the request of Sweden. It was decided to submit the proposal to Ferdinand Campus, the Belgian Vice-President. Campus reiterated that the Belgian government wished to invite members from those countries with which it had relations, and President Andreae remarked that it was on the recommendation of the Association’s National Groups that engineers were admitted to membership. Upon this clarification, the Permanent Committee then voted unanimously to readmit the named countries on March 8th, 1948 so that engineers from Finland, Italy, Austria, and Hungary would be readmitted as members and would thus be eligible to participate at the Li`ege Congress.208 The case of Finland may have reflected the reactions of other excluded nations as well.

Although Karner had reported in 1930 that Finland did have a group that coordinated relations with the central Secretariat in Zurich,209 it appears that this group was never an officially organized National Group. When Finnish engineers were invited to rejoin IABSE in 1948 there was great discussion of this idea in the Finnish engineering society with some resistance. In the end, however, a National Group was formed on May 7th, 1948 and joined the Association in time for the Li`ege Congress.210 Finally in the 17th meeting of the Permanent Committee held on April 28th, 1951 in Lisbon, people from all countries were readmitted to IABSE. The old animosities had receded a little by then. President Andreae informed the meeting that the Deutscher Beton-Verein, the association former IABSE Scientific Secretary Wilhelm Petry had once headed, had written to inquire whether German engineers might be readmitted to the Association. The Executive Committee had discussed this petition and recommended that it would be adopted. Without further discussion the meeting was unanimous in its support of the proposal and so both German and Japanese members were readmitted in time to participate in the Cambridge Congress the 77 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

following year.211 The German members have often since expressed their gratitude to IABSE as the first international organization that alleviated their isolation after the war.212

Li`ege Congress 1948: Peace Re-established The Liege Congress had been first proposed at the meeting of the Permanent Committee in The Hague in 1947.213 This was entirely appropriate, as Belgian members, and especially Campus had played a leading role in the early years of the Association and also in its reconstitution after the war. Aside from the role played by Switzerland in the foundation and early years of the Association, no group had done more than the Belgians who had remained active from Vierendeel’s participation in 1922 through the Li`ege Congress in 1948 and beyond.

In his opening speech, Campus mentioned as a tribute that Stefan Bryła, the designated organizer of the 1940 Warsaw Congress and his family had been shot by the occupiers of his country in 1943 and in a way thereby dedicated this first post-war congress to his memory as a very active member of IABSE, chair of the Polish Group, IABSE Vice-President, drawing parallels between the history of the Polish and Belgian liberation movements.214 Bryła had indeed been one of the most active members in the first years of the Association and had contributed five papers to the Paris Congress and three to Berlin. Two further papers were published in the Publications, and a number of his built works had been presented in the Bulletin.215 Without doubt, had he lived, Bryła would have proved to be one of the most valuable early members of the Association and fully merited the dedication by Campus.

Campus organized the event under the presidency of Charles Andreae. The Congress took place from September 13th to 18th, 1948, and was therefore half the length of the Berlin affair.

It was also much smaller with 348 participants and 119 accompanying women from 23 countries (the official publication wrote about 500 including 130 women 216 Ferdinand Campus on an excursion in Stockholm in 1949 and 22 countries). Presumably all the women were non(photo: gift of Alfred Moe, IABSE archive) engineer spouses although many of them do appear as listeners on the photographs that were taken during the working sessions. At any rate, no female names are discernable in the list of participants.

In all, however, there were fewer participants than in the two pre-war congresses due to the privations of the immediate post-war years and the ban on members from the Axis nations that the Permanent Committee had decided. The Swiss reporter in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Curt Kollbrunner, found this Congress more successful than the previous two, both from a professional and a social standpoint:217 “. . .this 3rd IABSE Congress was a complete success and surpassed the two earlier ones in Paris 1932 and Berlin 1936. Whereas the 1st Congress in Paris had to fight against the usual beginner’s difficulties and the excursions and evening 78 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Working session in Li`ege 1948 with women participants (photo: from IABSE Jubilee publication 1980, p. 20) entertainment did not satisfy all participants, and the 2nd Congress in Berlin made the dangers of national-socialist Germany abundantly clear to even the most unbiased foreigners, the 3rd Congress in Li`ege was superbly organized in all its parts and promoted scientific and practical collaboration, and every foreigner returned home full of admiration for Belgium.”218 While Kollbrunner might be accused of enthusiasm, he did reflect the relief of the participants that professionalism, not politics determined the tenor of the event.

The organizers of the meeting under A. Devall´ee were Henri Louis and Ren´e A. Nihoul who edited the proceedings, but died while they were in press. The general secretaries were Fritz St¨ussi and Pierre Lardy. Although, as Campus had mentioned in his opening speech, many of the pioneers of the Association had died in the interim, many yet survived to carry the idea forward, and the Swiss Secretariat and its personnel had survived intact.

The welcoming speech by the Belgian Minister of Public Works stressed continuity and the survival of civilization.219 By now the tradition of high political patronage was established, and the president of the Patronage Committee was the Prime Minister of Belgium, with two ministers as vicepresidents and four more among the six members. Then there was an equally prominent and far more numerous Honorary 79 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Othmar H. Ammann (1879– 1965) in front of his George Washington Bridge, New York in 1962 (photo: collection Tom F. Peters)

Committee, while the actual work was done by a bureaucratic plethora of committees: the Organization Committee, the Ways and Means Committee, the Reception Committee, the Excursion Committee for the Li`ege District, the Optional Excursion Committee, and the Ladies’ Committee.

The celebrated Swiss-American bridge builder Othmar Ammann was also a Technical Advisor on the Executive Committee that year.

Torroja spoke in the “free discussion” session, a catchall group for presentations that did not fit in any of the others. Gustave Magnel made some comments, but did not contribute a presentation himself. However, as Kollbrunner stressed in his report, the personal contacts and informal discussions outside of the official sessions proved even more valuable than these in the exchange of information.220 The social program was ambitious considering that the immediate post-war years were lean ones, and included banquets, official receptions, a ball, and several theater presentations. The excursions took participants on scenic walks or to factories, to see bridges, dams, and landscape, to railway works and museums.

On the last day, the participants were taken either to Antwerp to see the harbor, the cathedral, and Rubens’s house, or to Bruges to see museums and sites in the old city as well as enjoy a boat trip on the canals.

IABSE excursion to Belgian factories at the third IABSE Congress in 1948 (photo: gift of Alfred Moe, IABSE archive)

Cambridge Congress 1952: A Full Rehabilitation The fourth Congress took place in Cambridge and London on August 25th to September 5th, 1952 under the Presidency of St¨ussi who had taken over from Charles Andreae the year before. In 1951, the then general secretaries St¨ussi and Lardy had called for the full papers, which they published in the preliminary report. No presentations, except for short papers on results that had not yet been published were allowed in order to leave the full period for discussion. Ewart Andrews was the President of the Organizing Committee with Cyril Chettoe, Chair of the British Group (and Honorary Member from 1963), as chair. In the tradition of Anglo-Saxon understatement, there does not appear to have been an inflated Patronage or Honorary Committee. Aside from the presidents of various professional organizations and one interested peer, Baron Ashcombe who was Roland Calvert Cubitt, the descendent of a prominent, 19th-century engineering family and head of Holland & Hannen and Cubitts, one of England’s largest building firms and probably a sponsor of the congress, the only political patrons were the mayors of the host cities London and Cambridge. The committee 80 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

was as spare with two ministers and one lord as well as the vice-chancellors of the two host universities.

As in Li`ege, there were about 600 participants in Cambridge from 22 countries, about 220 were women, whereby Bernard Gilg, the reporter in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung, thought that these were all accompanying people.221 However, as in Li`ege, many of them do appear as listeners in the photographs of the working sessions, so it is possible that there may have been a few engineers among them. Only one is listed, Miss R. Steinemann from Zurich, notable as the first woman recorded as an official IABSE participant.222 It is not certain, however, that she was an engineer. The Cambridge Congress was the first at which engineers from Germany and Japan participated again. However, the Iron Curtain had closed and Gilg remarked that in contrast to Li`ege four years previously, there were few eastern Europeans present. On the other hand, Germans—at least from the West—and also Austrians and Japanese were present again as the Permanent Committee had rescinded its interdict on the participation of members from the former Axis countries. IABSE was possibly worldwide the first international professional organization to do so.

Friedrich Reinitzhuber, reported at length on the congress in the first issue of the Egyptian Journal of Civil Engineering,223 and stressed the limit strength discussion as well as novel methods of analysis and light-gauge steel and composite construction.

This was the beginning of a long period of economic expansion initiated by the reconstruction of Europe and Japan after the devastation of World War II. Engineers were faced with novel and large infrastructure projects, also in North America and in the newly independent, former colonial nations. It was a widespread, if not quite worldwide phenomenon. The quarter century of sustained growth and development, which was also one of growth for the Association, would only end after the oil crisis of 1973–1974.

President St¨ussi, charmed as all participants were by the ancient atmosphere of the host university, evoked Isaac Newton who had studied and later taught at Cambridge in his opening speech, declaring him to be the genius loci of the Congress! This polite hyperbole touches on two themes that have characterized many general papers in civil engineering since then: the first is a desire for engineering theory to be accepted as equivalent to true science rather than as a minor “applied science,” a desire that natural scientists long resisted, and the second, and perhaps it appears here for the first time, St¨ussi intimated a historical dimension to the interests of engineers that would only grow stronger from one congress to the next.

In the final banquet held in London’s Guildhall, one of the participants from abroad with tears in his eyes, and it was most probably IABSE President St¨ussi, emotionally thanked Churchill (who was not present), for saving democracy and the modern world.224 This indicates the emotional tenor of the times in which international meetings like this congress were still rare and treasured events and it underscores the positivist spirit with which IABSE, as one of the first international organizations, readmitted barred members.

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IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Chapter

6

The Mature Development of IABSE Events

As the world changed and began to develop, so did the Association. The earlier congresses had been driven in part at least by the quest for the social recognition of engineering and material technology as the intellectual equivalent of the sciences. Now, in the post-war boom of construction and the gradual expansion of commerce on a worldwide level, society began to recognize the intrinsic importance of engineering to economic development, and the intellectual as well as the political value of technology slowly began to manifest itself. Engineering conferences could unselfconsciously concentrate on professional matters and be taken seriously by the public and government. Slowly the palette of professional concerns expanded from theory and material questions to questions of infrastructure, design media such as modeling or computers, methods, and manufacturing processes, and detailing including connections and prefabrication, maintenance, and safety. Initially, these themes appeared for the most part as subdivisions of the all-encompassing congresses that moved outside Europe for the first time in 1964.

Aside from the Annual Meeting and the Congresses, their Reports, the Bulletin, and the Publications (Memoirs) provided all that was necessary for an adequate exchange of information for the first decades of the Association. Very occasionally supplementary symposia were held, usually jointly with other organizations on special topics. One such symposium on the loading of highway bridges was held in Oporto, Portugal, in 1956 in conjunction with the Lisbon Congress of that year. The results were published in three volumes in Stockholm ¨ with forewords by Lars Ostlund and William Henderson (Honorary Member from 1977).225 According to his obituary, Henderson was credited with the idea of the IABSE symposium that he conceived as a small gathering of specialists.226 Another symposium organized under the auspices of the Liaison Committee in 1962 was a jointly sponsored RILEM – IABSE – IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) meeting on the use of computers in civil engineering.227 Fritz St¨ussi and Frank Baron of ASCE had previously organized a joint meeting in 1958 that initiated the contact between the two organizations.228 Besides these international events, some individual National Groups have held uncounted events of their own over the years. Like the symposia, these events are what have advanced IABSE professionally.

Young and older members networking at a reception at the Shanghai Symposium, 2004 83 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Lisbon-Porto Congress 1956: Professionalism takes Precedence over Theory The fifth Congress took place in Lisbon and Oporto from June 25th to July 2nd, 1956 organized under the Presidency of St¨ussi and the chairmanship of IABSE Vice-President Jos´e Belard da Fonseca (Honorary Member from 1965). The opening ceremony took place in the presence of the President of Portugal and several ministers, and the social events included site visits to roads, bridges, and the subway system as well as to industries, and the tours of the cultural features of Portugal included folk dances, a bullfight, and a closing banquet and ball. Notable was the increased stress on the discussion of professional issues such as detailing, construction, performance, and the application of theory to practical calculation more than engineering theory itself, as well as the presence of engineer Maria Em´ılia Campos e Matos from Portugal who attended with her husband Luis Carlos Folque, the Deputy Mayor of Lisbon. She was the second woman to appear on an IABSE participant list and the first who was clearly identified as an engineer. An innovation was a separate symposium on computers held in Oporto in conjunction with the congress.

Stockholm Congress 1960 The sixth Congress was held in Stockholm from June 27th to July 1st, 1960 under the patronage of the King of Sweden and the presidency of St¨ussi with Pierre Dubas (Honorary Member from 1985) and Bruno Th¨urlimann as general secretaries.

Pierre Dubas (1924–2006), specialist in steel and wood construction

The local organizers were IABSE Vice-President K. G. Hjort (Honorary Member from 1963) and Georg W¨astlund among others. The Swedish government was represented at the opening ceremony by the Minister of Transportation and other notables. The trend to the discussion of practical issues continued and high-strength bolting appears for the first time in a heading. A new theme group was the free papers on new developments that had appeared as a subgroup in Lisbon, and the congress provided the venue for the final establishment of the Liaison Committee. Directly after the congress, some participants traveled to G¨oteborg to take part in a symposium on Pile Foundations organized by Allan Bergfelt at Chalmers University of Technology.

Rio de Janeiro Congress 1964: the first outside Europe

Bruno Th¨urlimann (1923– 2008), theoretician and forensic expert, sixth IABSE President

The world was expanding and international travel had become easier. The Rio Congress of 1964 was the seventh and the first outside Europe. It was held upon the invitation of the chair of the Brazilian Group Antonio Alves de Noronha in 1961229 and took place on August 10th–16th, 1964. It was to be organized by him as IABSE Vice-President under St¨ussi and was taken

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over after his premature death in 1962 by S´ergio Marques de Souza, one of the founders of the Brazilian Group in 1954 (and Honorary Member from 1965), who then became its chair for many decades. Marques de Souza was a talented designer, contractor, and educator, and a future IABSE Vice-President, who quickly became a devoted and esteemed active member of IABSE and a friend to many co-members despite his retiring nature.230 The social events included three tours, Brazilian dancing, a banquet, and a horse race held in honor of the Association.231 The plenary session was opened by the Minister of Public Works and Marques de Souza as the new chair of the Brazilian Group. This was the first congress at which problems relating to computers and gluing as a connection technique were discussed as a follow-up of the previous RILEM – IABSE – IFIP sponsored symposium on the topic of computers in civil engineering that had taken place two years before in Portugal.232 This was the last event coordinated through IABSE’s efficient secretary Lily Gretener, who was, however, ill and unable to attend.

The Meeting Schedule Expands

S´ergio Marques de Souza (1918–2002), engineer and contractor

As a result of this gradual expansion of interests and special areas of focus, the idea for regular symposia was introduced in 1967 with the first held in London. Three hundred delegates from 27 countries attended, which indicated that there was a real need for the innovation.233 This then became the first IABSE Symposium in the annual series.

From 1968, the annual symposia (held every year except in a congress year) were devoted to special subjects organized by the Working Commissions to take place directly after the Annual Meetings. They deal with individual themes and therefore, at least originally according to William Henderson’s idea, with relatively small groups of participants. With few exceptions the symposia and other meetings picked up topics that had been previously introduced at the special sessions within the Congresses or at even smaller events devoted to novel subjects.

The two that introduced new topics that had not been treated before at a smaller scale were environmental issues at the Nyborg Colloquium in 1991 and tunnel construction at the Stockholm Colloquium in 1998. Another exception was the 1979 50th anniversary Zurich Symposium that was organized as a general meeting with 970 participants, the largest number attending any symposium before or since, and a political nod to the importance of the location of the Secretariat and the founding period of the Association.

Gradually these symposia were supplemented with further meetings: “The symposia, workshops, colloquia were always thematically tightly defined and thus focused. It was this form of conference that advanced knowledge among the members of IABSE, not the congresses. The older members came to the congresses and networked. The younger members were more interested in the symposia etc. because they were intrigued by the new and worked on the new.”234 To date there have been over 30 symposia and many more colloquia (from 1971 in London), workshops (from 1982 in Bergamo), short courses (from 1989 in Lisbon and Bergamo),235 and conferences (from 1992 in Davos). These even more specialized and therefore smaller technical meetings that were often cosponsored by other interested associations and groups were held as needed to supplement the topics of the symposia, especially because these became gradually 85 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

more focused over the years. The colloquia were a restricted type of workshop intended for specialists in a field. They were often organized in the years with no congresses as a second conference without all the committee meetings. This model survived for over 25 years and supplemented specialized meetings that the Working Commissions may have held from time to time. Like the colloquia, the less formal “Workshops belong to the most lively, fruitful and also to the most challenging events of our Association. They are lively and fruitful because every participant is taking part in an active way with a personal contribution. Moreover, every participant of a workshop, besides his professional skills, bridges a great deal of motivation for the subject.”236 Over the years, these various events grew in number of participants and breadth of offerings until at the Copenhagen Congress in 1996 the question arose whether the congress form itself had not outlived its purpose. This question arose again in Lucerne in 2000. J¨org Schneider and Yukio Maeda introduced the question for discussion, and the decision was then taken to simplify what had become a confusing mix and abandon the congresses as a separate category. Thus the Shanghai Symposium of 2004 replaced a congress in name. The decision was rescinded shortly thereafter at the suggestion of Manfred Hirt, and the congresses reinstated as separate events from the symposia in 2008. Whatever the original intention was, today the boundaries between the categories of congress and symposium have become blurred, especially as the topics of the latter became gradually broader with the intention to attract more participants to the annual meetings. However, as PastPast-President Manabu Ito President Ito pointed out,237 the symposia have always played on the site of the Sutong a special role in the Association because they are invariably Bridge over the Yangtze River held together with the annual meetings. in 2007

London Symposium 1967: “Design Philosophy and its Application to Precast Structures” This appears to have been the first time that the topic design was broached in an IABSE event.

Working Commission 3 proposed the topic, and the event was organized for IABSE by the Cement and Concrete Association of the UK with participation from CEB, CIB, and FIP.

New York Congress 1968 The second conference in the USA was IABSE’s eighth, held on September 9th–14th, 1968 in New York. This was the first congress under the presidency of Maurice Cosandey and the three general secretaries Pierre Dubas, Hans von Gunten, and Bruno Th¨urlimann.

Maurice Cosandey (b. 1918), expert in steel construction, fourth IABSE President

The organizers were Jewell M. Garrelts, noted for his teaching and for many bridges in the USA, and Elmer K. Timby, an expert in using models in analysis. Noteworthy is that Frantiˇsek Faltus contributed a paper, as probably by then the

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oldest actively contributing member of IABSE. This was also the first congress at which engineers from the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) contributed and they did so in large numbers.

The opening ceremony took place in the United Nations Building. In honor of the prestigious locale, President Cosandey held the opening speech in English, the only time he gave an official speech in that language.238 A closing address on a historical topic by St¨ussi “From Leonardo da Vinci to Othmar H. Ammann” was indicative of St¨ussi’s interest in history that he Elmer Timby (1906–1992), encouraged in IABSE as a contribution to the broadening of specialist in bridge model the Association’s focus.239 St¨ussi was certainly not the only analysis (photo: courtesy of member interested in history. George Winter (known for his Princeton University Library) research into materials and his work on US codes), for instance, had participated in archaeological excavations in Egypt in 1966 and was a member of the American Archaeological Institute,240 but St¨ussi was the only member who actively spoke to this interest in IABSE meetings.

New York Symposium 1968: “On Wearing Surfaces for Steel Bridges of Lightweight Construction” This was organized by Working Commission 2 under the steel specialist Hermann Beer as chair of the Scientific Committee and Ivan Viest, known for his contributions to composite construction and seismic studies, as chair of the organizing Committee together with the American Association of State Highway Officials, ASCE, and the Highway Research Board and held just before the New York Congress.

London Symposium 1969: “On Concepts of Safety of Structures and Methods of Design” The symposium was organized by Jean-Claude Badoux as chair of the Scientific Committee with the cooperation of the members of the Liaison Committee and the help of the Building Research Station, Cement and Concrete Association, Construction Industry Research and Information Association, and the British Constructional Steelwork Association. Sir Hubert ShirleySmith (Honorary Member from 1969), known particularly as codesigner of the Howrah Bridge in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1943 and then chair of the British Group, chaired the Organizing Committee. Several new topics that have proved of ever-growing importance since then were introduced here: safety, reliability, and human error. Noteworthy is also the participation of engineer Caterina Manuzio, the second woman mentioned as a professional IABSE participant.

Madrid Symposium 1970: “Design of Concrete Structures for Creep, Shrinkage and Temperature Changes” This event was held in Madrid on the invitation of the Spanish Group, again with the participation of the members of the Liaison Committee and organized by Georg W¨astlund as chair of the Scientific Committee with the participation of Raymond C. Reese, Jos´e Antonio Torroja, Herbert R¨usch, Bruno Th¨urlimann, and Angelo Pozzi.

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Prague Symposium 1971: “On Mass-Produced Steel Structures” This was the first IABSE event held in an “East Block” country. It was organized together with a public exhibition on “Mass-Produced Steel Structures” by Hermann Beer as chair of Working Commission 2 and the Scientific Committee with Frantiˇsek Faltus as chair of the Organization Committee and the help of the Czechoslovakian Society of Civil Engineers as well as the Czechoslovakian Scientific and Technical Association. Faltus, who had participated since 1926, before the founding of IABSE, was by then one of the oldest active members of the Association.

London Colloquium 1971: “Design of Plate and Box Girders for Ultimate Strength” This was the first colloquium conducted by IABSE. It was organized by Working Commission 2 and edited by Lynn Beedle, the founder of CTBUH, Charles Massonnet (Honorary member from 1979), and Kenneth C. Rockey, known for his contributions to finite element analysis and bridge construction. The event was eminently successful in part because it was held as a workshop with over 30 invited engineers and researchers, all specialists in the field. Of these, 20 participated and presented papers that had been circulated three months in advance. As a result, enough time could be allocated to discussion. Edited versions of these discussions were included in the volume of the proceedings.

Amsterdam Congress 1972 The Amsterdam Congress was the 9th and the second under the presidency of Maurice Cosandey. Organizer was Cornelius J. Louw, Director of the firm Ballast-Nedham in the Netherlands (and Honorary Member from 1972). Mention was made of “unavoidable little incidents” in the preface to the report that remained unnamed.241 The issue was that no one managed the conference office on-site, which gave rise to organizational difficulties. Alain Golay had just joined the organization but was in mandatory military service in Switzerland at that time. President Cosandey, a colonel in the Swiss army, was able to negotiate an emergency furlough, and Golay flew to Amsterdam for three days to help the Dutch group save the situation.

Although the preface to the Proceedings claimed that a new theme title “New Developments” first appeared here, the category had already been introduced in Stockholm 12 years before in 1960. System theory seems to have been a new concept in engineering at the time, and this may have contributed to a gradual weakening of the earlier rigid separation between steel and concrete in the sessions.

Lisbon Symposium 1973: “Resistance and Ultimate Deformability of Structures Acted on by Well-Defined Repeated Loads” This symposium was organized by F. J. Correia de Araujo, Manuel Rocha, known for rock mechanics, and J´ulio Ferry Borges who introduced issues of safety in his presentation.

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Quebec Symposium 1974: “Design and Safety of Reinforced Concrete Compression Members” This symposium was organized by the Canadian Group with Yves Giroux as chair of the Organizing Committee.

Bergamo Colloquium 1974: “Concrete Structures Subject to Tri-Axial Stresses” The topic received broad support in IABSE. It was first suggested by George Winter in 1968, then picked up by Georg W¨astlund, chair of Working Commission 3, and organized

by Guido Oberti, chair of the Italian Group and Director of ISMES (Istituto Sperimentale Modelli e Strutture—Institute of Experimental Models and Structures). The meeting was carried out under Bruno Th¨urlimann as the chair of Working Commission 3. Between 1974 and 1989 the extremely active Oberti organized a total of five IABSE events on computers, concrete, and codes in Bergamo and Venice.

Dresden Symposium 1975: “Steel and Composite Structures for User Needs” This was the first meeting devoted entirely to in Eastern Germany and the second carried the GDR (DDR) Building Ministry, several and organized under Working Commission 2 Committee.

Guido Oberti (1907–2003), specialist in elastic model testing, director of ISMES

composite structures, the first IABSE meeting out in Eastern Europe. It was sponsored by firms, and the Dresden Technical University

by Horst Schmidt as chair of the Organizing

Paris Colloquium 1975: “On Column Strength” This was another interassociation meeting organized by Working Commission 2 under Hermann Beer as chair of the Scientific Committee by Duiliu Sfintesco.

Tokyo Congress 1976 The 10th Congress in Tokyo was the first IABSE meeting to take place in the eastern world and the last congress under Maurice Cosandey’s presidency. The Japanese Group was extremely engaged in promoting and organizing this event.

The Organizing Committee was chaired by Masatane Kokubu who worked with Manabu Ito and Yukio Maeda as chair of the Scientific Committee, and the ceremonies were opened by the chairman of the Science Council of Japan and presided over by the Minister of Construction.

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Masatane Kokubu (1914– 2004), specialist in concrete construction and seismic stability

Future IABSE Vice-President Kokubu was able to use his excellent professional connections to raise the sum of one million CHF for the event.242 It was this event, rather than the Amsterdam Congress, that seems to have been strongly influenced by considerations of system theory, especially in the first theme. The closing ceremony featured a talk by Leonhardt in which he, a German, made the plea that all participants should henceforth be able to The currently used IABSE logo adapted from the design communicate in English with provided by the Japanese in 1976 one another as the new lingua franca of science and technology. Academics should send their students to learn good English, and “In about twenty years we should have such congresses with one language only.”243 And he also echoed the conference patron, president of the Japanese business federation and chair of the Organizing Committee Yoshihiro Inayama’s plea at the opening—probably under the influence of the oil crisis of 1973–1974 that seemed to be leading to world conflict and certainly to the end of the quarter century of unimpeded growth—that: “In this sense, this Congress was a Congress for Peace.”244 As out-of-place as this may sound in a technological meeting today, these were serious hopes that preoccupied all at the time, and engineers, like many other professionals, tried to convince themselves in a positive frame of mind that they could contribute to peace. In this hope they echoed the founding thought behind the IABSE in Roˇs’s and Rohn’s intentions half a century before.

Like the professional site visits, non-engineering social events for members and accompanying persons at the IABSE events contribute to the “family-like” atmosphere of the Association and give rise to life-long friendships. Mrs. J. von Gunten (with badge) and others participate in a demonstration of ikebana at the Tokyo Congress in 1976 90 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

At the close of the Congress, the Japanese Group presented their congress logo to the Association as the new IABSE logo that remains the Association’s insignia today.

(The origin and meaning of the logo are discussed in its own subchapter.)

As the Bulletin reported: “In regard to Japan, the Congress has been a great success in that sense that the participants could appreciate for their own

the amount and quality of studies, research work and constructions done in structural engineering during the last decade by Japanese engineers.”245 This was of course true for all the congresses and one of the chief reasons for holding them in various countries. As in all IABSE events, the accompanying persons, spouses, and even children gave the meetings a “family-like” atmosphere that characterized the Association from the outset and continues to contribute to the social cohesion and personal friendships, as well as the professional interaction of the members across age groups and cultures. The “accompanying persons,” mostly spouses of engineer members, identified with the Association as much as their partners and often took the initiative by organizing excursions and other forms of interaction on the social and cultural side of the technical meetings.

Munich Symposium 1977: “Problems Associated with Design and Construction in Developing Countries” This symposium was a joint effort of Working Commissions 4 and 5 organized by Angelo Pozzi as chair of the Scientific Committee. Sponsor was the German Group with the Deutscher Betonverein, the Deutscher Stahlbau-Verband, and the Hauptverband der Deutschen Bauindustrie as cosponsors and Organizing Committee. The symposia had grown and were now almost as large as the congresses.

Moscow Symposium 1978: “Main Trends in the Development of Steel Structures and Modern Methods of their Fabrication” By holding this symposium in Moscow, Eastern Europe was now fully integrated into the events of IABSE. A fire in the congress center during the event that necessitated the evacuation of the participants constituted an impromptu social event that was long remembered.

Bergamo Colloquium 1978: “Interface between Computing and Design in Structural Engineering” This colloquium, the first on CAD held under IABSE, was organized by a special Task Group on the “Use of Computers in Structural Engineering,” first under the chairmanship of Archibald Sherbourne and then Michele Fanelli as chair of the Italian Group and as chair of the Organizing Committee. Guido Oberti and ISMES contributed substantially to this meeting as well.

Bergamo Seminar 1978: “Construction in Seismic Zones” This was a special meeting, entirely devoted to seismic issues. It was organized by Guido Oberti and took place against the background of the earthquake that had devastated the Friuli region of Italy two years before.

Zurich Symposium 1979: “Bridges” This symposium was a special one marking the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Association in Zurich. It welcomed 970 participants from 45 countries. Like the even larger 91 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

50th anniversary congress that followed the next year in Vienna, it was the largest IABSE gathering ever. The meeting was organized by Hans von Gunten as chair of the Scientific Committee on behalf of the Swiss Group of IABSE with the Organization Committee chaired

by Swiss Group chair Walter A. Schmid. The list of speakers reads like a who’s who of international bridge builders of the time and the talks ranged the whole scope of the field from design, construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation to history.

Given that the symposium celebrated the age of the Association, there were several eminent speakers who were invited chiefly to mark its age and who spoke on topics outside the scope of the symposium. Among them was the celebrated physicist Walter Heitler (1904–1981) who read an irrelevant French text about a man planting trees on poor land and the Italian engineer and contractor Riccardo Morandi who reminisced at great length. However, there were also events outside the topic that were of general interest. One of these that illustrated the expanding concern of the Association with history and culture was the opening ceremony in the Fraum¨unster church in Zurich. After the welcoming speeches, the participants were first given a tour of the new stained glass windows by Marc Chagall in the apse, and then an address by Edmond de Stoutz (1920–1997), world-famous conductor and founder of the Z¨urcher Kammerorchester, who expounded in three languages on the relationship between music and structural engineering by explaining how Johann Sebastian Bach had been able to construct a “musical architecture”—the art of the fugue—using only 12 notes. He demonstrated a symbiotic relationship between music and civil engineering, between art and science.

At the following banquet in the adjoining guildhall “Zur Meise” a medal was presented to the 32 members of IABSE whose membership stretched back 40 years or more, many of whom were present.246 An inspiring excursion with a specially chartered train to interesting bridges rounded off the events.

Copenhagen Colloquium 1979: “Plasticity in Reinforced Concrete” This symposium was proposed by Working Commission 3 and organized by the Danish Group under Mogens P. Nielsen as chair in cooperation with the Danish Technical University DTU, CEB, and ACI. This was a topic that was close to President Bruno Th¨urlimann’s interests.

The 50th Anniversary Congress in Vienna, 1980 The 50th Anniversary Congress from August 31st to September 5th in Vienna followed on the 50th Anniversary Symposium in Zurich. It was organized under the presidency of Bruno Th¨urlimann by Josef Aichhorn (Honorary Member from 1980) as official patron of the Organizing Committee, who however remained in the background, while Walter Jurecka, president of the Austrian Association of Engineers and chair of the committee took active responsibility.

The events were held in the Vienna Hofburg with great pomp, although this time, in contrast to the 1928 conference, “only” the Minister of Construction and Technology represented the government and spoke at the opening ceremony. The success of the Association was evident.

After 50 years, IABSE had over 2900 members in 71 countries.247 In his greeting, President Th¨urlimann welcomed especially 79-year-old Frantiˇsek Faltus who was perhaps the single remaining attendee of the first Viennese conference in 1928 present in the hall and who had remained an active member ever since. In all, 1200 participants and half as many accompanying persons filled the large halls to capacity. This was the largest Congress IABSE has ever held. A closing ball in the Hofburg and a special opera night with the habitual foul Viennese 92 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

tradition of jeering students in the flea gallery that shocked the attendees were highlights of the entertainment.

This was the first congress at which historical papers were presented in a separate session, and visual poster sessions and exhibits played a large role, picking up on the exhibits that had been featured in the early precursor conferences in 1926 and 1928.

These poster sessions were instituted to allow more presentations at this congress.

The idea was that poster presenters would introduce their posters and discuss them with interested members in the President Hans von Gunten inspects the poster session at the exhibition halls. An uninten- New Delhi congress in 1992 tional effect was that the posters also exceptionally permitted presenters who for one reason or another could not travel to the congress, to communicate interesting information. For example, Huan Cheng Tang from Wuhan was able to present two interesting and unusual traditional Chinese timber bridges although he was unable to obtain a Chinese exit visa at that time. Although many of the contributions were well presented and interesting, few participants found their way to the old stables located at a distance from the main venue in the Hofburg. As a result, many IABSE members recall only the second poster session at the London Symposium in 1981.

The whole congress was imbued with a sense of history, first of all in the celebration of the Association, and also in an attempt to see technology not only as a destroyer of humanity as it had proved itself to be in World War II but also as a contributor to the development of humanity. In his welcoming speech President Th¨urlimann, who wrote an article on the relationship between man and technology for the Jubilee brochure,248 cited the ETH humanist Francesco de Santis (1817–1883): “Prima di essere ingenieri, voi siete uomini.”249 Bernard Wex (Honorary member from 1990), as chair of the Technical Committee stressed the same sentiment in his closing remarks at the end of the conference and he also drew attention to the growing importance of visual means of communication250 —certainly a result of the appearance of a new generation of engineers in the audience who had grown up influenced by television.

This would only grow stronger in the coming decades as the computer became ubiquitous.

The organizer Aichhorn, President Th¨urlimann, and Chair Wex spoke at the closing ceremony, the last two stressing visual issues. This was a period in which engineers, at least in western societies, had become unsure of themselves and less positivist in their outlook. Ever since the youth movements of the 1960s and 1970s, they had been condemned as responsible for the degeneration of the human environment. On the one hand, the members of IABSE were proud of their achievements and their history and sought to legitimize themselves through their history in a positivist mode. On the other hand they, and especially the younger professional generation, began to feel the need to defend their work as contributing to solutions more than

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to the degradation of the environment. In this congress the celebratory mode dominated, in later meetings defensiveness would figure more prominently.

London Symposium 1981: “The Selection of Structural Forms” This symposium was organized by the British Group under Chair Bernard Wex and the Organizing Committee under Edmund Happold. The idea to base the sessions on an unusually large proportion of invited lectures was risky according to Bo Edlund,251 and it resulted in a large percentage of no-shows and a corresponding disappointment among the participants.

Interesting was the fact that two historical presentations continued the interest that St¨ussi had intimated in 1952 and that had begun to be taken seriously in Vienna in 1980. This was also the first meeting at which the issue of energy conservation first appeared. The success of the first poster session in Vienna the year before led to the second one here, and this time the presentations were located more accessibly so that more participants actually saw them.

Delft Colloquium 1981: “Advanced Mechanics of Reinforced Concrete” This colloquium was organized by Working Commission 3 “Concrete Structures” under Adolf L. Bouma as chair of the Scientific Committee and cosponsored by CEB, RILEM, and ASCE.

Washington Symposium 1982: “Maintenance, Repair and Rehabilitation of Bridges” This meeting was initiated by Gerard Fox (Honorary Member from 1988) as president of the US Group and chair of the Organizing Committee with a Scientific Committee under Theodore V. Galambos and the cooperation of ACI, AISC, AISI, AREA, ASCE, PCI, SSRC, and TRB. Although historical preservation was not a primary focus of this symposium, it began a preoccupation with the conservation and repair of structures that documents a broadening interest in life-cycle issues in structural engineering and it continued the historical awareness that had come to the fore strongly at the Vienna Congress and then at the London Symposium.

Lausanne Colloquium 1982: “Fatigue of Steel and Concrete Structures” This colloquium was held at the EPFL in Lausanne, cosponsored by ASCE, CEB, ECCS, and RILEM, and organized under a Scientific Committee chaired by Jean-Claude Badoux with Manfred Hirt as chair of the Organizing Committee. It was the first IABSE event devoted to fatigue that included concrete.

Tokyo Workshop 1982: “Health and Safety in Construction” This workshop was organized under Working Commission 4 “Construction Management” with its chair Lodewijk Sikkel as chair of the Scientific Committee and organized by Sadamu Mino of the Japanese Group under Chair Masatane Kokubu. It studied the impact of the US Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) and the Japanese Industrial Safety and Health Law of 1972 as well as related European developments.

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Bergamo Workshop 1982: “Informatics in Structural Engineering” This meeting was a follow-up of the 1978 Bergamo Colloquium and was also initiated by Michele Fanelli as chair of Working Commission 6 and organized by the Italian Group and ISMES. The use of computers was beginning to enter all forms of professional work by the early 1980s and the workshop was organized to help engineers familiarize themselves with the issues. This was one of the many seminal contributions of members of the Danish Group, as Aksel Frandsen had recently become chair of Working Commission 6 “Informatics.”

Venice Symposium 1983: “Strengthening of Building Structures— Diagnosis and Therapy” This symposium, cosponsored by UNESCO and UIA (Union Internationale des Architectes), was organized by Guido Oberti and the Italian Group with Elio Giangreco as chair of the Scientific Committee and Giorgio Macchi as chair of the Organizing Committee. It was the second meeting at which issues of reuse, preservation, and rehabilitation were discussed officially in IABSE. It documents the ever broadening of structural engineers’ scope of interest.

Rigi Workshop 1983: “Quality Assurance within the Building Process” The situation in the fabrication shop and on-site are seldom ideal as designers imagine them to be. The workshop discussed how and whether to introduce quality assurance in various stages of the design and construction processes including maintenance, repair, and demolition. The topic was suggested by the 1969 London Symposium and a session at the Vienna Congress of 1980. It was particularly important to J¨org Schneider, and he organized this workshop outside the usual IABSE framework with Marita Kersken-Bradley as chair of the Scientific Committee.

Copenhagen Colloquium 1983: “Ship Collision with Bridges and Offshore Structures” The issue had become increasingly important over the years, and the colloquium was the first international meeting of specialists on the topic. Supported by the Danish Society of Hydraulic Engineering and organized by Ole Damg˚ard Larsen, a member of the Danish Group under Aksel Frandsen as chair of the Organizing Committee, the meeting was held with substantial Danish participation that documented the growing influence of the Danish Group on IABSE. This colloquium was very popular and led to Damg˚ard Larsen’s SED of the same name—one of the best-selling IABSE publications of all time.

Vancouver Congress 1984 The 12th Congress took place in Vancouver, Canada and was the second under the presidency of Bruno Th¨urlimann. It was also the third in the Americas and not quite as large as the Congress in Vienna four years previously.252 Peter F. Adams (Honorary member from 1984) as chair of the Organizing Committee with Roger A. Dorton (Honorary Member from 1984) as chair of the Scientific Committee and Samuel L. Lipson as chair of the Local Committee took over from Donald H. Jamieson who had died while the congress was in planning.

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The engineering profession was still being attacked worldwide as responsible for the destruction of the environment and the liveable world. Engineers all over were feeling this social pressure and were puzzled as to how to dissipate this false impression. In his closing remarks at the end of the conference, chair of the Technical Committee Hans Wittfoht defended the importance and social contribution of the structural engineer: “The time has come for us to put the image of the engineer in its true light. Engineers are not causing environmental problems by applying their techniques—rather the continually increasing number of people in the world.

On the contrary, engineers try hard to solve such problems. Here, it is possible after having solved some problems that further problems arise. As long as the expansion of the population in our world cannot be stopped, there will always be a succession of new problems. Our only hope is that we will be successful in solving all these problems in good time. A very important part of this operation is assigned to civil engineers and the construction enterprises.”253 This time the themes were not divided into sub-sessions, but into specialized seminars, and this contributed to the semantic confusion. The poster sessions were more numerous than they had been in Vienna and had become more prestigious. They were no longer treated as a catchall for papers that had not been accepted for presentation in a session but as visual presentations of equal value in their own right. Thus, in Vancouver, many paper presenters and otherwise prominent engineers contributed posters too. As a result, the themes, seminars, and poster sessions were now considered less hierarchical and more equal in their importance as a way to communicate and disseminate information.

Luxemburg Symposium 1985: “Steel in Buildings” The meeting was jointly organized by IABSE Working Commission 2 and ECCS under its president J¨org Schlaich appropriately in Luxemburg as a center of the steel industry. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Jacques Brozzetti, specialist in steel construction and chair of the Organization Committee was Ren´e Heinerscheid. As a special feature of this symposium, an international competition was held for architecture students.

Stockholm Colloquium 1986: “Thin-Walled Metal Structures in Buildings” The meeting was organized by the Swedish Group with the cooperation of the Swedish Institute of Steel Construction and the ECCS. Cold-formed and other light-gauge steel structures had developed from exterior cladding to multiple use in composite construction. This raised problems in building physics and durability. This was a further expansion of the Association’s concern with composite and mixed construction. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Bo Edlund and chair of the Organizing Committee was Werner von Olnhausen.

Tokyo Symposium 1986: “Safety and Quality Assurance of Civil Engineering Structures” Safety was an issue that had been gathering momentum in IABSE for some time. It had been introduced first in 1969 in London, then in 1976 in Tokyo, and a full session in the Vienna Congress in 1980, the Tokyo Workshop in 1982, and quality assurance introduced the following year at the Rigi Workshop were here combined and followed up in a further and larger meeting organized by the Japanese Group under then IABSE Vice-President Masatane 96 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Kokubu with Yukio Maeda as chair of the Scientific Committee and Y. Takeda as chair of the Organizing Committee. Cosponsors of the event were the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, the Architectural Institute of Japan, the Japan Concrete Institute, the Society of Steel Construction of Japan, and the Japan Road Association. The topic was of great interest and the meeting led to three reports.

Zurich Workshop 1986: “Organization of the Design Process” This appears to have been the first time that design was discussed as a process rather than a method. The theme reacted to the rapid change in the size and organization of building firms, especially the appearance of general contractors and design-build companies, as well as the proliferation of software and hardware development in computing. Edmund Happold was chair of the Scientific Committee.

Delft Colloquium 1987: “Computational Mechanics of Concrete Structures—Advances and Applications” The event was a follow-up of the previous Delft colloquium on concrete in 1981 at the Delft Institute of Technology with the cosponsorship of ASCE, CEB, RILEM, and JCI. Chair of the Scientific Committee was A. S. G. Bruggeling, and chair of the Organizing Committee was Johan Blaauwendraad.

Paris/Versailles Symposium 1987: “Concrete Structures for the Future” This symposium was organized in cooperation with the Association Franc¸aise Pour la Construction and cosponsored by CEB and FIP. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Pierre Richard with Roger Lacroix as chair of the Organizing Committee. It built on the 1981 London theme of the selection of structural forms, and expanded it in the direction of technical and architectural quality as well as maintenance and serviceability. In his preface to the report, President von Gunten stressed the issue of formal design that IABSE had begun to pay more attention to: “When designing a structure, the engineer can no longer limit his activity to the static calculation and execution of a structure. Other technical aspects—which were neglected all too often in the past—must be taken into consideration already when planning the structure, namely, improving its technical and architectural quality as well as its serviceability.”254

Bergamo Colloquium 1987: “Monitoring of Large Structures and Assessment of their Safety” This meeting was in a sense a follow-up of both the Washington DC Symposium of 1982 and the Venice Symposium of 1983. It also was related to the issues discussed at the Tokyo Symposium of 1986 and dealt with both the monitoring of historical structures as well as a whole new generation of unprecedented structural forms and dimensions that had been recently developed using new analytical methods and materials. The theme then appeared as a question of longevity in the Lisbon Symposium that followed it in 1989. The event was again hosted and co-organized by ISMES and the Italian Group. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Guido Oberti.

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Helsinki Congress 1988 The 13th Congress, held on June 6th–10th, 1988 in Helsinki had a theme title for the first time: “Challenges to Structural Engineering.” It retained the new division-terminology between themes and seminars as in Vancouver. On top of that it added the keynote speeches as a plenary session with eight presentations. Chair of the Organizing Committee was Jiri Nieminen.

The poster sessions were more prominent in this congress than they had been before and continued to enjoy great success. IABSE President Hans von Gunten wrote: “I am pleased to witness a growing interest for these poster sessions, organized at each IABSE conference, which allow personal contact and extended technical discussions among the participants.”255 This time, the poster themes were clearly circumscribed and a workshop category was introduced. The concept of the design workshop was new to IABSE at this conference.

Lisbon Symposium 1989: “Durability of Structures” This followed the 1987 Bergamo Colloquium on monitoring large and ancient structures, considering that issues of longevity were in fact also issues that had to be considered in the design phase. The meeting was organized by the Portuguese Group and the Portuguese National Laboratory of Civil Engineering and cosponsored by CEB, EECS, FIP, and IASS. Honorary chair of the symposium was J´ulio Ferry Borges, chair of the Scientific Committee Hans-Henrik Gotfredsen, and chair of the Organizing Committee Artur Ravara.

Originally this symposium was to have been organized by the Australian Group, which had to abandon the project at a late stage. The Spanish and Portuguese Groups were asked to help,

A frivolous photograph of the Executive Committee, spouses, and former presidents at the Helsinki Congress in 1988 underscores the importance attached to networking, international collegiality, and friendship in the Association that has always regarded itself as the “IABSE family” 98 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Gerard Fox and Yukio Maeda on a technical excursion in Oporto at the Lisbon Symposium in 1989. This iconic photograph shows the international nature of the Association and the awareness of engineering history with Gustave Eiffel’s 1877 Maria Pia Railway Bridge in the background and its 1991 concrete replacement by Edgar Cardoso under construction in the foreground; both were built using cantilevering construction methods and it was the Portuguese Group that was able to arrange the meeting in an unusually short time at the LNEC in Lisbon.

Bergamo Colloquium 1989: “Expert Systems in Civil Engineering” Originating in medical technology, the development of intelligent computer systems began to be used in various engineering fields at this time. The topic had been introduced to IABSE

by Ian F. C. Smith. Working Commission 6 under Scientific Committee Chair Aksel Frandsen organized the event with ISMES and the Italian Group. Sponsor was the Danish COWI Foundation.

Lausanne Workshop 1990: “Remaining Fatigue Life of Steel Structures” By 1990 many steel bridges had been in service for over a century, and questions of useful life, restoration, and the evaluation of the relevant criteria became a professional concern. This event, a sequel to the Lausanne Colloquium of 1984, was organized by IABSE and the ICOM Institute of the EPFL Lausanne. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Manfred Hirt.

Brussels Symposium 1990: “Mixed Structures, including New Materials” Organized by the Belgian Group, the event was cosponsored by CEB, EECS, FIP, IASS, and RILEM. This was the second symposium on composite and mixed construction, after Dresden 99 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

in 1975 with an expanded theme that included those mixed structures in which the materials did not act together. The event included a poster session. Daniel Vandepitte, specialist in prestressing, was chair of the Scientific Committee and Paul Lef`evre, chair of the Belgian Group, was chair of the Organizing Committee.

Brussels Short Course 1990: “Composite Steel-Concrete Construction and Eurocode 4” Held by Jos´e Janss, specialist in the field, in conjunction with the symposium and sponsored by the Belgian firm “Fabrim´etal” and CEMBREAU (The European Cement Association), this event stressed the growing importance of composite construction.

Stuttgart Colloquium 1991: “Structural Concrete” The importance of this meeting was demonstrated by the cosponsorship of ACI, CEB, FIP, the Deutscher Beton-Verein, DAfStb (Deutscher Ausschuss f¨ur Stahlbeton), PCI (Precast/ Prestressed Concrete Institute), and PTI (Post-Tensioning Concrete Institute). The colloquium was organized by the Institut f¨ur Tragwerksentwurf und -konstruktion of Stuttgart University under J¨org Schlaich as chair of the Scientific Committee and John E. Breen as chair of Working Commission 3. Chair of the Organizing Committee was Karl-Heinz Reineck. The theme was chosen out of the perceived need to unify design approaches in all forms of concrete after the first century of development.

Nyborg Colloquium 1991: “The Interaction Between Major Engineering Structures and the Marine Environment” The event was organized by the Danish Group under its chair Aksel Frandsen, who also chaired the Organizing Committee. Chair of the Scientific Committee was oceanographer David Farmer. This meeting marked the first time that structural engineers, contractors, biologists, ecologists, environmentalists, physicists, geologists, and lawyers came together to discuss the interaction between major civil engineering works and the environment. It was particularly influential in expanding the focus of IABSE.256 As J¨org Schneider said in his opening address: “Our environment is endangered. . . and, whether right or wrong, foremost industry and engineers are blamed for that.

Civil engineers are the most typical kind of homo faber. They leave traces in doing their work. . . .

But in doing so we believe that we are serving the needs of society and the request from the world’s ever increasing population.

We are proud of leaving traces, of demonstrating our capabilities to the world. The special attitude of our kind is questionable and, indeed, questioned.”257

Leningrad/St. Petersburg Symposium 1991: “Bridges: Interaction between Construction Technology and Design” Organized by the USSR Ministry for Transport Construction, the USSR State Committee of Construction (Gosstroy), and the USSR Group, the meeting was cosponsored by CEB and 100 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

FIP. This was the first symposium devoted entirely to bridges since that in Washington in 1989. Roger A. Dorton was chair of the Scientific Committee and Vladimir V. Alekseev was chair of the Organizing Committee. The focus of this meeting was on the relationship between construction methods and material choice.

New Delhi Congress 1992 The 14th Congress, held March 1st–6th, 1992 in New Delhi, was held under the general theme “Civilization through civil engineering.” Chair of the Scientific Committee was Tippur Subba Rao and of the Organization Committee was Ninan Koshi (both Honorary Members since 1992). For some reason international participation was not as large as had been hoped and 60% of the participants registered were from India. Subba Rao especially was concerned that this Congress should deal with topics from a broad, sociocultural perspective.

In expansion of the plenary session idea of the Helsinki Congress, there were eight plenary sessions, some of them with associated poster sessions that were henceforth more tightly bound to the spoken presentations. These were supplemented with seminars, so-called teach-ins and a design workshop.

Tippur Subba Rao (1928– 2008), specialist in prestressing and solar energy

Davos Conference 1992: “Structural Eurocodes” The importance of this meeting was reflected in the sponsorship, not only of the professional organizations CEB and ECCS but also of CEC (Commission of the European Communities) and EFTA (European Free Trade Association). It was organized by the Swiss Group with the Bridge and Structural Engineering Division of SIA (Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects) with G¨unter Breitschaft as chair of the Scientific Committee and IABSE Past-President Bruno Th¨urlimann as chair of the Organizing Committee. This conference reflects Ninan Koshi (b. 1936) the growing coordination of structural codes within Europe. It had been originally planned for Dubrovnik, but was relocated to Davos because of the Balkan war. Larger sums had been collected as a deficit guarantee for this conference than were needed in Davos, and the Permanent Committee decided, with the permission of the donors, to use the remaining money to create the IABSE Foundation as a nonprofit institution.

El Paular/Madrid Workshop 1992: “Length Effect on Fatigue of Wires and Strands” The workshop was cosponsored by CICYT (Comisi´on Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologia), FICYT (Fundaci´on para la Investigaci´on Cientifica y la Tecnologia en Asturias), the OIPEEC (International Organization for the Study of Endurance of Wire Ropes), the Comunidad Aut´onoma de Madrid, and the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y 101 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Puertos. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Alfonso Fern´andez Canteli and chair of the Organizing Committee was Enrique Alarc´on. This was part of the series of meetings on problems of structural aging and rehabilitation. Traditionally, fatigue values had been extrapolated from tests on short lengths. With the discovery of the influence of member length on fatigue, the topic had to be revisited.

Beijing Colloquium 1993: “Knowledge-based Systems in Civil Engineering” Organized by the Chinese Civil Engineering Society CCES and the Chinese Group, with Asko Sarja as chair of the Scientific Committee and W. D. Ni as chair of the Organizing Committee, this was the first IABSE event organized in China. Computer issues had become an ongoing theme of many IABSE meetings ever since they were first introduced at the Rio Congress in 1964 (as a follow-up of an RILEM – IABSE – IFIP sponsored symposium on the topic of computers in civil engineering that had taken place two years before in Portugal258 ) and with regularity since 1978.

G¨oteborg Conference 1993 (jointly with CIB W75): “Structural Serviceability of Buildings” Organized by Chalmers University with co-sponsorship of the Swedish Council for Building Research; chair of both the Scientific and Organizing Committees was Sven Ohlsson. With increasing complexity of construction, the issue of serviceability had become an accompanying theme to safety.

Rome Symposium 1993: “Structural Preservation of the Architectural Heritage” The meeting was organized by the Italian Group with the co-sponsorship of ICOMOS (The International Council on Monuments and Sites). Giorgio Macchi was chair of the Scientific Committee and Giorgio Croci was chair of the Organizing Committee. The issues of longevity that were becoming increasingly important led naturally to the issue of preservation and rehabilitation. As in so many IABSE events, the emphasis lies on collaboration with other disciplines in teams.

Copenhagen Colloquium 1993: “Remaining Structural Capacity” Organized by the Danish Group and sponsored by several industries with Johan Blaauwendraad as chair of the Scientific Committee and Per Clausen as chair of the Organizing Committee, the colloquium was a further contribution to the discussion of longevity, maintenance, and the prolongation of useful structural life.

Birmingham Symposium 1994: “Places of Assembly and Long-Span Building Structures” The event was organized by the British Group and sponsored by The Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Institute of British Architects, The Institution of Civil Engineers, the 102 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Institution of Structural Engineers, the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers, the Concrete Constructional Steelwork Association, the Timber Research & Development Association, and the Department of Transport. IASS was a cosponsor. Chair of the Scientific Committee was David Lee and chair of the Organizing Committee was David Quinion. Aside from the structural problems of long-span structures, this symposium also dealt with managing large groups of people and hazards.

San Francisco Symposium 1995: “Extending the Lifespan of Structures” Organized by the US Group, this event was cosponsored by ASCE, AISC, ACI, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, TRB, NRC, National Council of Structural Engineers Associations, and the Structural Engineers Association of California. Chair of the Scientific Committee was James O. Jirsa and seismic expert Loring A. Wyllie Jr. (Honorary Member from 2007) was chair of the Organizing Committee. The symposium continued the professional preoccupation with issues of material and structural longevity, maintenance, and rehabilitation.

Bergamo Colloquium 1995: “Knowledge Support Systems in Civil Engineering” This was organized by the Italian Group with Working Commission 6 with Ian F. C. Smith as chair of the Scientific Committee.

Copenhagen Congress 1996 The general theme of the 15th Congress in Copenhagen, held in the year that Copenhagen was the “Cultural Capital of Europe,” was “Structural Engineering in Consideration of Economy, Environment and Energy.” Thus the stage was set for the two preceding trends, culture and environment, to be prominent at this meeting. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Klaus H. Ostenfeld and chair of the Organizing Committee was Niels Gimsing (Honorary Member since 1996). The congress was sponsored by a host of Danish industries and government departments. Ostenfeld was interested in broadening the viewpoint of the Association, and later, as president he said: “We should not deal with how to calculate structures, we should deal with how structures are conceived to fit in a sustainable way in society, including technical and economical considerations, as well as aesthetics, function, resources, and disposal of the structure upon completion of its service life. We need to put together all these ingredients around the nucleus of structural engineering, which is our basis.”259 Workshops and a separate poster session completed the offerings.

Delft Colloquium 1996: “Basis of Design and Actions on Structures; Background, and Application of Eurocode 1” The event was organized by the Dutch Group with Haig Gulvanissien as chair of the Scientific Committee and Ton Vrouwenvelder as chair of the Organizing Committee. The meeting, in a sense a follow-up to that in Davos in 1992, compared the Eurocodes with Asian and North American codes and discussed issues in relation to earthquakes, geotechnical and bridge design, as well as fire engineering.

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Istanbul Colloquium 1996: “Semi-rigid Structural Connections” Organized by the Turkish Group under David Nethercot as chair of the Scientific Committee and Polat G¨ulkan, chair of the Turkish Group, as chair of the Organizing Committee, the event was sponsored by several Turkish building firms and cosponsored by the Turkish Ministry of Public Works and Settlement and Middle East Technical University.

Lausanne Workshop 1997: “Evaluation of Existing Steel and Composite Bridges” This workshop, an extension of the Lausanne events of 1984 and 1990, was organized on the initiative and by ICOM, the Institute for Steel Structures of the EPFL Lausanne, and dealt with the evaluation aspect of longevity. Manfred Hirt was chair of the Scientific Committee and Simon Bailey of ICOM organized the event.

Innsbruck Inter-Association Conference 1997: “Composite Construction—Conventional and Innovative” This very successful conference that replaced a symposium slot was jointly organized by CEB, CIB, ECCS, FIP, IABSE, RILEM, and ASCCS (International Association for Cooperation and Research of Steel-Concrete Composite Structures) and dealt with the many aspects of composite construction in 180 papers, ranging from combinations of traditional building materials to more unconventional structural materials such as fiber-reinforced plastics. Mikael Braestrup was chair of the Scientific Committee and J¨org Schneider chair of the Organizing Committee. The idea behind the conference was that structural forms and performance were increasingly dictated by material rather than by structural function, and various functions were calling for different materials. This led to the increasing design of composite structures. The 12 themes discussed were (1) Connections between Materials, (2) Safety and Serviceability, (3) Analysis and Dimensioning, (4) Structural Design, (5) Fire Resistance, (6) Joints between Structural Members, (7) Fabrication and Erection, (8) Codes and Standards, (9) Earthquake Resistance, (10) Diagnosis, Maintenance, Retrofitting, Repair, (11) Advanced Composites, and (12) Behavior Modeling.

It was at this conference that the “BASAAR” form of presentation was introduced. It was based on the ideas and suggestions of Bo Edlund, J¨org Schneider, Alain Golay, and Yukio Maeda, and implemented by Edlund who was chair of the Technical Committee at that time.

Apart from BASAAR, the popular Exhibition on Large Projects was well received. For years afterward, participants praised the technical program of this event. The organizing committee was overwhelmed by the participation; around 1100 people attended the gala dinner alone and did not fit into the hall that had been prepared, so the organizers had to improvise by placing tables in the entrance hall lunch area.260

Berlin Colloquium 1998: “Saving Buildings in Central and Eastern Europe” The meeting was organized by the Institute for the Rehabilitation and Modernization of Buildings (IEMB) at the Technical University of Berlin with Bernd Hillemeier as chair of 104 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

the Scientific Committee and Gerhard Spaethe as chair of the Organizing Committee. Many of the technical issues of historical preservation apply to different types of structure. In this case the colloquium concentrated on the structural issues of one type, the prefabricated panel buildings of Soviet-era Eastern Europe. This is the first event at which a CD-ROM was produced of the report.

Stockholm Colloquium 1998: “Tunnel Structures” This meeting was the first devoted entirely to a structural type that had not previously been discussed in IABSE. It was organized by the Swedish Group with Charles J. Vos as chair of the Scientific Committee and the chair of the Swedish Group, Hans Ingvarsson as chair of the Organizing Committee, and it marks the point at which IABSE expanded to encompass the whole field of civil and infrastructure engineering.

Kobe Symposium 1998: “Long-span and High-rise Structures” This symposium was organized by the Japanese Group to celebrate the opening of the AkashiKaikyo Bridge, the world’s longest span (1991 m) in the spring of 1998. Aside from long-span bridges, the symposium also featured papers on high-rise structures and long-span roofs and the topics ranges from aesthetics and architectural and urban design problems to seismic issues.

A cosponsor was CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat). Yuhshi Fukumoto was chair of the Scientific Committee and Manabu Ito chair of the Organizing Committee.

Kobe was chosen as venue to highlight the excellent reconstruction accomplishments that had been made since the devastating earthquake of January 1995.

New Delhi Colloquium 1999: “Foundations for Major Bridges: Design and Construction” Organized by the Indian Group with Sudhangsu S. Chakraborty as chair of the Scientific Committee and Prafulla Kumar as chair of the Organizing Committee, the meeting focused on geotechnical and geophysical issues as well as construction.

Phuket Colloquium 1999: “Concrete Model Code for Asia. Structural Concrete: Design, Materials and Construction, and Maintenance.”

The meeting was organized by the Thailand Group in collaboration with the Engineering Institute of Thailand and the Japan Concrete Institute. The International Federation for Structural Concrete was a cosponsor. Ekasit Limsuwan was chair of the Scientific Committee and Kraiwood Kiattikomol, known for his work on concrete plate behavior and concrete composition and later president of King Monkut University of Technology, chair of the Organizing Committee. An advisory committee also played a great role in the development of the topics. As large structures are increasingly being built by organizations from outside the country in which they are situated, the international coordination of codes of practice was becoming increasingly urgent. The International Committee on Concrete Model Code (ICCMC) was established in 1992 and this colloquium was organized to present an overview of the results as well as the ACI Building Code (USA) and the European CEB – FIP Model Code.

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Malm¨o Conference 1999: “Cable-stayed Bridges: Past, Present and Future” This conference celebrated the completion of the Øresund Bridge, the largest span and most heavily loaded cable-stayed bridge of the time. It was the first IABSE conference to be organized jointly by two National Groups: the Swedish and the Danish with Niels Gimsing as chair of the Scientific Committee and Gimsing and Hans Ingvarsson, chair of the Danish and Swedish Groups, respectively, as organizers. From this event onward, CD-ROMs were produced for the reports of every event.

Rio de Janeiro Symposium 1999: “Structures for the Future—the Search for Quality” Organized by the Brazilian Group and cosponsored by FIB with Robert Silman as chair of the Scientific Committee and S´ergio Marques de Souza as chair of the Organizing Committee, the meeting dealt with a wide range of topics from durability and robustness, aesthetics, sustainability, maintenance and reliability, monitoring, serviceability, design criteria, rehabilitation and preservation, and information technology, to construction.

Lucerne Congress 2000 The general theme of this congress, with Jean-Claude Badoux as chair of the Scientific Committee and Anton Steffen (Honorary Member since 2000) as chair of the Organization Committee, was a natural extension of the environmental idea. It dealt with structural engineering contributions to the development of urban transportation systems and was titled: “Structural Engineering for Meeting Urban Transportation Challenges.” The growing demand for greater mobility worldwide and the need for urban transportation systems of ever-higher capacity and faster travel could only be met, the Association felt, through advances in structural engineering.

The Congress Report was issued in a volume with two-page abstracts and a CD-ROM supplemented it with all 236 papers in full. This, with occasional variations, became the new standard method of publication. Steffen’s particular interest in the organization of this congress lay on the communication between the profession and the general public, and a popular “Display of Large Transportation Projects” from Switzerland included the Rail 2000 project, the Gotthard and L¨otschberg Alpine Transit projects, and the expansion of Zurich airport. The promotional material for this congress was to contain an image of a steamer on Lake Lucerne, but as the proposed image sported a Swiss flag flying prominently from the ship’s stern, the strict tradition of not including any national insignia of any kind on IABSE-printed material prevailed and the image was not used, despite several congress and National Group logos to the contrary.

It was at the meetings of the Permanent and Executive Committees at this congress that the decision was taken to abandon the quadrennial congresses and concentrate solely on the annual symposia instead. The Executive Committee felt that they had become too similar in size and scope. As the congresses had grown shorter and the symposia lengthened and became more comprehensive because of the addition of poster sessions and BASAAR, the Permanent Committee saw no reason to hold one form every four years and the other annually. To economize both time and funds, it was decided to combine the two forms and have only one main professional conference annually. All other professional meetings were henceforth to be called “conferences” in an attempt to simplify the nomenclature.

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Malta Inter-Association Conference 2001: “Safety, Risk, and Reliability—Trends in Engineering” Held in the spring, this was nevertheless the main IABSE event that year. It was the second jointly organized conference, this time between CIB, ECCS, FIB, IABSE, and RILEM. In a way this conference, organized by J¨org Schneider and Ole Damg˚ard Larsen (organizer of the Ship Collision Colloquium in Copenhagen in 1983) as chair of the Organizing Committee, was a further development of the theme first presented at the Rigi workshop in 1983. Four hundred fifty participants came from 50 countries and addressed issues dealing with: (1) Structural Risk Assessment, (2) Risk Engineering, (3) Lessons from Failures, (4) Structural Codes, (5) Risk Acceptance Criteria, (6) Risk Control, (7) Assessment of Existing Structures, (8) Decision Support/Risk Communication, (9) Project, Construction and Operation Risks, (10) Reliability in Geotechnical Engineering, and (11) Benchmark Studies.

Seoul Conference 2001: “Cable-supported Bridges—Challenging Technical Limits” This meeting was jointly organized by the recently established Korean Group and the Korea Highway Corporation. It celebrated the completion of two major structures, the Yongjong and Seohae Grand cable-stayed bridges in Korea. Chair of the Scientific Committee was seismic and nuclear safety expert Sung-Pil Chang with Soong-Yeal Chung, president of the Korea Highway Corporation, as chair of the Organizing Committee.

Lahti Conference 2001: “Innovative Wooden Structures and Bridges” Organized jointly by the Finnish Group in conjunction with the Association of Finnish Civil Engineers and the Helsinki University of Technology’s Bridge Engineering Department, this meeting, the first IABSE event devoted entirely to wood, reintroduced the material as a modern construction material in international structural engineering awareness. Aarne Jutila, expert in composite structures and bridge engineering, was chair of the Scientific Committee and Yrj¨o Matikainen chair of the Organizing Committee. Structural issues as well as fire resistance and durability were major topics, and curiously the traditional use of the material was hardly discussed.

Melbourne Symposium 2002: “Towards a Better Built Environment— Innovation, Sustainability, Information Technology” The meeting was organized by the Australian Group in conjunction with the Institution of Engineers Australia and Monash University’s Department of Civil Engineering. Paul Grundy, later initiator of the IABSE Joint Working Commission for Disaster Reduction on Coasts and known particularly for his work on fatigue, collapse, risk assessment, and longevity— especially his work on the Westgate Bridge collapse in 1970 and on historic wrought-iron bridges—was chair of the Scientific Committee and Leigh Appleyard, known especially for his work on risk issues, was chair of the Organizing Committee. This was the first event at which the YEP (Young Engineers Program) became active.

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Antwerp Symposium 2003: “Structures for High-speed Railway Transportation” The Belgian and Dutch Groups co-organized the symposium with the help of the Technological institute of KVIV (The Royal Flemish Engineering Society). The topics concerned all aspects of high-speed issues from train interaction with bridges to passenger comfort, environmental emissions, and architectural impact. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Leo Wagemans, whose interests range from construction and design to glass structures (he later founded an IABSE Working Group on the topic in 2007), and historical bridges, and who was at the time chair of the Dutch Group. Chair of the Organizing Committee was Luc Taerwe, chair of the Belgian Group, whose work ranges from material research in concrete to risk management.

Shanghai Symposium (Congress) 2004: “Metropolitan Habitats and Infrastructure” This symposium replaced the congress slot, but only in title and not in content or scope. The site had been decided on at the Malta Symposium in 2001 and the Chinese Group had agreed that it would be called a symposium. The Chinese Group was the organizer in conjunction with the China Civil Engineering Society (CCES), its Institute of Bridge and Structural Engineering, and Tongji University. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Engineering Academician Haifan Xiang, specialist in cable-stayed bridges and wind problems, with Guohao Li, president of Tongji University and specialist on bridge construction and torsion problems as chair of the Organizing Committee. The symposium addressed the structural aspects of buildings and infrastructure, most of them in an urban context. Concurrent sessions dealt with either bridges or buildings and one session was devoted to life-cycle issues.

New Delhi Conference 2005: “Role of Structural Engineers towards Reduction of Poverty” The meeting was organized by the Indian Group supported by the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways. The focus was on infrastructure maintenance and development against the background of the December 2004 Indian Ocean Rim tsunami. Once again as in the New Delhi Conference six years previously, Sudhangsu S. Chakraborty was chair of the Scientific Committee with V. Velayutham as chair of the Organizing Committee. This conference ended with the declaration on the elimination of poverty that Chakraborty had authored.

Lisbon Symposium 2005: “Structures and Extreme Events” This was the last event organized by the IABSE Secretariat under Executive Director Alain Golay and the first under Ueli Brunner. The event remembered the great Lisabon earthquake and tsunami of 1755 and the recent 2004 Indian Ocean Rim tsunami as well. It was organized by the Portuguese Group and the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering with the sponsorship of many Portuguese industries. Jacques Combault was chair of the Scientific Committee and E. Arantes e Oliveira of the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering was chair of the Organizing Committee.

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Originally this symposium was to have been held in Budapest as a joint event with FIB. However, coordination difficulties between IABSE and FIB led to its postponement for a year.

Once again as in 1989, the Portuguese Group undertook to organize the event at the last moment and define the topic.

Copenhagen Conference 2006: “Operation, Maintenance and Rehabilitation of Large Infrastructure Projects, Bridges and Tunnels”

Jacques Combault (b. 1943), cable-stayed bridge specialist, eleventh IABSE President

Organized by the Danish Group with industrial sponsors and the Road Directorate of the Ministry of Transport, chair of the Scientific Committee was Leif Vincentsen and Niels Christian Skov Nielsen was chair of the Organizing Committee.

Budapest Symposium 2006: “Responding to Tomorrow’s Challenges in Structural Engineering” The Hungarian Group and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics organized the meeting with Gy¨orgy Farkas as chair of the Scientific Committee and L´aszl´o Dunai as chair of the Organizing Committee. This was the first meeting in which the structural use of glass, Leo Wagemans’s concern, surfaced as a novel issue. The poster session was especially extensive.

Weimar Symposium 2007: “Improving Infrastructure Worldwide” This meeting was organized by the German Group and the Bauhaus-Universit¨at Weimar with multiple industrial sponsors. Ulrike Kuhlmann, expert in steel and composite construction, was chair of the Scientific Committee with Holger Svensson, interested especially in cable-stayed bridge construction, as chair of the Organizing Committee. The background for this meeting was the experience gained and the definition of infrastructure problems in bringing people together after the reunification of Germany in 1990.

Helsinki Conference 2008: “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Bridges, Buildings and Construction Practice” This event was organized by the Finnish Group with the Finnish Association of Civil Engineers and Helsinki University of Technology. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Risto Kiviluoma, who specializes in wind engineering and structural monitoring, and Helena Soimakallio was chair of the Organizing Committee. The premise for this meeting was that ICT tends to outlast other technologies that rapidly change. The themes that were developed in this meeting were information flow and storage, design support, construction and management support, and advanced analysis and simulation.

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Chicago Congress 2008 Held under the presidency of Jacques Combault with Joseph F. Tortorella as chair of the Scientific Committee and IABSE Vice-President Predrag (Pete) Popovic as chair of the Organizing Committee, Chicago was originally to be a symposium, but shortly after the Shanghai Symposium in 2004 President Manfred Hirt had revisited the issue and had convinced the Executive Committee that it was desirable to reinstate the congress form.

Predrag “Pete” Popovic (b.

1941), 2009 President-Elect, specialist in repair, rehabilitation, and failure assessment, especially of concrete

So in 2007 the congress was reintroduced as the central IABSE event. As President Jacques Combault wrote: “. . .we must not attempt to do without the profitable exchanges available to us through symposia and congresses that allow us to share the experience of others in a field where humility is most probably the first step in avoiding major errors.

This is why I, with the full support of the Executive Committee, ask that our next meeting in Chicago in 2008 mark the rehabilitation of the IABSE congress every four years, a valuable appointment where National Groups may expose their scientific findings and technical activities through publications or special editions which will not fail to interest all participants.”261

The theme of this congress expanded the focus of the previous congress in Lucerne by including tall buildings. The title was “Creating and Renewing Urban Structures—Tall Buildings, Bridges and Infrastructure.” Popovic, soon to be elected the 12th IABSE President, had been involved with Working Commission 8, “Operation, Maintenance and Repair of Structures” from 1995 to 2005, first as member, then as vice-chair and as chair, and he also served as member of the Scientific Committee for the Melbourne Symposium. So he had a particular interest in the concentration of the event on infrastructure, as well as urban planning and design.

Shanghai Workshop 2009: “Recent Major Bridges”

Jacques Combault, Qingzhong You (at the time General Manager of Sutong Bridge Construction Commanding Department), and Klaus Ostenfeld visit the just opened Jintang Bridge at the Shanghai Workshop in 2009 110 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

The event was organized by the Chinese Group in conjunction with Tongji University and the China Civil Engineering Society CCES. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Engineering Academician, bridge builder, and disaster expert Haifan Xiang and Yaojun Ge, specialist in aerodynamic stability of bridges, was chair of the Organizing Committee. Many of

the world’s longest spans have been built in China in recent years, and the presentation of the IABSE Outstanding Structure Award to the Lupu Bridge in Shanghai provided the occasion for the meeting that discussed mainly new bridges in China and an extensive tour of recent Chinese bridges.

Bangkok Symposium 2009: “Sustainable Infrastructure— Environment friendly, Safe and Resource Efficient” Organized by the Thai Group in conjunction with Chulalongkorn University and the Asian Institute of Technology, this meeting was the first major IABSE event to be held IABSE technical excursion to the Jintang Bridge during the in Southeast Asia and as a Shanghai Workshop in 2009 tribute to the economic development of the region with its major investment in modern infrastructure. Chair of the Scientific Committee was Ekasit Limsuwan, who had also chaired the Phuket Colloqium in 1999 and theoretician Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai was chair of the Organizing Committee.

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IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Chapter

7

Trends in Professional Interest as Mirrored in the Events and Meetings

Long-term trends in a profession can be seen in the development of any active association. At the formation of IABSE in 1929, the profession had not liberated itself from the 19th-century Anglo-Saxon pejorative view of the engineer as a “tradesman” rather than a “professional.”

(The English title derives from engine driver with a strong whiff of the empirical mechanic, the do-it-yourself tinkerer or handyman, or what the French call a “bricoleur.”) This was certainly culturally different in French society, where the engineer concentrated on theoretical aspects of the field and their relationship to the natural sciences from the outset, and where the title “ing´enieur” relates more to “ingenium,” which is Latin for innate character, talent, and nature. However, most 19th and 20th-century practicing engineers certainly felt that there was something they had to prove to society in order to validate engineering as a genuinely professional endeavor despite, or perhaps because of its preoccupation with men, mud, and materials. They needed to define the pragmatism of construction as an intellectual concern.

Thus the early focus of the Association and its research was on the “scientific” nature and value of engineering, carefully segregating the “new,” industrially produced structural materials steel and concrete (although at the outset there was less research in concrete than in steel) from the “old,” pragmatic and thus “lesser” ones, stone and wood, in order to study them more in detail. This, and the concentration on structure, formed the conceptual basis on which the Association was founded.

By mid-century attitudes had relaxed somewhat; the original goal had been more or less attained and engineering was beginning to find itself and its own mode of thinking—until 1973 when the worldwide oil crisis plunged the profession into a self-defense mode. Attacks, especially by the 1968 generation, exploded over the “destruction of the environment” by construction and transportation and especially condemned the role of the builder. The feared “concreting-over of nature” (albeit more roads, retaining walls, dams, and buildings than bridges) and the melodramatic “rape of Gaia” (the ancient Greek version of “Mother Nature”) were their primitive, proto-ecological battle cries that underscored the emotional rather than a rational tenor of the discussion. As a result, engineers scrambled to understand the rationale behind the emotion and began to think more holistically in order to define their role less as instigators of destruction and more as participators in finding solutions to the societal problems President Bruno Th¨urlimann on a technical visit to the Petersburgsky Sport and Concert Complex construction site in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) during the Moscow Symposium in 1978 113 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

of overpopulation, crowding, and pollution. This led to less stress being laid in IABSE’s meetings on the means of construction: materials and methods themselves and a greater preoccupation with problem solutions that used materials and methods in many combinations, as well as to new definitions of professional concern with aesthetics, environment, lifecycle issues such as retrofitting, maintenance, or demolition (an early version of today’s “sustainability”), and infrastructure. This development is well reflected in the development of the Association’s mission statement over the years. As IABSE Past-President Maurice Cosandey points out from the clarified vantage point of an almost-centenarian who has participated in the Association for over 60 years, the focus of the Association began gradually to shift from structures to issues of management in the broadest sense.262 Another problem that crowded in was the decline of student enrollment in engineering programs that began in the early 1980s worldwide due to the negative image that the profession saw forced upon itself. This led to a timid concern with pedagogy and with history as a way to understand the development as a parameter of change in society and its focus. A further concern was the rapid development of new means of analysis, design, and manufacture and erection that impacted both education and practice. All this is traceable in detail through the topics the members of the Association discussed in the various meetings and what they chose to emphasize in these events: The Paris Congress of 1932 that began this development set the tone for the following decades. The papers and presentations concentrated on scientific theory, steel, concrete, and construction. This focus endured for many years until the purview of the profession began to expand to problem-oriented issues in the Stockholm Congress 1960, and after the oil crisis in 1973–1974 to environmental issues. The separation of materials was not as rigidly adhered to in Paris as had been planned, however. The original group was small and the focus adapted to individual interests. Thus, only half of the sessions were really material specific. Although subterranean problems had not been part of the original intention of IABSE, foundations were certainly part of the discussion from the outset, and soil mechanics appeared as its own session under the influence of the eminent Karl von Terzaghi. There was even one session that interested especially the early reinforced concrete pioneers Luigi Santarella, Fritz von Emperger, and Alfred Hawranek and that was devoted to tentative considerations with composite construction, entitled “Connecting steel beams to reinforced concrete.” Noteworthy was also the first session that dealt with theoretical issues: “Stability and strength of structural members under pressure and bending.”

The second, Berlin Congress in 1936 was far larger with many more participants, and it boasted a correspondingly more complex organization. Each of the eight sessions was subdivided into one or more subthemes, and a “free discussion” period was also provided, as the Association had quickly realized that the most valuable work was accomplished in personal interaction rather than in listening to prepared papers. There was no separate theory session in Berlin, but theory was subsumed into each of the other themes. This time steel had a slight edge over concrete with four sessions to concrete’s three, and again there was a separate session devoted to soil mechanics.

Perhaps the most forward-looking contributions for future theoretical development were to be found in Session I: “Importance of the ductility of steel for calculating and dimensioning steel work, especially when statically indeterminate.” These were entirely devoted to issues of ductility and plasticity in steel. Especially the presentations of Hermann Maier-Leibnitz from Stuttgart and G´abor von Kazinczy from Budapest were seminal in that they led directly to the establishment of the theories of plasticity and the “safe theorem” that bases on the work 114 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

of Maier-Leibnitz, Aleksei Alekseevich Gvozdev (who was not at the congress), and IABSE Scientific Secretary Friedrich Bleich (who apparently was not there either—almost certainly for ethnic reasons). It was because of a report on this session, probably by an English participant, as the proceedings were only published the following year, that John Baker traveled to Stuttgart immediately after the congress and discussed his work with Maier-Leibnitz. From this resulted a contact between the two men that later included Baker’s research assistant Jacques Heyman, and this led to the development of the theory of plasticity in the 1940s and 1950s.263 Like Faltus’s experience of the discussion of welding at the 1926 Zurich conference, this is an example of how IABSE events and the personal contacts they engendered influenced the development of both practice and theory in structural engineering.

At the Li`ege Congress in 1948, five sessions with their subsessions were deemed sufficient.

Two were devoted to steel and two to concrete with traditional masonry now included with the concrete because the reconstruction of war-ravaged Europe had problems to solve in traditional as well as new materials and structures. Both Eug`ene Freyssinet and Othmar Ammann spoke at this first post-war congress and introduced their novel structures. Soil mechanics had disappeared as a separate theme—the 65-year-old Terzaghi seems no longer to have participated—and the fifth session had safety as its theme, a topic that first appeared here as a main focus and that was picked up at virtually all the following congresses and later as a special topic in the London, Lisbon, and Quebec Symposia in 1969, 1973, and 1974, at the Tokyo Workshop 1982, and the Tokyo Symposium 1986, as well as at the Bergamo Colloquium 1987 and the Inter-Association Malta Conference 2001.

The Cambridge Congress in 1952 was grouped into three main themes, each with sessions and subsessions. This three-level hierarchy permitted a finer differentiation of topics as well as the presentation of papers dealing with overlapping issues. Part A was theoretical and dealt with analysis and safety including subsections on calculation that brought in the theories of elasticity and, for the first time, plasticity as well. Part B contained papers that discussed steel, both as a material and in construction, and part C discussed concrete, whereby almost all contributions dealt with analytical questions. This was also the first congress at which light-metal (including cold-formed steel) structures were discussed and composite construction issues were more explicitly presented than they had been in Paris in 1932.

The Lisbon Congress in 1956 took place at the beginning of one of the most dynamic building periods that the industrialized world had yet seen and many novel structures and construction types were presented. The tri-partite hierarchy was dropped again and the six-session format reintroduced. The first theme was general with theory dominating. The second, fifth, and sixth dealt with subjects involving concrete and only two sessions, three and four, were devoted to steel. The general discussion seems to have been expanded in this congress. In Lisbon, prestressing appears as the title of a session for the first time, although Freyssinet had of course discussed his work in the field at various events from 1928 onward and a whole subsection had been devoted to it in the previous congress.

The Stockholm Congress of 1960 marked a departure from the tradition of material-based thinking and a shift to problem-oriented thinking. The sessions were no longer strictly separated by materials, but according to structural type, connections, and safety. High-strength bolting had its first independent subsession, and free papers on unspecified new developments appeared for the first time.

The Rio de Janeiro Congress in 1964 introduced problems of computers in analysis (but not yet in design and construction) in the first session on theory and general questions. This concern 115 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

with the new medium had been preceded by the joint RILEM – IABSE – IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) symposium in 1962 on the use of computers in civil engineering.264 Computers and then intelligent systems became a growing topic over the next decades in the congresses and more importantly in the various Bergamo and Beijing Workshops and Colloquia in 1978, 1982, 1989, 1993, and 1995, and the Melbourne Symposium in 2002. In contrast to the abstraction of computers, physical model testing, that had first interested Robert Maillart, Alfred Hawranek, and others in Vienna in 1928 as well as Guido Oberti and Eduardo Torroja later, was also a focus in Rio de Janeiro, and gluing made its appearance as a connection technology. Araldite, the first two-component glue had made its debut in Switzerland in 1946 and was then being site tested and proposed for site use. The results proved only moderately satisfying, and gluing techniques proved a dead-end in site construction, but, like the successful high-strength bolting previously, it excited interest as a cutting-edge experiment at that time.

The New York Congress in 1968 introduced cold-formed steel as a structural material, and this carried the interest in prefabrication forward. (Light-metal structures had already appeared in Cambridge in 1952.) Prefabrication as a mass-production technique was subsequently amplified at the Prague Symposium in 1971. Given the location of the congress in New York, tall, framed structures in steel and concrete played a greater role than in previous congresses, the latter especially with the contributions of Fazlur Khan. The closing address by IABSE Honorary President St¨ussi “From Leonardo da Vinci to Othmar H. Ammann” was indicative of St¨ussi’s personal interest in history and this would become a prominent theme at the 50th anniversary Vienna Congress a decade later in 1980.265 Thirty-six years after it had first been discussed in Berlin and 20 years after it had been introduced in Cambridge, plasticity theory was a focus at the 1972 Amsterdam Congress and system theory had its first subsession. These foci certainly contributed to the weakening separation between the materials steel and concrete, as did a beginning interest in composite construction (in expansion of Session VII of the Paris Congress in 1932 and discussions in Cambridge in 1952 that had presaged the issue). The interest in composite construction grew rapidly, and the topic reappeared in the Dresden Symposium 1975, the Stockholm Colloquium 1986 as “Thin-walled metal structures in buildings,” at the Brussels Symposium and Workshop both in 1990, and the Innsbruck Conference in 1997. Model studies, that had been a concern of Robert Maillart and Mirko Roˇs in the late 1920s and eight years previously in Innsbruck and Lausanne and at the congress in Rio de Janeiro, reappeared in Amsterdam too. It is curious that each time we observe an increase in interest in theoretical abstraction, we note an equal growth of interest in the contrasting approach through physical modeling.

The growing trend toward system theory, its concomitant focus on optimization, and the use of computers increased at the Tokyo Congress in 1976, now as a design issue too. This eventually led to the inclusion of quality assurance, first as a session of the Vienna Congress in 1980, then at the Rigi Workshop in 1983 and the Tokyo Symposium in 1986 where it was combined with the safety issues that had been introduced at the Tokyo Workshop in 1982.

The very nature of the 50th anniversary congress in Vienna in 1980 initiated a new focus on history and also an interest in the abstract field of philosophy—especially in the field of aesthetics. The session on aesthetics in Vienna was followed by another at the Copenhagen Congress in 1996. St¨ussi had been the first to suggest a historical perspective in Cambridge in 1952, which is understandable as the venerable location (Cambridge University was founded in 1209) inspired such thoughts, and he had expanded on his interest in his plenary address at the New York Congress in 1968.

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By 1980, the profession as a whole had begun to become sensitive to historical questions, as it was beginning to react to the demonization of engineering that had begun with the oil crisis of 1973 and the profession was also beginning to emancipate itself from the 19thcentury view of the fields as a less than rigorous, “applied” science. Quite apart from the aesthetic and intellectual interest of history, this trend proved to be one of the broadest expansions of IABSE concern because the related time-dependent technical fields of longevity, fatigue, remaining structural capacity, preservation, evaluation, monitoring, and rehabilitation subsequently became the subjects of many meetings: the Washington DC Symposium and the Lausanne Colloquium, both in 1982, the Venice Symposium 1983, the Bergamo Colloquium 1987, the Lisbon Symposium 1989, the Lausanne Workshop 1990, the El Paular/Madrid Workshop 1992, the Copenhagen Colloquium 1993, the Rome Symposium 1993, the Lausanne Workshop 1997, and the Berlin Colloquium 1998.

Poster sessions—in a sense the descendent of the original exhibitions that accompanied the early Zurich meetings—made their debut at the Vienna Congress and were more prominently introduced at the London Symposium in 1981. The maturing of a new generation of visually oriented engineers, who had grown up nurtured on television, certainly influenced a trend to the visual. This would later only become more pronounced as computer aids to design (CAD) and other computing aspects appeared over the course of the next decade at the Bergamo Colloquia 1978, 1982, 1898, and 1995, and at the Beijing Colloquium 1993.

As far as the content of the 1980 Congress was concerned, the gradual melding of both steel and concrete in the same sessions continued. The trend had begun eight years earlier in Amsterdam and the themes were now even more clearly problem- rather than material oriented.

Building in extreme conditions had its first theme session in Vienna as did building physics, and timber came into its own as a structural material for the first time as well, after having been relegated to a minor role in Western construction ever since the Industrial Revolution.

This may have been a belated influence of the timber experiments carried out in Switzerland

by St¨ussi, Roˇs, and others during World War II and of a new generation of structural engineers such as Julius Natterer. It may also have been a reaction in part to the oil crisis of 1973–1974 to reduce the reliance on the energy needed to produce both steel and concrete and initiate an ecological interest in renewable resources.

The trend to visual presentation strengthened at the Vancouver Congress in 1984 where the poster sessions emancipated themselves and became presentations of equal value to the verbally communicated information. This was noticeable in the list of presenters who chose this format.

These members of the first “television generation” were now among the most prominent engineers. The emancipation of the profession and its way of thinking also strengthened and the issue of professional responsibility, and thus ethics entered the discussion. A focus on the problems of ice and snow loads was to be expected in Canada, but new was a beginning interest in the overarching issue of infrastructure. This beginning focus on infrastructure problems may have been the effect of intensive lobbying by Lynn Beedle, the founder of CTBUH (the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) in 1979, whose concern with tall buildings included a strong element of infrastructure and who never missed an opportunity to present his group’s newest publication on the topic, invariably presented in a bag full of promotional material he brought to every Permanent Committee meeting.

As a novelty at the Helsinki Congress in 1988, Robert Silman, himself a border-crossing builder whose professional interests bridged between architecture and engineering, conducted a design workshop in the sense of visual design, not analysis. In a way, it was an expansion on the theme of the 1986 Zurich Workshop that had, however, only concentrated on design 117 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

organization rather than on visual design as here. The Helsinki workshop was a simple affair by architectural standards, with a design problem set at the beginning and a session with reviews of the submitted projects at the end. As feedback it was suggested that if the experiment were to be continued in the future, work on the projects should be developed in groups interspersed with several feedback sessions to allow discussion of design methods and strategies. This indicates a budding interest in IABSE in alternative pedagogical strategies and it reflects the growing unease with traditional engineering education that led to declining student numbers in universities all over the world at that time. (An article on the topic of education only appeared in SEI in 1997.)266 Visual design had already begun to be a concern seven years previously as the topic of the London Symposia in 1967 and 1981 on the choice of structural form, expanded in the 1987 Paris/Versailles Symposium on concrete structure for the future where the criteria for choice were expanded, and the topic would reappear at the Delft Colloquium 1996. The themes were organized in a plenary session format and were more theoretical than usual (snow and ice had receded into the background although the congress location would have inspired continuing focus), and only two of the accompanying seminars appear to have been devoted to pragmatic building issues.

The poster sessions at Helsinki enjoyed an even greater success at this conference than they had before, and this time they were organized into categories.

Between 1990 and 1996 a series of meetings was held on codes, especially dealing with Eurocodes at the Brussels Short Course 1990, the Davos Conference 1992, and the Delft Colloquium 1996.

In 1992, the New Delhi Congress retained the plenary session format from Helsinki but returned to less theoretical and more object-oriented themes, and stressed cultural aspects, and there was a strong focus on experimental education formats with a design workshop and three so-called teach-ins. The pedagogical interests of Helsinki and New Delhi remained a rudiment, however, and have not expanded since. The first three seminars of seven that followed the plenary sessions had attached poster sessions.

The Copenhagen Congress 1996 stood under the sign of culture, energy, and environmental issues, which had already been the topic of the Nyborg Colloquium 1991 and which were to reappear with increasing regularity in the Lucerne Congress 2000, the Melbourne Symposium 2002, and the Bangkok Symposium 2009. The theme indicates a coming of age, an independence in the self-understanding of the engineer, and the recognition of the important role that engineering plays in society, free from any competitive relationship between engineering research and “real” science as was evident in earlier discussions and congresses where the emphasis between 1932 and 1980 lay on explaining and, in a sense, defending the “scientific” nature of engineering research. The organizer Klaus Ostenfeld stressed this emancipation. It was of concern to him that the engineer should have a broad view of the field as a human and societal endeavor.

Once again there were multiple plenary sessions and the posters were once again grouped in a separate section as they had been in Vienna but not since. Seven specialized workshops competed the offerings.

The trend away from the discussion of segregated structural problems and toward a comprehensive approach to engineering continues to this day. Environment and infrastructure were the focus of the Lucerne Congress in 2000. Transportation, bridges, and now specifically tunnels expanded the Association’s preoccupations into underground structures. Tunnels had 118 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

previously burst the bounds of the former concept of the Association at the Stockholm Colloquium of 1998, and transportation followed at the Antwerp Symposium in 2003, while new materials expanded with Leo Wagemans’s interest in structural glass at the Budapest Symposium in 2006. This led to his creation of a new Working Group on that topic in 2007. IABSE thus entered the new millennium as an organization that now represented the full panoply of civil engineering and all its ramifications. This expansion has continued since with a focus on sustainability—already presaged in the area of monitoring in the Bergamo Colloquium 1987 and consequently durability in the Lisbon Symposium 1989—in the Melbourne Symposium 2002 and the Bangkok Symposium 2009.

Following the growing trend to increasingly holistic issues, the Shanghai Symposium 2004 expanded IABSE’s purview in the direction of architecture, urban design, and planning with issues dealing with urban habitat and infrastructure, and the Chicago Congress of 2008 strengthened this trend by building on the discussion of tall building structural systems that had begun in New York in 1968, thereby vindicating Lynn Beedle’s dream posthumously, by now including tall buildings and all their problems as a central issue.

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Chapter

8

Special Aspects of the Development of IABSE

Publications Congress Reports, from 1932 The Congress Reports were separate from the Bulletin, Publications, Periodica, and Structural Engineering International (SEI), and appeared in several parts before and after each Congress.

In the earlier decades the first part contained the invitation and organizational matter. The Preliminary Report contained the submitted and accepted papers, and the Final Report contained those that had actually been presented at the Congress, as well as ancillary material such as the speeches at the opening and closing sessions, and in later congresses, events like poster sessions, workshops, and “teach-ins.” Some papers that were considered worthwhile, but that exceeded the page-limits of the Reports were subsequently published in the Publications (also called Memoirs in English). During World War II, those papers that had been submitted and accepted for the 1940 Warsaw Congress that did not take place, were published as volumes 6 and 7 of the Publications (Memoirs) in 1942 and 1944, respectively. From the Lucerne Congress in 2000, the reports were published as a volume of abstracts with the full versions of the papers on a CD-ROM. To celebrate IABSE’s 80th year, all IABSE publications from 1929 to 1999 including the IABSE Reports were digitized and made available online, accessible by all at: www.iabse.org/publications/archive/index.php

Publications (Memoirs), 1932–1976 The first volume of the IABSE Publications (AIPC M´emoires, IVBH Abhandlungen) appeared in 1932 after the Paris Congress. These volumes published papers on scientific and technical matters, some of which were from the Congresses, but which could not find space in the Congress Report. They were costly to publish and therefore sold only slowly, and so a first proposal was made to increase the membership fee to include the purchase of the Publications at the Permanent Committee meeting of 1939 in Zurich.267 The idea was unpopular and therefore postponed until later. In the 1974 revision of the bylaws a decision was taken to simplify the Association’s publications by collecting all excepting the Congress Reports themselves under a single heading, the Periodica.

Structural Engineering International, 10th anniversary cover 121 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Bulletin, 1933–1977 The 1932 meeting of Executive Committee in Munich decided to publish biannual Bulletins to: “review the work of the Association and to contain further information of a technical, scientific nature that might be of interest to the members.”268 The first appeared on September 15th, 1933 and appeared thereafter yearly until 1938 (and not biannually as had been decided), and subsequently only three times in 1941, 1947 and #9 in 1949, after which it resumed annual publication. Besides reporting the activities of the Executive and Permanent Committees, the Bulletin printed a bibliography of the most important professional publications until 1948 (in Bulletin #9) after which it published only a bibliography of member’s papers and books269 as well as extensive information on notable structures.270 The Bulletin was often the first place the newest structural developments could be found. For instance it was one of the earliest journals to publish Robert Maillart’s Schwandbach Bridge271 and his Felsegg Bridge over the Th¨ur272 both in 1931, as well as many other novel steel and reinforced concrete structures.

Membership List, from 1932 Complete lists of the members were published sporadically from 1932 onward. The archive has lists for 1932, 1952, 1958, 1960–1963, bi-annually for 1979–1991, and 1994–2002, after which it was replaced with an online membership directory.

Technical Dictionary, 1935–1941 and from 2008 The Association decided at an early stage to publish a technical dictionary in the three official languages of IABSE. This ambitious project was reported in the early issues of the Bulletin.

The work was laborious and in 1935 the suggestion was made to abandon the project because of its expense,273 but it was continued for a time and the first few pages were published in Bulletin # 6 in 1939,274 which, however, only actually appeared early in 1941.275 The project later disappeared and was resurrected in the form of a multilingual translator as part of the experimental e-Learning Project in 2008.

Reports of the Working Commissions (IABSE Reports), from 1965 Apart from a short-lived publication known as Documentation that is only briefly mentioned in several of the Permanent Committee minutes in the 1950s, the Publications (Memoirs), Congress Reports, and Bulletins were the only IABSE publications until 1965 to which the Reports of the Working Commissions, today simply called IABSE Reports, was added. Most, but not quite all of these resulted from the yearly symposia and the many colloquia. Numbers 1, 7, and 18 were for instance, authored independently of a meeting, and number 35 was issued by the Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS). The series that was originally proposed

by Georg W¨astlund (then chair of Working Commission 3276 ) has been successful and popular over the years as it contains all the materials of the symposia among other topics and deals with specific topics in far greater depth than individual papers or congress sessions could. The first was on structural precast concrete. It was originally prepublished as a supplement to the preliminary report for the 1964 Rio de Janeiro Congress and edited by Guido Oberti. Many, like the second on wearing surfaces for steel bridge decks of lightweight construction that resulted from the 1968 New York Symposium and was published by Working Commission 2 122 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

with Hermann Beer as editor, were written in cooperation with other organizations. The Berlin Colloquium Reports was the first to be published as a volume of abstracts with full versions on a CD-ROM. This became the standard format from the 1999 Malm¨o Conference onward.

Periodica, 1977–1990 In the course of the reorganization of 1974 at the meeting of the Permanent Committee in Quebec under President Cosandey, the Bulletin and Publications (Memoirs) were replaced by the quarterly Periodica in 1977 that encompassed five sections in a folder: Surveys, Journal, Proceedings, Structures, and Bulletin. In addition to this reorganization and replacement, the Reports of the Working Commissions and the Congress Reports continued to be published separately.277 Proposed by chair of the Publications Committee J¨org Schneider, the idea behind the change was that the folder was to be a working document rather than a collection, and the intention was to allow the recipient in an engineering office to distribute each section separately to the person directly concerned with its content: the Surveys were directed chiefly at the practicing engineer; the Journal published articles on the organization, the running, and the economical aspects of planning and building structures; the Proceedings published theoretical and research articles and building processes; Structures dealt with interesting new projects; and the Bulletin reported on topics of interest in the Association and contained a calendar of events. One of the main reasons for the change was the substantial reduction in production costs with the adoption of the new technology of camera-ready manuscripts and offset printing. As it turned out, however, librarians experienced difficulty in cataloging the Periodica’s five documents and the folder each quarter. The publication also proved more expensive than expected, and thus a simpler system was sought, which eventually led to the creation of Structural Engineering International (SEI) in 1991.

Structural Engineering International, from 1991 In 1991 under the presidency of Hans von Gunten, a single journal was founded to replace the Periodica with its own Editorial Board that reported to the Publications Committee with J¨org Schneider as Chair who carried his function over from the original Publications Committee (1979–1993). He was followed by Eugen Br¨uhwiler (1993–2001), Simon Bailey (2001–2009), and H. H. (Bert) Snijder (from 2009). Apart from the simpler organization and library cataloging, a single, glossy journal could also defray the cost of publication by selling advertizing space.

The SEI provided information under the rubrics: – “Structures Worldwide”, devoted to specific types of structures, or structures in a given country, or recent and outstanding structures in all parts of the world; – “Science and Technology”, containing research based papers—reviewed by international experts, under the guidance of the Publications Committee; – Technical articles, reports and notes, as well as news from IABSE and other associations; – Advertisements278 ; – President John M. Hanson introduced the “President’s Corner” in 1993 as a way of intensifying contact with the members.

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SEI aimed at becoming the premier professional journal by reserving pages for the Liaison Committee in the hope that the journal could also serve other organizations, but this did not materialize. SEI also had correspondents from 17 countries. In 2002 an online version was added to make the Journal available electronically and on paper and in 2006 SEI ’s production process was fully digitised and typesetting and copy-editing tasks were outsourced to India.

This was a significant step in IABSE’s management of the journal. In 2007, all SEI back issues from 1991–2001 were also digitized and made available online for members and subscribers.

All these steps enhanced the journal over the years. The journal prospered and to celebrate its 20th year, the following changes were foreseen: supplement the Editorial Board by an Advisory Board, a new front cover, and addition of abstracts of doctoral theses as a new rubric. In 2009, an online paper submission and review system was started. Apart from the approximately 4000 members, over 100 universities had joined as subscribers, which increased IABSE’s visibility to thousands worldwide.279

Structural Engineering Documents, from 1982 The SEI is supplemented by a monograph series, the Structural Engineering Documents (SED). It was originally established by J¨org Schneider for the Executive Committee as an irregular publication in 1981;280 the first two appeared in 1982, the third in 1987, the fourth in 1993, and the fifth in 1997. The idea in the 1990s was that the SED were to be an ongoing effort to publish studies that were too lengthy for inclusion in SEI. In 2000, the Technical Committee received a mandate from the Executive Committee to establish it as a series.281 Manfred Hirt, who was chair of the Technical Committee at the time, worked for several years to develop the SED and establish an editorial board. The objective was “to provide in-depth information to practicing structural engineers in the form of reports of high scientific and technical standards on a wide range of structural engineering topics.”282 One of the reasons given for the change was the idea of mentoring that: “SEDs could also encourage younger members to work together with more experienced members of IABSE.”283 The first volume after this new start appeared as SED 6 in 2002, and the corresponding SED Editorial Board was set up the following year with Goeff Taplin as chair.

In contrast to the IABSE Reports that are either conference proceedings or are group authored, the SEDs are usually written by a single person or a very small number of authors and deal with specific topics that may be the result of individual efforts or of a Working Group or Task Force. Like the IABSE Reports, the SEDs are a professionally useful and popular series.

Website, from 1996 IABSE was not at the forefront of Internet use in the late 1980s. However, the spread of the Internet from the USA abroad was rapid and the Association quickly became a mainstream participant. It is difficult today to imagine the rapidity of the development. In 1995 the Secretariat used email for the first time, and only on a single computer.284 This was quickly remedied, and the first website was set up the same year, on a single Apple computer with the help of a Ph.D. student at the ETH. By then, IABSE possessed its own Apple server for the web, database, and network.

A second-generation website came online in early 2004 under President Manfred Hirt, and all servers including the web server have since been hosted at the Eidgen¨ossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) with client support. This was the point at which IABSE changed from 124 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Mac-based to Windows-based systems. Both the website and the database were redesigned at that time by a professional firm, featuring an intranet for members and committees, with membership directory and access to entire SEI journal articles online. This redesign came with improved navigation capability, an online shop and online registration for conferences, banner advertising, and a user-friendly content management system (CMS) tool that allowed the Secretariat to update the site.

The public part of the site, outside the member-access area, remained essentially unchanged.

Improvements over the years have included free e-Learning with lecture series (from 1993)285 including web casting, short courses, videos, and animations related to structural engineering.

As of 2010, a redesign of the website is in the planning stage.

IABSE Newsletter, from 2001 Since October 2001, Marketing and Communications Manager Sissel Niggeler edits a monthly electronic newsletter that records news from IABSE activities, members, committees, National Groups, as well as other relevant technical and nontechnical news and is sent to all members by email.

e-Learning, from 2007286 The e-Learning project is, as of writing, still in an experimental phase. It originally developed out of the 1993 so-called “Five-Day Workshops” organized on “The Design of Structural Concrete” by J¨org Schlaich in New Delhi. An idea was floated to hold similar workshops subsequently in Cairo, which proved, however, not possible. As a result, in a memorandum “Information Technology and IABSE Lecture Series” dated 1999, Mourad Bakhoum suggested the publication of such events as well as other offerings on the Internet. Another workshop on structural and construction safety organized by J¨org Schneider and Gilson Marchesini in Brazil in 2001 provided impetus to the idea.287 James Garrett proposed the establishment of a lecture series on the Internet to the Technical Committee in spring 2006 and the following September, the IABSE Foundation agreed to fund the idea, then called “IABSE Lecture Series on the Internet,” and Marchesini convinced Schneider to initiate the series by recording his 2001 Brazil workshop lectures.

A committee consisting of Schneider, Bakhoum, and Tobia Zordan worked to record the series, which resulted in a CD in December that year. Schneider, who supported the initiative from the outset,288 proposed naming the fledgling effort “IABSE e-Learning,” analogous in concept, but wider in scope than the e-learning course that the British Standards Institution had developed in 2006 to introduce industry to the structural Eurocodes, and a first web event was launched in April 2007 with intensive advocacy in the Foundation by Klaus Ostenfeld and in the Technical Committee by Fernando Branco.

The project functions as a subcategory of IABSE’s website under the e-Learning Board suggested by Schneider and established in 2007 under the chairmanship of Mourad Bakhoum.

The e-Learning site’s main objective is to provide an additional forum for public information exchange and the communication of structural engineering knowledge. It uses the most up-todate technology with the goal of helping IABSE to reach a wider audience in fulfillment of its missions and objectives. The project is supported by the IABSE Foundation that provides funds 125 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

for recording keynote lectures at IABSE events, scanning articles for IABSE publications, and for the purchase of software.

Today the “IABSE Lecture Series on the Internet” remains an important component of this project, but e-Learning now also includes videos of construction and animations of structural behavior and erection, as well as links to websites that are relevant to the profession, and it features a multilingual dictionary begun in French, Italian, German, and English by Manfred Hirt, Rinaldo Passera, and J¨org Schneider in 2008 and with Fernando Branco providing Portuguese definitions since then.

Membership From the outset, engineers and interested persons and organizations from all countries were eligible for membership in IABSE. However, immediately after World War II on October 4th, 1946, the Permanent Committee that met with only the members of the allied and neutral countries present (without members from the USSR who had been invited but had not replied) expelled all members from the Axis countries and those that had supported them during the war.289 The main Axis countries were Germany that had annexed Austria, Italy, and Japan, with secondarily Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. These had been supported by Finland and Thailand (then Siam), and the Axis-created countries of Croatia, Manchukuo (Manchuria and Inner Eastern Mongolia), Slovakia, and Vichy France. The exclusion of nations was then partially reversed on March 8th, 1948, when the Permanent Committee voted to readmit members from Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Finland,290 and then the exclusion of German and Japanese members finally revoked in the 17th meeting of the Permanent Committee held on April 28th, 1951 in Lisbon. Bulgaria, Romania, and Thailand were not mentioned, and the other countries had disappeared as independent nations.

As far as membership categories are concerned, the Permanent Committee distinguished between Individual and Collective Members from 1929 onward. Between 1929 and 1955, the Collective Members had a minimum of two associative members, additional associative membership could be purchased. As from 1956 associative membership no longer existed.

Later the Permanent Committee established the distinction of Honorary Member from 1949 to recognize the dedicated service of long-standing members. In 2001 the category of IABSE Fellows upon recommendation was established. Today members qualify for Fellowship if they have been an individual member for more than eight years, are at least 45 years of age, or have been a member of a committee and/or have published an article in an IABSE publication, and hold, or have held, a position of responsibility and contributed significantly to the profession on a national or international level. Upon accepting the designation, the Fellows demonstrate their special dedication to IABSE and their desire to support and mentor promising young engineers through the services of the Association. An IABSE Fellow, who contributes higher fees as support, is entitled to all the benefits of an Individual Member.

Briefly two further categories, lifetime member and associated member, existed, the first of which was never implemented, but these categories disappeared again. Today, anyone who possesses appropriate structural engineering knowledge and who is willing to support the Association’s objectives may become an Individual Member of IABSE. Students may apply for individual membership too. Individual members pay an annual fee depending on their age: under 35, between 35 and 65, and over 65 years of age.

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In recent years there appears to be a decline in membership growth. One of the reasons may be the free availability of IABSE information via the Internet. The membership seems to decrease as the openness to IABSE’s information grows, which means that an engineer no longer has to become a member to participate in the information the Association collects and generates. However, as IABSE Past-President Maurice Cosandey correctly points out, numbers may be a good thing for an association, but to what end? The important question to ask of membership is what it is that makes an organization attractive to its members? It is certainly not the attempt to establish a doctrine of how a structural engineer functions, but to exchange ideas. This cannot be accomplished efficiently through the Internet in an abstract fashion; it requires personal contact,291 which supports the mentoring function that the Fellows perform and that formed such an important part of IABSE in the early years. Thus, the issues of membership as well as event definition and organization to enable such contact and mentoring are inextricably linked, and this role is properly the domain of the Technical Committee and Executive Director in conjunction with the National Groups who should be the recruiters of members.

Apart from the Individual Membership, organizations can be Collective Members if they have appropriate structural engineering interests, such as universities, qualified firms, libraries, or public authorities, public entities, etc.

The issue of female membership in IABSE is an interesting question. All building fields, among them civil and structural engineering, have been traditional male professions in almost all societies and this is only gradually changing. The architecture profession has led the way in this development, and the engineering fields are only slowly following suit. There have historically been few women members of IABSE. The first, and the first to be elected member of the Executive Committee in 1946, was Lily Gretener who, however, was the Association’s secretary and not an engineer. Then a Miss R. Steinemann from Zurich, whose first name is not known, was a registered participant at the Cambridge Congress in 1952. It is not known, although conceivable that she was an engineer as she was registered under her own name. The first clear proof of an active woman engineer in IABSE was Maria Em´ılia Campos e Matos who registered as an attendee of the Lisbon Porto Congress in 1956 accompanied, as the participant list declares, by her husband. She was followed by Caterina Manuzio at the London Symposium in 1969.

There are only a very few earlier women members in any building-related association. Since then female participation in IABSE and especially the number of distinguished women members has slowly increased parallel to the number of women graduates in the field. In 2009 there were 149 women members of a total of about 4000, which is still a minute percentage. Robert Silman once raised the issue of female participation in IABSE and suggested the institution of quotas for committee membership, a typically American solution. However, this idea was unacceptable especially to the European members because it did not propose a way to guarantee the qualitative criteria of committee member choice. The development, they felt, should be voluntary and grow with a natural increase in the number of women engineers,292 and it seems that no other attempt has ever been made by the Association to recruit women members actively—not even by the US Group, which one might expect to be more proactive than others in this regard.

Fees and Finances The finances of IABSE have always been restricted as they are closely tied to membership: the primary source of income is the fees paid by members. The membership fees were originally set at CHF 10 for individual and “at least” CHF 50 for collective members in 1929 and 127 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

this remained unchanged until at least 1949.293 In 1959, the Bulletin reported the fees as CHF 15 for individuals and CHF 75 for collective members.294 The first request for the reduction of membership fees came in a letter to the British Group from the Indian Group in 1961 that requested an “easing of the payment of subscriptions for aged members.”295 This request was rejected at the meeting of the Permanent Committee in 1962 in Vienna.296 It took a further 35 years until the question was resolved satisfactorily. In 1966, the fees were raised to CHF 25 for individuals and 100 for collective members. A yearly individual fee of CHF 40 was considered to be a limit, as there were many members from less affluent countries for whom this presented a real hardship. The arguments for and against a sliding scale were discussed for years. In 1994 the issue was put to a vote in the Permanent Committee. IABSE Vice-President J¨org Schneider addressed the meeting on the issue, noting that several of the National Groups supported the idea of a two-tier fee structure, and he pleaded for a positive vote in the name of solidarity.297 The motion passed and differentiated membership fees were introduced the following year with the object of rendering it more affordable for engineers from economically less favored countries to become members. At the time the fees were set at were CHF 40/180 for individuals and 400/500 for collective members.

The finances of the Association were marginal in the early years. Publication of the Publications (Memoirs) was expensive and especially stretched the budget. This threatened to compromise the coordination work of the general secretaries. In 1939, the Executive Committee therefore proposed to include the purchase of the Publications in the cost of membership, raising the yearly membership fee thereby and guaranteeing thus the “sale” of a large part of the printing.298 This had been proposed as early as 1935.299 As of a tally in April 1939 there were 866 individual, 195 collective, and 548 associated members (the last a category that no longer exists) representing 48 countries,300 so that the funds of the Association seemed assured. This was to change drastically during the war years.

Membership fees were thus used for publications and to pay expenses, not for salaries or honoraria. At the beginning, all work was pro bono including the Secretariat. The first parttime Secretary of the Association was Pierre E. Soutter who was at the same time part-time Secretary of the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects SIA. It is unknown who paid the first salaried part-time office secretary, the indispensible Lily Gretener, but it may have been President St¨ussi from his professorial office budget. The reason that Zurich was chosen for the Secretariat was officially the neutrality of that country in World War I, but the ETH was welcome as it was the base of the first and subsequent presidents who could support the infrastructure. IABSE was welcome in Switzerland because it enjoyed the patronage of the President of the ETH Board (Alfred Rohn) and later the Rektor (Fritz St¨ussi) for decades. The general secretaries and presidents, all of whom were ETH professors until 1966 and again from 1977 to 1993, could continue to subsume the costs of running the Association and the cost for space unofficially. The Association was thus “grandfathered” for free at the ETH, and no one seemed to mind that the private association IABSE was hosted by the ETH—it had always been so.

The offices were apparently first located in the attic of the main building and then in a threeroom apartment in a small, nearby building on the Haldeneggsteig 4 that probably belonged to the ETH. In March 1976, the office moved with the engineering department and the Institut f¨ur Baustatik und Konstruktion (IBK), the institute that was created to encompass the research programs of the structural engineering chairs, to the new ETH location outside of the city center at the H¨onggerberg, still free of charge. Executive Secretary Alain Golay had requested 128 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

to remain in the city center but was informed that the Haldeneggsteig building was to be torn down for the construction of the new IT center and that IABSE could either move to the H¨onggerberg with the Engineering Department or look for new space elsewhere that it would have to pay for itself. As IABSE finances did not allow for office rent at the time, the decision was an easy one.301 It was only after the IABSE bookkeeper absconded with virtually the entire Association capital in 1987, and that this had been reported in the Zurich newspapers as a “theft at the ETH,” that the university’s financial officer made enquiries and discovered the situation. From then onward, the Association paid rent!

When Maurice Cosandey was elected IABSE President in 1966 he found chaos in the finances.

Especially his predecessor St¨ussi had taken out loans to fund the Rio de Janeiro Congress in 1964302 and had apparently extravagantly promised the Executive Committee members free first-class flights to Rio! By then both IABSE membership, and the financial obligations of the Association had grown, and the office staff was paid, so funds had to be found immediately to keep the Association afloat. Ernst Gehri, the part-time Secretary who had jumped in to help St¨ussi when Lily Gretener retired, still worked pro bono. His salary came from his “daytime job” with the firm Alusuisse. The entire editing and publications work was managed by an 80-year-old retired electrical engineer, Richard L¨ossl who had returned home from his career in Greece.

As soon as he took over, President Cosandey recognized the untenable state of affairs. Gehri helped as much as he could, substantially aided by Angelo Pozzi whose strength lay in management. The three were quickly able to reestablish the financial viability of the Association

by September 1966303 that thereafter functioned on a solid foundation. Gehri left the office at the end of 1970 and Cosandey contacted his former student Alain Golay who was working for a year in Japan and managed to get him to come for an interview when the latter returned to Switzerland. Cosandey convinced Golay to accept the position and start in January 1971 and he was able to obtain funds to pay part of a salary. The rest came from Golay’s half-time job at the engineering firm Elektrowatt AG. Between them, Cosandey and Golay managed to put the Association back on a firm footing.

Since then, IABSE has functioned solidly—with one major mishap: this most traumatic event in the financial history of the Association, that could easily have led to its demise, was the embezzlement of almost CHF 480,000, which then represented virtually the whole capital of the Association, by the bookkeeper. The crime had been so cleverly executed between the year that the employee had been hired (1980) and mid-1987 when the theft was discovered304 that neither the Executive Director nor the Executive and Administrative Committees, or even the internal and external auditors—whose job it was—had detected it until the criminal absconded. Through hard bargaining by then President von Gunten with the auditing company’s insurance and the bank, almost CHF 450,000 of the missing funds were eventually recouped from various sources and the financial stability of the Association reestablished.305

IABSE Honors, Awards, Distinctions, and Prizes The award program began in 1938 with the Honorary President Distinction, but has grown since then to encompass a total of seven distinctions, with the young engineers contribution award financed by the IABSE Fellows, and one more distinction awarded by the IABSE Foundation. All the official IABSE Awards are today presented at the opening ceremony 129 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

of a symposium or congress. The recipients of the following awards are listed in the Appendix.

Honorary President, 1938–1993 The Honorary President designation was first awarded at the Permanent Committee meeting in Cracow on the proposal of Vice-President Moritz Kl¨onne to Alfred Rohn upon his retirement as president in 1938306 and has been awarded five times since then. Since 1993 and the limitation of the tenure of IABSE Presidents first to four and then to three years, the Honorary President Distinction has been rolled into the Honorary Membership category.

Honorary Member, from 1949 Honorary membership is awarded to long-standing individual members who have rendered exceptional service to the Association either through leadership, the organization of a congress or symposium, or through committee service.

International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering, from 1976 The International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering is presented to members for outstanding contributions in the field of structural engineering, with special reference to usefulness to society. Fields of endeavor may include planning, design, construction, materials, equipment, education, research, government, or management.

IABSE Prize, from 1983 The IABSE Prize was established to honor and encourage a member early in his or her career for an outstanding achievement in structural engineering. The award is conferred on an individual member, 40 years of age or younger.

Outstanding Paper Award, from 1991 The Outstanding Paper Award is remitted each year to the author(s) of a paper published in the preceding year’s issues of the IABSE Journal Structural Engineering International, thus encouraging and rewarding journal contributions of the highest quality. The first Outstanding Paper Awards were presented in 1993 for the years 1991 and 1992.

Outstanding Structure Award, from 2000 This award recognizes the most remarkable, innovative, creative, or otherwise stimulating structures completed within the last few years or mostly completed by the time of the award ceremony. Record dimensions such as span, length or height are not necessarily criteria for the choice, but respect of the environment is a concern. Structures are usually typical engineering structures, such as bridges, towers, or roofs, but they may also be buildings designed in close collaboration with structural engineers. It is presented at irregular intervals and consists of a diploma each for the engineer, the architect, the contractor, and the owner, as well as a plaque to be displayed at the winning structure.

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Bridge designer Christian Menn, President Klaus Ostenfeld and Project Manager Jakob B¨anziger at the plaque presentation of the Outstanding Structure Award to the 1998 Sunniberg Bridge, Klosters in 2001 Young Engineers Outstanding Contribution Award, from 2002 This distinction was initially not an IABSE Award per se, but one that was established within the Young Engineers Program and has become increasingly important over the years. It recognizes two outstanding conference contributions presented by Young Engineers (under 35). The award consists of a diploma and prize money. The recipient is chosen by an adhoc jury originally chaired and selected by Anton Steffen, and more recently by the chair of the Scientific Committee of the conference. It is awarded at the closing ceremony of the corresponding event. From 2002 to 2004 the awards were sponsored 50% by, National Groups or by the Organizing Committee and 50% by the IABSE Fellows; since 2009, they have been funded exclusively by the IABSE Fellows.

IABSE Foundation Award Anton Tedesko Medal, from 1998 Anton Tedesko, whose name is also written “Tedesco” (1903–1994) was an outstanding engineer, eminent designer, and builder of innovative structures, one who with a warm human touch had given guidance and strength to many in the profession.

In order to honor the memory of this prestigious structural engineer, IABSE member, and teacher, the IABSE Foundation Council created the Anton Tedesko Medal in 1998.

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Anton Tedesko (1903– 1994), concrete engineer and specialist in thin-shell construction

It is presented to a distinguished laureate structural engineer in recognition of his or her life achievement, and at the same time it provides a CHF 25,000 fellowship for a study leave to a promising young engineer to gain practical experience in prestigious engineering firms outside his or her home country. Like the IABSE Awards, the medal is presented at the opening ceremony of a conference.

The first Anton Tedesko Medal was presented to Alexander Skordelis in 1998

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Chapter

9

The Sociopolitical Aspect: Personalities and Activities of Influential Contributing Members of IABSE This chapter contains the brief biographies and contributions of those particularly active members who have shown themselves to be preeminent among the many who substantially contributed to the foundation and development of IABSE in the early period and to its subsequent expansion internationally. Among them are the presidents, but also many others who have supported them and often taken the initiative in the growth and changes in the Association. Biographies can tell us a great deal about an association: we know, of course, that professional judgment impacts a development, but we tend to forget that personalities and individual tendencies that sometimes lie seemingly far from the profession can also impact judgment and decision making, frequently even more decisively than facts. This is why such biographies, here listed alphabetically, can supplement the bare facts of a development.

The year 2010 will see the inauguration of IABSE’s 12th President. Over the decades there has been a change in the presidential term. At the outset it was unlimited; then it was reduced to a single four-year term in 1974 and further reduced to a single three-year term in 1990. This has impacted the personal input of the president into the development of the Association. Furthermore, the presidents were at first invariably Swiss academics, most from the Eidgen¨ossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich (except Charles Andreae—a former ETH professor—and Maurice Cosandey from the EPFL Lausanne) until John M. Hanson was elected in 1993. This has also changed the development and the culture of the Association, as the early presidents were all Swiss academics and military officers, which gave them a unique form of sociopolitical cohesion, which formed a common cultural background that is not shared by other nations.

Many key personalities who contributed to the development of IABSE are not to be found in the following biographies although they would fully merit inclusion. It was difficult to limit their number, and I chose to concentrate chiefly on those early persons who are less familiar to today’s members, but a further expansion of this section would simply burst the bounds of this study and constitute a separate book. Among those who should be included would be all honorary members as well as many others. Some of the names that come to IABSE Vice-President Josef Aichhorn from Austria, British Group Secretary Robert Milne, and Executive Director Alain Golay on a technical site visit to the cable spinning of the Humber Bridge in Hull, 1975 135 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

mind—and this is by no means an exhaustive list—are Jean-Claude Badoux, Eugen Br¨uhwiler, Sudhangsu Chakraborty, Pierre Dubas, Gerard Fox, Aksel Frandsen, Niels Gimsing, Paul Grundy, Tippur Subba Rao, S´ergio Marques de Souza, Elmer K. Timby, Georg W¨astlund, Bernard Wex, and Loring Wyllie Jr., all of whom have been influential contributors to the development.

Andreae, Charles (1874–1964), 2nd IABSE President (1938–1951) Born in largely French-speaking Neuchˆatel and raised in German-speaking Bern, Andreae, the second president of IABSE, graduated from the ETH in civil engineering in 1898. His professional specialty was railway and tunnel construction. From 1898 to 1907 he worked on various engineering projects, and then from 1907 to 1913 on the south ramp of the L¨otschberg Railway. From 1913 to 1918 he was the chief engineer on the northern section of the second Simplon Tunnel in Switzerland. Andreae gained the venia legendi in railway and tunnel construction at the ETH in 1918 and became lecturer while continuing to work in practice. In 1921 he was appointed professor for the same Charles Andreae (1874– field. From 1924 to 1928 he also served as president of the SIA 1964), tunnel engineer, 2nd (Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects). In 1926 he was elected ETH Rektor (provost), and in that role he served IABSE President as cohost of the 1926 TKVSB (Technische Kommission des Verbandes Schweizerischer Br¨uckenbau- und Stahlhochbau-Unternehmungen) conference in Zurich. Between 1926 and 1948 he published three books on tunneling that became classics in the field. Andreae subsequently took a leave of absence from the ETH to respond to a call as Head of the Royal Technical University in Giza in 1928 and then subsequently joined Cairo University where he served as Dean of Engineering from 1935 and consulted on several Egyptian projects before retiring to Zurich in 1937 to devote himself again to practice. Although Andreae came from tunneling, a field that was not represented in IABSE, he succeeded Arthur Rohn as president of the Association the following year. In his obituary, Fritz St¨ussi described him as modest and yet determined,307 and that characterized his dogged work in keeping IABSE afloat during the war years. His facility in all three official IABSE languages was invaluable to the Association.

During his presidency (1938–1951), Andreae was open-minded in his professional involvement in the Association and did not impose his own interests, such as tunnel construction, on IABSE. He gently guided the Association through the war years and reestablished it in 1946. His personal modesty and international experience in several cultures and his linguistic abilities stood him in good stead in this difficult period. He presided over the preparation for one congress in Warsaw that never took place, presided over that in Li`ege in 1948, and prepared one for Cambridge/London in 1952. During his term, the Axis countries were first excluded from IABSE after the war and Finland, Italy, Hungary, and Austria were subsequently readmitted in 1948. The Honorary Membership and Honorary Presidency were also introduced during his term in office. Upon his retirement in 1951 prompted as St¨ussi wrote, by the workload of the Li`ege Congress in 1948,308 Andreae was awarded the Honorary Presidency on the proposal of Vice-President Louis Cambournac.

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Bleich, Friedrich (1878–1950) Together with Gaston Pigeaud and Mirko Roˇs, Friedrich Bleich was a member of the 1928 initiating ad-hoc committee at the Vienna conference that led to the founding of IABSE the following year, and was thus one of the five founding fathers of the Association. Together with the other two, he wrote the first draft of the Association’s bylaws and served as Austrian delegate to the founding Permanent Committee meeting together with Fritz von Emperger.

Bleich studied civil engineering at the TH Vienna, graduated in 1902, and from 1902 to 1906 he found employment in several bridge companies until he founded his own consultancy in 1910.

Also in 1910 he cofounded the journal Der Eisenbau with which he remained associated until it ended publication in its 13th year during the inflation in 1922. He lectured at the TH Vienna until he finished his Ph.D. there in 1917 with a thesis on Der Viermomentensatz und seine Anwendung auf die Berechnung statisch unbestimmter Tragwerke under Friedrich Hartmann.

From 1918 onward he published several books dealing with statics and steel structures and contributed to influential work on the plasticity of steel that later led to the theory of plasticity.

As a Jew, Bleich fled from Vienna to Zurich after Germany annexed Austria in 1938, quite probably with the help or at least the support of IABSE Past-President Rohn who was still president of the Swiss Board of Higher Education (Schweizerischer Schulrat) at the time.

Bleich then resigned from his position as Technical Advisor and thus his membership of the Executive Committee of the Association.309 It is not known why Bleich, who had been one of IABSE’s founding innovators, resigned his post as Technical Advisor, which he had held since 1929, as this position was not tied to a national representation. At any rate he never participated again in IABSE after 1938, although his son Hans H. Bleich was a member from the USA.310 This may have been due to the fact that refugees were not allowed to work in Switzerland—even in pro bono work. From Zurich he emigrated to Detroit in 1941 and then to New York. He worked for several firms in the USA, notably the architecture and engineering firm Albert Kahn in Detroit. He also continued his theoretical work for the US military and studied the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge after 1940.311

Brunner, Ueli (b. 1957), Executive Director from 2005 Brunner graduated in 1981 from the ETH Zurich in civil engineering and worked as assistant to Professor Hans Hauri at his alma mater (1981–1984) and as project engineer with ACSS AG in Zurich (1984–1985). In 1986 he graduated with a Masters of Business Administration from INSEAD in Fontainebleau after which he worked in management internationally for several firms in building materials and components, and in ventilation (1986–2005) before being chosen by President Manfred Hirt to succeed Alain Golay as IABSE Executive Director. During his first years at IABSE, Brunner concentrated on the introduction and development of computer- and web-based services. He considers the Ueli Brunner (b. 1957), IABSE outsourcing of the production of the IABSE journal Structural Executive Director from 2005 Engineering International (SEI) to India as one of his most important achievements to date, because it freed up capacity for other projects and developments. Digitizing the IABSE publications archive from 1929 to 1999, and making it available online for free gave IABSE worldwide publicity and visibility, and created lots of goodwill for IABSE. 137 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Bryła, Stefan (1886–1943) Stefan Bryła was born in Cracow and graduated from the Imperial Technical University of Lemberg (later Lwow, Poland, now Lviv, Ukraine) in 1908. He subsequently continued his studies in Berlin, Paris, and London before finishing his Ph.D. in Lemberg in 1909. In 1911–1913, a decade before Asger Ostenfeld, he traveled around the world to gain experience of what other countries were building, during which time he briefly worked on the construction of the Woolworth Building, the world’s tallest at 57 stories, in New York (1912).312 In 1927 he became professor at his alma mater, the Lwow University of Technology, and in 1934 at the Warsaw University of Technology. He was known as a specialist in construction and a pioneer of welding. Bryła designed the world’s first welded road bridge, a small truss in 1927, which was built two years later (around the same time that the Deutsche Reichsbahn built its first near M¨unster in Westphalia),313 over the Słudwia Maurzyce River near Łowicz and that still stands at a new location as an engineering monument, as well as several others between 1927 and 1932.

Stefan Bryła (1866–1943), one of the most active early Association members

He also designed several completely welded building frames in the same time period that were among the earliest to be built in Europe, including the 16-story Prudential Building in Warsaw in 1932.314 During World War II, the German occupiers of Poland banned all higher education for “non-Aryans” on pain of death. Bryła was caught teaching in one of the “secret universities” and was shot in December 1943 as part of the Nazi “Aktion AB” (Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion—Extraordinary Operation of Pacification), a project to murder or deport Polish intellectuals to concentration camps.315 Bryła was a founding and very active member of IABSE from 1929 onward. He served as chair of the Polish Group, as IABSE Vice-President (1936–1945), and as designated

Stefan Bryła’s Łowicz Bridge, built in 1927 was the world’s first completely welded bridge 138 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

organizer of the planned 1940 Warsaw Congress. Bryła had indeed been one of the most prolific members in the first years of the Association and had contributed five papers to the Paris Congress and three to Berlin. Two further papers were published in the Publications, and a number of his built works had been presented in the Bulletin. He had also published over 150 papers in the field of statics as well as construction, was editor of the Polish Engineer’s Handbook, and author of travel reports from America and Asia.316

Cambournac, Louis (1886–1973) ´ Cambournac graduated from the French Ecole nationale des ponts et chauss´ees in 1911 and began working for the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Nord a few weeks before World War I broke out in 1914, during which he built bridges for the military in France. At the end of the war, he became more and more influential in the reconstruction and modernization of the northern tier of the French railway system with emphasis on the role of concrete and welded rails. The tests on concreteencased rolled steel beams that he carried out in 1927 and reported on at the IABSE Paris Congress in 1932 were among the early such examinations.317 Cambournac became professor at his alma mater, was personnel director of the French railway system, and president of the French Society of Engineers. Elected IABSE Technical Advisor in 1939 and then Louis Cambournac (1886– Vice-President in 1949, Cambournac was awarded Honorary 1973), French railway engiMembership in 1963.318 In 1950 Cambournac was appointed neer and early researcher in together with President Andreae and Ferdinand Campus to composite construction represent IABSE at an UNESCO meeting to establish a committee of international technical associations, the UATI in Paris, where he was elected its president.319 Following this, his role in support of St¨ussi in the foundation of the Liaison Committee in 1958 was of particular note in the development of the Association.

Campus, Ferdinand (1894–1983) ´ Born in Brussels, Ferdinand Campus graduated from the Ecole polytechnique of Brussels in 1914 in civil engineering. He then continued his studies at the University of Li`ege and obtained a second degree in electrical engineering in 1919. He subsequently worked for two years in the Belgian Highway Administration before being appointed Technical Director of Public Roads, Railways, and Postal Services for the Sarre region where he remained until 1926, having been appointed professor at the Technical Faculty of the University of Li`ege, in charge of the newly founded Institute for Structural Engineering the year before. He also later founded the Testing Laboratory for Structural Engineering, Construction, and River Hydraulics. Campus retired from the university in 1964. His broad interests ranged from material science and construction to analysis of reinforced concrete, steel structures, and welding, to hydraulics, soil research and foundations, highway engineering, to the composition and longevity of concrete in hydraulic works and dams.320 As his French colleague, the bridge builder Albert Caquot wrote on the occasion of Campus’s 70th birthday: “[His] high level of professional culture gave him a 139 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

general and yet precise overview of all those physical and chemical qualities that limit our understanding. In particular his knowledge of the elasticity and plasticity of materials and of fluid mechanics enabled him to advance our knowledge in that so complex area, the behavior of solids.”321 Campus put this broad range to good use in his teaching at the University of Li`ege, and was elected Rector (provost) in 1950. Campus was also a cofounder of RILEM in 1947 and became its president in 1949.

Campus was one of the founding members of IABSE and remained continuously active for almost 30 years from the Association’s founding in 1929 and until 1957. He organized the Li`ege Congress in 1948, served as Belgian delegate to the Permanent Committee and as technical advisor from 1929 Ferdinand Campus (1894– to 1946, and then as vice-president from 1946 to 1957 when 1983) he was awarded Honorary Membership. At 18 years, Campus was, next to Pigeaud and Kl¨onne, the longest serving member of the original Executive Committee.322 In 1930, as organizer of a structural engineering conference as part of the centenary celebrations of Belgium’s independence, Campus petitioned IABSE’s Executive Committee with Pigeaud’s support to make sure that the Association would guarantee equal importance to both steel and concrete research and practice, thus adding a material-based emphasis to the Association’s central focus on Roˇs’s duality of research and experience. In this, he contributed substantially to the culture of the Association that still resonates today. He was able to convince the Permanent Committee to make this a priority while planning the first 1932 Congress in Paris.

However, it was not only in the professional sphere that Campus exerted influence on the young Association but also in its political development after World War II when he organized the third (and first post-war) congress of 1948 in Li´ege. As an influential member from a conquered country, he fulfilled a delicate role in the organization of this congress that excluded members from the former Axis countries. His job was made all the more difficult by the decision first to exclude members from Austria, Finland, Italy, and Hungary under Andreae’s presidency in 1946 and then readmit them in 1948, while still banning those from Germany and Japan (who were only readmitted under President Fritz St¨ussi in 1951). He also participated in the final reconciliation in 1954 when the former German Vice-President Moritz Kl¨onne was reelected to the Executive Committee. The Swiss members of the Executive Committee, especially President Andreae, who had guided the Association through the war years and kept it alive, had refrained from influencing the discussion in 1946 as their country had escaped the war unscathed, and it fell to Campus and the Dutch members two years later to formulate a partial readmission policy that the Permanent Committee then implemented. Campus’s tribute at the opening session of the Li`ege Congress to the Polish member Bryła, who had been shot by the German occupiers in 1943, demonstrated his balanced approach to a difficult political situation.

Combault, Jacques (b. 1943), 11th IABSE President (2007–2010) ´ Combault earned his Masters in engineering from the Ecole centrale lyonnaise in 1967. He subsequently worked with the Entreprise Campenon Bernard (1967–1993) in Florida with 140 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Jean Muller and as Technical Director of Vinci and then of Finley Engineering Group since 2005. He played a major role in the construction and design of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, the Brotonne Bridge over the Seine, the IABSE Award-winning Rion-Antirion Bridge in the Gulf of Corinth, and the world’s longest cable-stayed span, the Sutong Bridge, another IABSE Award-winning structure, over the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province, China. Combault has taught at ´ the Centre des hautes e´ tudes de la construction, the Ecole ´ nationale des travaux publics, the Ecole sup´erieure des travaux ´ publics, and the Ecole nationale des ponts et Chauss´ees since 1988 and was named professor there in 1996. At IABSE, Combault served as vice-chair and then as chair of Working Commission 3 “Concrete Structures” from 1993 to 2001 and Jacques Combault (b. 1943), as chair of the 2005 Symposium in Lisbon. From 2001 to 2006 cable-stayed bridge specialhe was IABSE Vice-President. Among several honors, he was ist, 11th IABSE President awarded the FIB Medal of Merit in 2004, and above all, named Chevalier de la L´egion d’Honneur in 2009 by the French President on the recommendation of the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development, and Land Management.

Under his presidency (2007–2010), Combault presided over the 2008 Chicago Congress and the 2008 amendment to the bylaws.

Cosandey, Maurice (b. 1918), 4th IABSE President (1966–1977) Maurice Cosandey joined IABSE just after the World War II in 1948 when the world was opening up once again to international collaboration. While the Association was more an academic organization under the preceding three presidents, Rohn, Andreae, and St¨ussi, under Cosandey, a practicing engineer and only in later professional life an academic, it developed to include practice-oriented directions.323 This observation, made by Yukio Maeda in an interview with President Hans von Gunten, stood in marked contrast to the theoretical concerns of presidents such as St¨ussi and later Bruno Th¨urlimann.

An internationalist by nature and education, Cosandey worked in practice for many years before joining the EPUL (Ecole Maurice Cosandey (b. 1918), polytechnique de l’Universit´e de Lausanne) in Lausanne as expert in steel construction, professor for steel and wood construction. In 1963 he became 4th IABSE President its president as it prepared to transform into the new federal institution, EPFL (Ecole polytechnique f´ed´erale de Lausanne) in 1969. He successfully guided the transition and furthered its internationalization. Like Rohn before him, Cosandey was also president of the ETH Rat (the successor to the Schweizerische Schulrat) from 1978 until 1987.

It was St¨ussi who proposed Cosandey as his successor as IABSE President. The tradition had hitherto been that the president was chosen from among the engineering professors at the ETH in Zurich, but as the only logical choice at the time would have been Th¨urlimann and St¨ussi 141 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

was at odds with him both personally and in regard to their opinions about engineering theory, St¨ussi traveled to Lausanne and presented his case to Cosandey.324 It must have been difficult for St¨ussi who was used to commanding rather than requesting, and with some hesitation, Cosandey, who had more professional administrative positions than he was comfortable with, agreed. As he modestly claimed in an President Hans von Gunten and Yukio Maeda in 1993 dis- interview in 2010, he was cussing Past-President Maurice Cosandey’s contribution to chosen president by default.

IABSE However, this masks the truth, as his recognized sterling qualities as negotiator and administrator convinced the Permanent Committee and he served the Association well during his tenure and may even have saved IABSE from financial collapse. The official version as recorded in the minutes of the Permanent Committee and published in the Bulletin was that “Other Swiss engineers had also been taken into consideration, but they were not in a position to become candidates, owing to lack of time.”325 As IABSE’s fourth president (1966–1977), Cosandey was first faced with the financial chaos left by his predecessor and he considered it his prime duty to rectify the situation. He managed to put the Association on a solid footing and then hired Golay in 1971 to help consolidate and regularize the situation and develop the Association further with input from ETH professor Angelo Pozzi.

The social role of traditional Swiss military connections is not to be underestimated here.

St¨ussi, Cosandey, and Pozzi were all colonels and Golay a captain at that time. This established a recognizable sense of reliability, a common socio-professional bond that fostered trust, and this trust enabled St¨ussi to approach Cosandey to accept the presidency and Cosandey then to call upon Golay for help in the reorganization and stabilization of the Secretariat, and subsequently upon Pozzi to help develop the revision of the bylaws in 1974. This revision was without doubt Cosandey’s greatest contribution to the Association.

Cosandey presided over the congresses in New York (1968), Amsterdam (1972), and Tokyo (1976). His conviction that the primary role of IABSE lay in its congresses and publications gave an impetus to the issue of communication of information and contact between professionals. However, while supporting communication, Cosandey was also aware that speed of communication is not a quality per se; it is depth of information and its communication that he advocated and continues to advocate. Cosandey was convinced that the role of the president was to facilitate these activities and not to impose his own concept on IABSE. That role, he stated belonged to the members and the only reason that earlier presidents had exerted more influence on the issues discussed by the Association was that they had remained longer in office.326 He therefore consciously did not involve himself in the activities of the Technical Committee that took on the role of developing the Association’s goals in 1975, although he did insist on keeping the focus of the Association open at the highest possible standard of 142 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

professional discourse. In this view, he was supported by eminent senior members of the Association such as Fritz Leonhardt.327 Through Cosandey’s conviction, IABSE reverted to the open-minded tradition that presidents Rohn and Andreae had originally established,328 and he was able to reduce the tensions that St¨ussi’s presidency had incited. Although an excellent organizer and administrator, Cosandey was always of the opinion that: “The spirit with which one works is even more decisive than the written word.”329 The internationalization of the Association was another of Cosandey’s concerns. It was this, he knew, that would guarantee IABSE’s survival. The scale had changed at which the Association functioned. Up until his predecessor, St¨ussi’s presidency, a few high-caliber dedicated individuals could carry the whole discourse. From the mid-1960s onward, the number of high-level researchers and practitioners proliferated and only a true internationalization of the organization could carry the development forward and guarantee IABSE’s relevance.

Upon his retirement from the presidency, he was awarded both Honorary Membership and the Honorary Presidency in 1977. During his term in office, recognizing that the activities and scope of IABSE had broadened and changed, the organization of the Association and its bylaws were revised for the first time at the meeting of the Permanent Committee in Quebec in 1974.

The Technical Committee and the Working Commissions and Task Forces were created. Term limits for all positions were defined. The Bulletin and Publications (Memoirs) were replaced by the Periodica that encompassed Surveys, Journal, Proceedings, Structures, and Bulletin. The general secretaries were replaced by the chair and secretary of the Technical Committee and opened to non-Swiss members. The technical advisors (originally named scientific secretaries) became members of the Technical Committee and the secretary became the executive director.

The International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering was also introduced in 1976 during Cosandey’s term in office, and the Tokyo Congress logo was adopted as the IABSE logo in 1976. In his proposal of Cosandey for the Honorary Presidency, Vice-President Elmer Timby cited many of these developments and wrote: “The Members of IABSE can anticipate that the Presidency of Professor Cosandey will eventually prove to have been a beneficial transition in form utilizing the best of the old as a base to support a timely and distinguished scope and character of future activities.”330 As of the date of writing, Cosandey is not only the oldest but also the longest serving member ever in the history of the Association, having participated actively from 1948 onward.

Edlund, Bo L. O. (b. 1936) Edlund received a civil engineering degree at Chalmers University of Technology, G¨oteborg in 1960. After employment as a research and teaching assistant he worked as a structural engineer at two consulting engineering firms in G¨oteborg in the mid-1960s. He was appointed university lecturer in Steel and Timber Structures at Chalmers during which time he earned his Ph.D. in 1974. He was then appointed professor of Steel and Timber Structures at his alma mater (1981–2001) and served as head of the Structural Engineering Department and as chair of the School of Civil Engineering’s Board of Education.

Edlund’s fields of research include steel structures, their stability problems, thin-walled structures, bridges and fatigue, 143 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Bo Edlund (b. 1936), one of the most active members of the Association

timber structures, especially their behavior and the bearing capacity of glued elements, as well as computer-aided engineering.

He has been a member of IABSE since 1971 and has served on Working Commission 2 “Steel, Timber and Composite Structures,” which he chaired from 1987 to 1991. He also chaired the Technical Committee (1995–1999), the Administrative Committee (1995–1999), and was IABSE Vice-President (1999–2007). Aside from these official positions, Edlund has worked as a long-standing reviewer for SEI and assisted on seven Scientific Committees: Luxemburg 1985, Stockholm 1986 (where he served as chair), Helsinki 1988, G¨oteborg 1993, Lisbon 1997, Lahti 2001, and New Delhi 2005.

Faltus, Frantiˇsek (1901–1989)

Frantiˇsek Faltus (1901–1989) in later years (1980), one of the world’s eminent structural welding pioneers and the first Permanent Committee member from Czechoslovakia— today the Czech Republic

Frantiˇsek Faltus was born in Vienna as the son of a draftsman.

He graduated in 1924 from the Technische Hochschule Vienna, like Friedrich Bleich before him, and joined the firm of Waagner Biro while completing his Ph.D. a year later in 1925.331 The next stage of his career was associated with the ˇ Skodov´ ymi (Skoda) plants in Pilsen where he first worked in the bridge-building department and then as director of the welding division. In 1931 he designed a welded steel bridge near the Skoda Works, and in 1933 a road bridge over the Radbuza River in Pilsen (now known as the Tyr Bridge), which, like Bryła’s Łowicz Bridge of 1927, were among the world’s earliest welded bridges.

In 1945 he was appointed professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering CTU in Prague where he founded the School of Civil Engineering’s Department of Steel Structures, which he headed until his retirement in 1973. In this period, he continued to be involved in the most important steel structures in Czechoslovakia, including the world’s longest, 330-m welded span over Moldau Reservoir near Zd´akov. In 1953 he became a corresponding member of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Faltus was one of the founders of modern steel construction and, like Bryła, a pioneer of welded steel structures.

A founding member of IABSE, Faltus attended the preparatory conference in Vienna in 1928 and the 50th Anniversary Congress in the same city in 1980. He was Czech representative to the Permanent Committee and very active in its deliberations. He presented papers at every congress from Li`ege in 1948 until New York in 1968. In 1975 he was awarded Honorary Membership for his contributions.

Golay, Alain (b. 1943), Executive Director (1971–2005) Trained as a civil engineer at the EPUL (later the EPFL) in Lausanne under Cosandey from 1962 to 1966, Alain Golay graduated in 1967. At the EPFL he specialized in transportation engineering and led a group of EPFL transportation and urban specialists on a six-month study tour in Algeria. While at the University of Tokyo for a one-year urban and regional planning 144 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

and transportation research grant in 1970–1971, he was contacted by President Cosandey and became 50% secretary of the Association under him in 1971, becoming full-time executive director in 1975 when that post was created under the bylaw revision of 1974. When Golay arrived, the staff consisted of a part-time secretary, a part-time editor, two typewriters, and a mimeograph machine, which was a hand-cranked predecessor of our modern copiers with violet matrices and purple ink all over the copies if one was not careful. The Association served about 2000 members at the time, and boasted several negative financial accounts. When Golay retired, the Secretariat employed six persons from five countries, had eight computers, fax and copier machines, three printers, and a website, serving about 4000 members.332

Alain Golay (b. 1943), IABSE Secretary and then Executive Director (1971–2005)

In 1971 his first job was to help President Cosandey and Pozzi secure the financial viability of the Association. Then, recognizing that good communications were crucial to the functioning of the Association—especially with the president living several hours away in Lausanne, Golay farsightedly requested one of the first fax machines to be installed in Switzerland in 1971 at the now exorbitant-seeming price of CHF 10,000. Needless to say, it was only purchased later after prices had fallen. Over the years, he worked closely with J¨org Schneider on many projects and championed innovation in IABSE, proposing many ideas himself. For instance, he was convinced of the need for a long-range development plan, an idea that he had brought back to Europe from a meeting of the American Society of Association Executives. Among the many other innovative projects he was intimately associated with, Golay was instrumental in implementing ideas for a Technical Committee and the Working Commissions, Task Groups and Ad-hoc Groups, the differentiated membership fees and categories, the development of the publications, the Structural Engineering Documents, the IABSE Award Program, the Internet homepage, the interassociation conferences, and the IABSE Foundation. His particular gift was the ability to “assemble the elements necessary for situation assessment, thus facilitating quick decisions.”333 As executive director, Golay had to deal with many difficult situations both personal and organizational. One of his goals that he was unable to realize during his long-term service to IABSE was to bring a number of international associations in the field of civil engineering closer, grouped under the umbrella of the Liaison Committee. He gave an 18-month notice of his intention to retire early to facilitate the transition of both the executive director and president positions and retired in 2005 after 34 years with IABSE, having served, formed, and guided the Association under seven presidents. Golay was awarded Honorary Membership in 2005.

Gretener, Lily (1903–1966),334 Secretary (1931–1964) Gretener was the first part-time secretary hired by President Rohn and the part-time executive secretary Soutter in 1931 to help coordinate and staff the Secretariat. She was born in Germany of Swiss parents and returned to her native country with her parents in 1919 after World War I to attend the commercial division of the girls’ high school (H¨ohere Tochterschule) in Zurich from which she graduated in 1922. She divided the next three years equally between the French part of Switzerland, Italy, and Great Britain to improve her linguistic skills while still 145 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

occasionally working in her father’s office. Her duty at IABSE from the outset was to handle all the routine administrative assignments.

Gretener managed the Secretariat single-handedly during World War II while volunteering for war work in Switzerland, and she was particularly concerned for the members in the combatant countries as well. In recognition for this work, she was promoted as head of the Secretariat in 1946 when Soutter left and was elected as member of the Executive Committee when it was reconstituted under President Andreae, the only woman ever elected to that body to date and, save Gaston Pigeaud, Moritz Kl¨onne, and Ferdinand Campus, its longest continuously serving member (1946–1963). Her familiarity Lily Gretener (1903–1966), with the Association, its history, and its problems as well as the Association’s indispens- her language skills made her invaluable in resurrecting IABSE able Secretary and in guiding it in its daily management, avoiding many problems before they became apparent to others. Gretener was devoted to IABSE and always looking to enhance its status. As an example, when she was approached by Schneider as a young professor in 1967 who wanted to attend the New York Congress, she replied that he might only attend if he were to become an IABSE member!335 She also worked well with President St¨ussi, but the stress of organizing the first non-European congress in Rio de Janeiro proved too much for her health—President St¨ussi’s financial irresponsibility may possibly have played a part as Gretener was known to be extremely conscientious in the execution of her duties—and she was forced to leave in 1964 before the congress opened, although her resignation was effective only the end of that year. She had guided and helped form the Association for a total of 33 years.

von Gunten, Hans (b. 1930), 6th IABSE President (1985–1993) Hans von Gunten graduated from the ETH in civil engineering and earned his Ph.D. in 1960 with Henry Favre after working as assistant and on his dissertation under Pierre Lardy. After Lardy’s death, von Gunten took over his courses until 1960.

He then went into private practice in Bern and Brig until 1968.

He began teaching at the ETH in 1966 where he became full professor in 1969, Head of the Institut f¨ur Hochbauforschung (HBF) in 1969–1979, Head of the Architecture Department in 1972–1974, and Head of the Institut f¨ur Hochbautechnik (HBT) in 1977–1979. From 1983 and until his retirement in 1995 he served as ETH Rektor. Von Gunten was president of the Standeskommission (Professional Committee) of the SIA and member of the board of the ETH Alumni Association Hans von Gunten (b. 1930), (GEP). He contributed to the International Relations Committee of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences. Von Gunten 6th IABSE President is Honorary Member of SIA, GEP, and IABSE. A member of the Association since 1960, von Gunten served as technical advisor to Working Commission 1, then as general secretary (1968–1975), later secretary to the Technical Committee 146 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

(1975–1979), Administrative Committee (first 1975–1979, later 1985–1993), and as chair of the Scientific Committee for the 1979 Zurich Symposium before being elected president.

During his term as president (1985–1993), von Gunten presided over the congresses in Helsinki in 1988 and New Delhi in 1992. The first long-range plan was adopted, and the bylaws were revised again in 1993, the presidency internationalized, and the IABSE Foundation created.

The journal SEI was launched and the Outstanding Paper Award was also introduced during his term in office. After his term of office as president ended, von Gunten was awarded both the Honorary Presidency and Honorary Membership in 1993. Subsequently, from 1993 to 1995 von Gunten served as the first president of the IABSE Foundation that he had cofounded.

The internationalization of the Association was a priority for President von Gunten and could give rise to delicate political problems on occasion. He remembers an issue over flag raising, when the Republic of China (Taiwan) raised its flag at a conference and participants from the People’s Republic of China (Beijing) protested and threatened to withdraw. President von Gunten refused to participate in the dispute, stating that IABSE was not a political but a professional organization that had as its goal international understanding. He regretted the threat of the PRC delegates, but it was their decision and he would not change his stance. PastPresident Bruno Th¨urlimann was able to negotiate a political compromise and the delegation stayed.336 This incident strengthened the traditional insistence not to show any national symbol on IABSE publications or invitations. Von Gunten’s insistence on internationalization was based on his recognition of a growing trend toward globalization—not yet the fashionable buzzword it later became—and a radical departure from earlier practice in the administration of IABSE. It also flew in the face of conservative members of the Swiss group as well as many others who felt that the Swiss had done a good job so far; their culture had formed the association to a large extent, and they should therefore continue to administer the Association.

Hanson, John M. (b. 1932), 7th IABSE President (1993–1997) Hanson earned his BS in civil engineering from South Dakota State University in 1953, his MS in structural engineering from Iowa State University in 1957, and his Ph.D. from Lehigh University in 1964. His specialty is forensic engineering. Hanson joined IABSE in 1982. Aside from IABSE where he is an Honorary Member (awarded upon completion of his term of office as president in 1997), Hanson served as IABSE Vice-President (1989–1993) and is member of ASCE, ACI, PCI, and ICRI (International Concrete Repair Institute).

After the revision of the bylaws of IABSE under a committee headed by Klaus Ostenfeld in 1990, Hanson became the John M. Hanson (b. 1932), first non-Swiss president of IABSE. Under the term of his 7th IABSE President presidency, the IABSE Foundation was created in 1993 and the differentiated membership fee scheme was introduced in 1995 that opened up membership to young engineers and to those from economically disadvantaged countries, and that also retained retired members. The long-range plan was revised in 1996 to make IABSE “the premier organization in the world in structural engineering.” Hanson also began communicating regularly with the membership through the “President’s Corner” in the Association’s new 147 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

journal SEI. As a result of the election of a nonresident president, the Administrative Committee grew more prominent in the day-to-day running of the Association.

During Hanson’s presidential term he presided over the congress in Copenhagen 1996. The following year 1997 also saw the first Inter-Association Conference in Innsbruck in which the Liaison Committee nominally played an important role. Three new committees were established during his term: Ethics, Membership, and Public Affairs.

Hanson introduced, among other American concepts, the position of president-elect to guarantee a smooth transition between administrations. This made continuity between the tenures of successive presidents stronger because the era of long-term or multiple-term presidents was now over due to the limitation to a single, four-year presidential term introduced in the bylaw revision of 1990 that was subsequently reduced to three years in 1999. At the end of his term as president in 1997, Hanson was awarded Honorary Membership.

The voting procedures Hanson introduced were American and hardly understood by members from other countries. They were characterized by the introduction of strictly formalized procedural methods, and “Robert’s Rules of Order” as well as the “ABC of Democracy”337 became important US-based manuals during his presidency. This strict governance by majority was a complete departure from the far less confrontational form of governance by consensus and compromise that had been the Swiss-dominated style from the beginning of the Association. This is the point at which the Association began to decrease its reliance on Swiss sociopolitical culture and replace it by a growing form of international culture, at that time strongly defined by US political mores and practice.

Hirt, Manfred A. (b. 1942), 10th IABSE President (2004–2007) Hirt graduated from the ETH in civil engineering in 1965 and worked in engineering design at the firm Basler & Hoffmann in Zurich from 1965 to 1967 before earning his Ph.D. at Lehigh University under John W. Fisher in 1971.

He then worked with the firm Howard Needles Tammen and Bergendoff in New York City and as consultant and forensic engineer at the EPFL under Jean-Claude Badoux, becoming a member of IABSE in 1972. In 1992 he became professor and director of the Steel Structures Laboratory (ICOM) at the EPFL. He was head of the Civil Engineering Manfred A. Hirt (b. 1942), Department from 1997 to 1999, and is especially known for his expertise in the field of fatigue and fracture mechanics 10th IABSE President of steel structures, loads and action on structures, structural safety and serviceability, and steel-concrete composite construction. Hirt joined IABSE in 1972 and has held many functions within the Association: technical secretary of Working Commission 2 “Steel, Timber and Composite Structures,” member of the Publications Committee and of several Scientific Committees at the conferences, as well as vice-chair of the Scientific Committee at the Shanghai Symposium in 2004. He also was chair of the Technical Committee (1999–2001), vice-president (2001–2003), and member of the Administrative Committee (2000–2007). He was awarded Honorary Membership in 2008.

148 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

During his presidency (2004–2007), Hirt paid great attention to the development of the membership, especially the Young Engineers Program that he had previously helped establish and that he developed into its present form, and to the financial stability of the Association together with Golay, introducing the concept of contracting event organizers. He recognized the need for the congress format that had been discontinued in 2004 and reintroduced it, preparing the Chicago Congress of 2008 that took place under his successor. The transition from Executive Director Alain Golay to Ueli Brunner took place in his term with the corresponding development of the administrative focus toward increasing IABSE’s Internet presence.

Ito, Manabu (b. 1930), 9th IABSE President (2001–2004) Ito graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1953 and earned his Ph.D. and joined the faculty there in 1959, with promotion to full professor in 1972. His doctoral thesis “Applicability of railway suspension bridges” influenced the realization, among others, of the Honshu–Shikoku Bridge. His areas of specialty are the analysis and design of cable-stayed bridges and wind effects on long-span bridge structures. He joined IABSE in 1960 and became a very active member producing many papers at congresses and symposia. Author of many papers and six books on a wide range of structural topics, notably on structural dampening and wind effects, Ito remained at the University of Tokyo until his retirement in 1991 when he was awarded Professor Emeritus status.

After retirement he taught at Saitama (1991–1996) and then at Takushoku Universities (1996–2001), and served as Manabu Ito (b. 1930), expert technical advisor to Chodai Consulting Engineers on their in cable-stayed bridges, 9th largest Japanese engineering projects, the Honshu–Shikoku IABSE President connection including the world-record span of the AkashiKaikyo Bridge. He also consulted on five large steel cable-stayed bridges in the Yokohama and Nagoya Port areas including the Tatara Bridge, the world’s longest span cable-stayed bridge of its day. He was also involved in the design of the Stonecutter’s Bridge in Hong Kong, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay East Bridge, the Ting Kao Bridge in Hong Kong and the world-record, cable-stayed Sutong Bridge over the Yangtze in Suzhou. Ito remained an independent consultant after his second retirement. He was a board member of the Engineering Academy of Japan, the Japan Bridge Engineering Center, and the Japan Steel Bridge Association.

Ito was intimately involved with the organization of the Tokyo Congress in 1976, and also chaired the Organizing Committee for the Kobe Symposium in 1998. Ito was chair of the Japanese Group for about ten years until 1999, chair of Working Commission 1, and vicepresident of the Association in 1989–1997. He was awarded many honorary memberships including Honorary Membership of IABSE in 1998 and the International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering in 2007.

Manabu Ito was the first non-Western president of the Association. Although during his presidency (2001–2004) no congress was held for the reasons cited above in the discussion of the symposia, the symposia were strengthened correspondingly and the Young Engineers Program established.

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Jutila, Aarne (b. 1940)

Aarne Jutila (b. 1940)

Born in Helsinki, Jutila received a civil engineering degree from Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) in 1966 with a major in bridge engineering. He then continued his studies with Th¨urlimann at the ETH Zurich and later worked as bridge designer at Kjessler and Mannerstr˚ale AB in Stockholm and Tapiola. He was subsequently appointed assistant lecturer at Queen’s University in Belfast and worked as section chief at the Finnish Road Administration’s bridge design office (TVH) in Helsinki before founding three consulting engineering companies. In 1984 Jutila was appointed professor of Bridge Engineering at his alma mater TKK where he remained until retiring in 2008. Since then, he has worked as managing director of Extraplan Oy, one of the engineering consultancies that he founded in 1977.

Jutila joined IABSE in 1967 and held numerous functions within the Association over the years: secretary of the Finnish Group (1972–1988) and chair from 1988 to the present.

He served as vice-chair of the Organizing Committee of the 1988 Helsinki Congress, SEI Correspondent, and member of the Editorial Board (1991–2000), chair of the Scientific Committee of the Lahti Conference in 2001, and IABSE Vice-President (1999–2007). Aarne Jutila continues his engagement in the Association as member of the Permanent Committee and of the Foundation Council Board, the Advisory Board to the Executive Committee, and as member of Working Group 3 “Guidelines for Design Competitions for Bridges.”

Karner, Leopold (1888–1937)338

Leopold Karner (1888– 1937), the first IABSE General Secretary and one of the five initiators of the Association (Schweizerische Bauzeitung 1937)

Born in Vienna, Karner graduated as a civil engineer in Graz in 1911 and then became an assistant at the university for a year before working in the bridge divisions of the Karlsh¨utte in Austria and Silesia, then in those of the Gutehoffnungsh¨utte and Harkort, both in the Ruhr region in Germany until 1922.

In that year he was appointed Director of Steel Construction in the firm of August Kl¨onne in Dortmund, from where he was called to the ETH in Zurich as full professor in 1927. Originally his chair encompassed “Statics, Structures and Bridge Construction in Wood and Iron” and it was later renamed “Statics I and Steel Construction.” From 1928 onward he also taught aviation engineers and served as advisor to the Swiss government’s aviation industry. Karner, a gregarious personality, was known as a devoted teacher and mentor, and it is notable that Ibrahim A. El-Demirdash, professor at the Fouad I University at Gisa and later founder of the Department of Aeronautics at Cairo University, dedicated a paper in the IABSE Publications (Memoirs) (vol. 9, 1949) to the memory of his mentor.

Karner himself published papers dealing with both theoretical and practical issues and built or designed many bridges, notable among them is the 1927 railway bridge over the Rhine near 150 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Wesel (for the firm August Kl¨onne) with steel Vierendeel trusses. As ETH professor he served as consultant for the municipal gasholders in Schlieren (Zurich), the Dreirosen Bridge, the widening of the Wettstein Bridge (both in Basel), and the planning of the hall of the ETH’s machine laboratory. From 1935 until his untimely death he was president of the Steel and Concrete Construction Group of the SIA. At the constituting meeting of 1929, Karner was elected the first general secretary of IABSE and used his excellent working relationship with President Rohn and his former employer, Vice-President Kl¨onne, his organizational talents, and his broad professional contacts in support of the Executive and Permanent Committees to canvass members internationally, encourage the formation of National Groups, organize the central Secretariat, and establish its financial viability. It was Karner’s sociable nature—similar apparently to Roˇs’s—and his organizational abilities that assured the Association’s strong initial development. When Max Ritter was subsequently elected the second secretary general for concrete construction to help carry the heavy workload, Karner continued to take responsibility for steel construction as well as the Secretariat and together with part-time IABSE Secretary Pierre E. Soutter from 1931 and backup help from Ritter, he organized the first two congresses in Paris in 1932 and Berlin in 1936. He is one of the five founding fathers of the Association.

Karner’s death was at the time partly attributed to the political stress and overload of organizing and carrying out the Berlin Congress, and it was also purported to be a contributing factor to Rohn’s decision to relinquish the presidency in 1938.

Kl¨onne, Moritz (1878–1962) Kl¨onne was an engineer and an industrialist who was codirector of the steel and bridge contractor August Kl¨onne, a firm that had been founded by his father in Dortmund as well as a member of the Reichstag for the right-wing Deutschnationalen Volkspartei from 1924 to 1930.

After an apprenticeship as steelworker he studied law in Munich and then structural engineering in Hanover. He graduated in 1904 and spent the next year gaining practical experience in firms in England and Holland. In 1905 he joined the family firm, taking over the codirectorship with his brother in 1908. He built the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne and the ship lift in Niederfinow as well as the longest steel bridge of its day over the Rhine at Wesel. The firm also built structures in the Netherlands and Chile.

Moritz Kl¨onne (1878–1962), German steel engineer and industrialist, one of the first three IABSE Vice-Presidents

Kl¨onne was a founding member of the Permanent Committee in 1929 and one of the first IABSE Vice-Presidents from 1929 until World War II. It was his influence together with that of Wilhelm Petry that made the German Group one of the largest in the early years of the Association. Germany sent the most delegates (five) of any country to the 1931 meeting of the Permanent Committee. After the debacle of the planned Rome Congress in 1935, Kl¨onne convinced the German government to host the event in 1936 and organized it in a mere four months. He was politically a conservative and obviously influential in official circles. Excluded from membership as a citizen of one of the Axis countries from 1946 to 1951, he was reelected vice-president in 1954 and remained in that position until his death 151 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

in 1962, as the longest serving member of the Executive Committee together with Pigeaud (who served continuously, however) for a total of 19 years. Members working in reinforced concrete felt that together with President St¨ussi, Kl¨onne reinforced the bias of IABSE toward steel construction. This had already led to the founding of CEB before Kl¨onne was reelected to the vice-presidency in 1954,339 and apparently many felt that this tendency was even stronger thereafter.

During the Nazi period he withdrew from active politics until 1940 when he joined the NSDAP and the SS, but according to Wikipedia retained contact with military resistance groups throughout the war years, and apparently promised Generalstabschef des Heeres Franz Halder (1884–1972) his support should there be a military revolt.340

Kokubu, Masatane (1913–2004) Kokubu was born in 1913 into a Samurai family and graduated in 1936 as a civil engineer from Tokyo University. He subsequently worked for seven years in the Department of Public Works in Tokyo before becoming Associate Professor at his alma mater in 1943, working simultaneously on his Ph.D. which he obtained in 1949. Thereafter in 1950 he was promoted to full professor and he remained in that position until his retirement in 1974, after which he was awarded Masatane Kokubu (1914– emeritus status and named professor at Musashi Institute of 2004), specialist in concrete Technology where he remained until 1984. Kokubu’s main construction and seismic professional interests lay in the field of concrete construction, especially in dam and nuclear reactor construction and in the stability related issues of prefabrication and seismic stability. From 1949 to 1951 Kokubu was director of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) and subsequently a prominent member of many of its committees. From 1974 to 1975 he was president of the Japan Concrete Institute of which he was a founding member, and in 1979 he was elected president of JSCE. Internationally, Kokubu worked with RILEM, ASCE, ACI (of which he was named Honorary Member in 1974), and IABSE. From 1967 to 1977 Kokubu was a member of IABSE Working Commission 3, and in 1976 he chaired the Steering Committee for the IABSE Congress in Tokyo. Upon the expiration of his membership in Working Commission 3, the Executive Committee appointed Kokubu member ad personam (“Permanent Guest”) of the Technical Committee.341 He became president of the Japanese Group of IABSE and Japanese member of the Permanent Committee in 1981 and was IABSE Vice-President for two terms, 1983–1989. In 1986 he was awarded the IABSE International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering.

Maeda, Yukio (1922–2005)342 Maeda graduated in civil engineering from Hokkaido University in Sapporo in 1945 where he became Associate Professor in 1948. From 1955 to 1956 he studied at the University of Illinois in Chicago and worked at Skidmore Owings and Merrill until 1958 and then at the steel bridge company Sakurada Machine Industries in Tokyo as technical director until 1966. In that year he received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo and became Associate Professor at Osaka University. He advanced to full professor there in 1969 and stayed until he retired with 152 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

emeritus status in 1985. He then became professor at Kinki University in Osaka until 1989 and after having published many books and papers worked as a consultant in his capacity as one of Japan’s leading steel constructors. He designed and built many steel and composite bridges including the Ohmishima Bridge as the first steel arch on the Honshu–Shikoku connection. He was the recipient of many government and professional honors in Japan. Maeda was especially active in Japanese-German relations.

Maeda joined IABSE in 1965 and Working Commission 1 in 1971 and served as its chair from 1979 to 1983. He also served as vice-chair of the Technical Committee (1983–1987) and as Yukio Maeda (1922–2005) its chair (1987–1991). At the end of his tenure he was elected Honorary Member in 1991. Maeda was also involved in organizing the Tokyo Congress in 1976 and was chair of the Scientific Committee for the 1986 Tokyo Symposium. He collaborated with Schneider in many committees and on many projects including the organization of the 1986 symposium in Tokyo. Maeda’s humor and social skills in the tradition of Roˇs and Karner were much appreciated in IABSE.

Oberti, Guido (1907–2003) Oberti held two Ph.D. degrees from the Milan Polytechnic University, one in engineering and one in applied mathematics. He taught first at his alma mater and then at the Turin Polytechnic University. Together with his mentor Arturo Danusso he began developing a laboratory for testing models for the cement industry in Bergamo in the 1930s that became ISMES (Experimental Institute for Models and Structures) in 1951 and he remained the institute’s director until he left to join the engineering faculty in Turin in the 1960s. After Danusso’s death in 1968, Oberti followed him as president of ISMES. Danusso and Oberti developed elastic model testing in contrast to Torroja’s limit state models in Madrid, and they Guido Oberti (1907–2003), tested all of Nervi’s structural models in micro-concrete and specialist in elastic model collaborated with him on many structures. Oberti was awarded testing, director of ISMES ACI Honorary Membership in 1981. In IABSE he authored many papers on concrete and model testing, served for many years as chair of the Italian Group, and organized six IABSE events at ISMES in Bergamo and one in Venice on concrete, safety, and computers in engineering between 1974 and 1989. He was awarded IABSE Honorary Membership in 1979 and received the International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering in 1983.

Ostenfeld, Asger (1866–1931) Although he was not a member of the ad-hoc initiating group in Vienna because he was prevented from personally taking part in that conference,343 Ostenfeld was a close friend of Roˇs (his son Christian Ostenfeld later became Roˇs’s assistant at the ETH) and an enthusiastic 153 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

and active organizer of IABSE. He founded the Danish group as the first National Group in December 1929 and was a Danish delegate to the first Permanent Committee.

Ostenfeld graduated in 1890 from the Polyteknisk Læreanstalt in Copenhagen (that later became DTU Danmarks Tekniske Højskole and then Universitet) where he had been most attracted to mathematics and geometry, but less to building.344 After graduating, Ostenfeld first worked for the firm Blom Asger Ostenfeld (1866– & Hvidt on the Slagelse-Næstved Railway but left the same 1931), early concrete theore- year and returned to Copenhagen to study mathematics and tician as a young man. One of take a position as assistant to Professor L. F. Holmberg in the two first Permanent Com- 1891 at the Polyteknisk Læreanstalt where he published his mittee members from Den- first paper on graphic statics “Grafisk Statiks Anvendelse p˚a mark and an enthusiastic de simpleste Brokonstruktioner” and remained until he was supporter of the Association appointed docent (lecturer) in mechanics in 1894. At the same time he continued theoretical studies on his own and worked in practice for Copenhagen’s Municipal Engineer and the Harbor Authority where he built bridges in the tax-free harbor. During this time Ostenfeld also undertook study trips to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, and North America. In 1900 he was named professor of Technical Mechanics, which in 1905 became the chair of Statics and Steel Structures.

This change was important as it documented the entrance of practical construction into the hitherto exclusively theoretical teaching at the Polyteknisk Læreanstalt,345 and it assured the future excellence of structural engineering teaching in Denmark. Ostenfeld was among those at the forefront of the development. Anker Engelund, later also Danish delegate to IABSE’s Permanent Committee, was his assistant (1914–1922). As professor, he also consulted, especially on bridge projects, and traveled extensively and repeatedly to study advances in the field of steel construction, particularly bridges, to France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Silesia, and Western Prussia. This, like Bryła’s travels a decade earlier, was unusual at the time.

In 1921 Ostenfeld undertook a lengthy trip to the USA and he founded the Laboratory for Building Statics in 1926, an idea he had first floated in 1912,346 and withdrew from active teaching to devote himself entirely to research.347 During his time as professor, Ostenfeld sent many students abroad to study, especially to the USA. His international outlook is well documented.

According to his son,348 Ostenfeld was not a man who enjoyed representational participation in associations. Although he took the initiative in founding the Danish Association for Building Statics in 1928 and the Danish Group of IABSE in 1929 and served as their presidents until his death, he never held an official position in Denmark’s Dansk Ingeniørforening, nor did he in IABSE. He evidently preferred for the most part to work in the background and serve as chair of various working committees within such organizations.

Ostenfeld, Klaus H. (b. 1943), 8th IABSE President (1997–2001) The Ostenfeld family is unusual in IABSE history, as it has been involved for over four generations with the Association from that day to this. Asger Ostenfeld’s son Christian, 154 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

the founder of COWI, and grandson (Christian’s nephew) Klaus were to become prominent members, the latter as IABSE President, and Klaus’s son Jens is a current member.

Klaus Ostenfeld is thus a member of the oldest family of continuous members of IABSE. He graduated from the Danish Technical University (DTU) in 1966 and joined IABSE in 1978. He worked as bridge engineer in France, the USA, and Canada before joining the firm COWI in 1977 where his specialty has been long-span suspension and cablestayed bridges. He has been responsible for the Lillebælt, the Storebælt, and the Øresund Bridges and Crossings. He Klaus H. Ostenfeld (b. 1943), was also involved in the Normandie cable-stayed bridge in 8th IABSE President France. He became chief executive officer of COWI in 2000.

Ostenfeld was also vice-president of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences and is an Honorary Member of IABSE. Before his tenure as IABSE President, he served as member of the Working Commission 5 “Design Methods and Processes” (1987–1993) and as vicepresident (1993–1997).

As president, Ostenfeld worked to make the Association and structural engineering generally more visible to society at large, to communicate the field better to the world, and demonstrate the positive contributions of structural engineering to the improvement of daily life worldwide, and, as he said: “I have been thinking about how the Association can preserve its uniqueness, and how to make it stronger in the competitive environment. The engineer wanting to get a comprehensive view of structures in their environment and as an element in society should look for IABSE. . . . When society is concerned about structural problems, for example protection of public safety, risks and durability, it should feel comfortable to ask the specialists within IABSE. We are here to help answer questions, to be visible, and to provide specific and correct answers to the best of our knowledge.”349 Indeed, this aspect of public service had already been pointed out by President Hans von Gunten in 1993.350 As a European, President Ostenfeld espoused a “softer” form of democracy in decision making than his predecessor Hanson by the reintroduction of the concepts of consensus and compromise. He conducted a successful revision of the bylaws in 1990. At the Executive, Administrative, and Technical Committee Meetings on March 12th–14th, 1999 he introduced a document entitled “Reflections about IABSE and its Future” for discussion that led, among other innovations, to the 1999 revision of the bylaws. In a way, this was a one-man extension of the Long-Range Plan. During his tenure the Young Engineers Program and IABSE Fellows began in 2001, both subsequently developed by Manfred Hirt. He supported Hirt’s development of the SED publications, and initiated the monthly electronic IABSE Newsletter. His attitude echoes that of Rohn, the founding president of IABSE many decades before. It extends Rohn’s maxim to society at large: “If we want to exert an influence in society, we must acquire the ability to explain complex engineering topics in language that can be understood by members of society. We must inform the politicians. We must inform the media. We must inform the general public. We must be outspoken. . . it is most definitely bridge building—not in steel and concrete but in contacts, professional respect and political understanding—elements that are just as strong and hopefully just as durable.”351 Ostenfeld served as vice-president (1991–1997) and serves as president of the IABSE Foundation since 2003. During his IABSE presidency (1997–2001), the Lucerne Congress was held in 2000 and the congress idea was replaced with the symposia. The Second 155 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Inter-Association Conference was held in Malta in 2001. The Outstanding Structure Award and the Anton Tedesko Medal were also introduced during his term in office in 1998. Ostenfeld was awarded Honorary Membership in 2002.

Pigeaud, Gaston (1864–1950) In the course of his professional life, Pigeaud worked as theoretician and educator and built arch and suspension bridges, continuous beams, and gravity dams. He was also the inventor of the “Pigeaud” military truss bridge that was used in both World Wars.352 In 1882 Pigeaud designed the 82.5-m tall Phare de l’Ile Vi`erge (Bretagne) that is today still the tallest stone lighthouse in the world and the tallest lighthouse in Europe. The design was finished and built

by Armand Consid`ere (1896–1902). Subsequently, Pigeaud served as Inspecteur G´en´eral des Ponts et Chauss´ees until Gaston Pigeaud (1864– 1934 and from 1928 for 22 years he was also professor at the ´ 1950), one of the first three Ecole des Ponts et Chauss´ees. Pigeaud was one of the three IABSE Vice-Presidents and members of the 1928 ad-hoc initiating committee in Vienna one of the five initiators of that led to the founding of IABSE in 1929. Together with the Association Friedrich Bleich and Mirko Roˇs, he wrote the first draft of the bylaws and was one of the founding Permanent Committee members. Pigeaud, apparently together with Campus of Belgium, was responsible for lobbying the Executive and Permanent Committees that both materials, steel and reinforced concrete, were treated equitably in the Association.353 This was a far-sighted approach, as it was by no means clear at the time that concrete would one day achieve the importance of steel as a structural material.

Pigeaud was one of the most active early members of IABSE and is one of the five founding fathers of the Association. He attended both the 1926 conference in Zurich and was an official French delegate to the Vienna Conference in 1928 before he participated as delegate to the founding meeting in 1929 and then served as vice-president of the Association and was the longest continuously serving member of the Executive Committee for 19 years from its inception in 1930 until his retirement in 1949354 on the advice of his physician after the first post-war congress in Li`ege. He was awarded Honorary Membership in 1949. The same year, he was also named Honorary President of the Association Franc¸aise des Ponts et Chauss´ees.355

Rohn, Arthur (1878–1956), 1st IABSE President (1929–1938) Born and raised in Geneva and reserved in nature, Rohn studied civil engineering at the ETH graduating in 1899. He then worked on railway construction for the Jura-Simplon Railway in Switzerland and in bridge building (1900–1908) as engineer and then as department head for bridges with the firm Gutehoffnungh¨utte in Oberhausen-Sterkade, Germany, before returning to the ETH as professor for Statics and Bridges in 1908. As professor and Rektor of the ETH from 1923 and later as president of the Swiss Board of Higher Education (Schweizerischer Schulrat) (1926–1948), Rohn followed the goal of building the ETH into the international powerhouse it is today, concentrating on research and international contacts, and on contacts to industry and 156 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

government in the service of scientific knowledge and the national economy. Many institutes were founded and funded on his watch; he created over 40 new professorships as well as the new fields of aerodynamics and airplane construction.

While focusing on technology, Rohn nevertheless recognized the need to educate rather than train technologists, and in order to do this he built up the Humanities Division at the ETH. This broad educational and internationalist approach and his political and administrative abilities were the background he brought to the founding and the early development of IABSE. One of his maxims was that an engineer did not only build material bridges but also intellectual ones.356 This, together with Roˇs’s maxim of the equivalence of research and experience, formed IABSE. Rohn’s personal charm coupled with his reserved nature and his bilingual facility in German and French made him an ideal statesman. His insistence on treating steel construction and the relatively new reinforced concrete construction as equal fields by the Executive and Permanent Committees at this time, supported by the Belgian Group and Pigeaud of France, proved farsighted.

Arthur Rohn (1878–1956), reserved and a statesman, one of the five initiators of the Association and the 1st IABSE President

Rohn was the founding organizer and statesman of IABSE, and one of the five founding fathers. The Association was prepared in two conferences in 1922 and 1926 with his support and assistance, proposed and organized at the Vienna conference in 1928, and founded in 1929 with Rohn elected as its first president until 1938. Rohn was generally open-minded and did not impose his views on the Association and its work, even in his disagreement with Roˇs over the value of Robert Maillart’s work. He presided in this way over the two first congresses in Paris in 1932 and Berlin in 1936. By the time of his retirement (officially due to his “other workload,” but probably influenced by Leopold Karner’s death in 1937 that was partly attributed to the stress of the Berlin Congress), the IABSE Bulletin was well established and in its sixth year, five volumes of the Publications (Memoirs) had appeared and been well received, and the first and second politically delicate congresses had been successfully concluded and published in Congress Reports.357 Upon the proposal of Moritz Kl¨onne at the Permanent Committee meeting in Cracow in 1938, Rohn was named IABSE’s first honorary president.

Rohn’s personal stance toward the Nazi regime in Germany can perhaps best be qualified by an unrelated anecdote: as president of the Swiss Board of Higher Education (Schweizerischer Schulrat), he lobbied vigorously in 1935 with the Swiss Immigration Authority (albeit unsuccessfully at the time) for the naturalization of the Austrian physicist, and later Nobel Laureate ETH Professor Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) who was partly of Jewish decent. He also possibly supported the Association’s Technical Advisor, Friedrich Bleich’s ethnically motivated flight from Vienna and refuge in Switzerland in 1938. These were ethical acts that were probably not particularly conducive to Rohn’s career development at the time.

Rohn’s position as president of IABSE in the 1930s could not be separated from his political position as president of the Schweizerische Schulrat where he was exposed to a growing antiSemitic and anti-German sentiment in the government and certain political groups: “In the 1930s in particular, the question of the internationalization of the ETH became involved in xenophobic discourse. In 1932 a group of Swiss students and assistants submitted a protest to the Zurich immigration authorities, in which the ETH professors were to be required ‘in 157 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

view of the large number of out-of-work engineers’ to prefer henceforth the employment of Swiss assistants.”358 The source records that this protest was especially directed against Jewish assistants and it was extrapolated to the choice of professors as well. Several were in fact chosen despite the political headwind, but several were not for political reasons or received only part-time positions. So Rohn’s stance was not clear-cut and it was probable that he had to steer a careful course in a delicate political minefield especially concerning the powerful head of the police section of the EPJD (Eidgen¨ossische Justiz- und Polizeidepartement), the Justice and Police Department in Bern, Heinrich Rothmund (1888–1961), a dedicated antiCommunist and anti-Semite. Rohn may have been unclear on the matter, but a member of his board, Schulrat Leo Merz (1869–1952), a Regierungsrat (State Minister) from Bern, drew a clear line in 1938 as to what degree the immigration authorities could limit the ETH’s open policy of (Jewish) student admissions.359

Roˇs, Mirko (1879–1962)

Mirko Roˇs (1879–1962), materials technologist known for his temperamental nature, with charm and humor, one of the five initiators of the Association (photo courtesy: ETH-Bibliothek, image archive)

Mirko Roˇs was the most influential member of the 1928 Vienna ad-hoc triumvirate with Friedrich Bleich and Pigeaud, which led to the foundation of the Association in 1929 and was one of the five founding fathers. Together with Beich and Pigeaud he wrote the initial draft of the bylaws and organized the Swiss group. It was Roˇs’s maxim that experience and experiment were equal partners in the advance of the field (“Der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und der Erfahrung muss das gleiche Mitspracherecht einger¨aumt werden”360 ) rather than Rohn’s more traditional German and Swiss idea of the combination of theory and practice,361 which established the intellectual basis from which IABSE grew. Roˇs can be said to be the intellectual father of the Association, while Rohn was its political organizer. Although Roˇs never held any official position in the Association other than that of Swiss delegate to the Permanent Committee, his intellectual influence still permeates the culture of IABSE today.

Roˇs began his engineering studies at the Belgrad University in 1898 and moved after three semesters to the Royal Institute of Technology in Hanover from where he graduated in 1906 in the specialty bridge construction. He then worked a year in Lucerne, Switzerland, on the Gotthard Railway and 1908–1909 at the firm Gutehoffnungsh¨utte in Oberhausen, Germany. Thereafter, he gained experience in his future field as engineer in the Hanover Building Department’s testing laboratory while also working as assistant for bridge construction and statics for Rektor Barkhausen at his old school. Later in 1909 he returned to Switzerland, this time briefly as structural engineer for the Firm L¨ohle & Kern in Zurich before moving on to Conrad Zschokke AG in D¨ottingen, Aargau, as chief engineer where he remained for the next 14 years, gradually rising to a directorship. In 1923 he was called to the University of Zagreb as professor and to the ETH in Zurich as lecturer for steel construction and then as professor. The following year, in 1924 he was also named professor of Building Materials and Materials Testing, and at the same time to the post of director of EMPA (Eidgen¨ossische Materialpr¨ufungs-Anstalt—Swiss Institute for Materials Testing). In his personal research, Roˇs (together with his assistant of many years Josef Brunner) contributed to the development of buckling theory.362 He remained at the ETH until he retired in 1949.

During his tenure, the EMPA, founded by his predecessor Ludwig Tetmajer in 1880, grew from 158 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

a small institute to an internationally recognized institution with several thousand employees through the accretion of several other testing institutes and the gradual inclusion of related fields. During that period, Roˇs also found time in 1926 to establish the Swiss Association for Technical Materials Testing, of which he remained president and then honorary president over 30 years, and in 1928 he helped found IABSE. Roˇs was a hard worker who organized his time well. He had a hierarchical and authoritative personality tempered with spontaneity and playful humor: “Roˇs’s highly developed and often strong individuality was not always easy or comfortable, chiefly when he encountered people of very different character. However, his fresh, lively, and winning temperament was able to brook many differences and master many situations.”363 He was an art collector and understood engineering as an art form. He used this understanding to inspire his students and colleagues in the various associations he helped found and it also fostered his close friendship with the congenial Robert Maillart and his support of Maillart’s work against all conservative opposition.

Schneider, J¨org (b. 1934) J¨org Schneider has an unusually comprehensive and in-depth background for an engineer, both in abstract theory and in building practice as he apprenticed as a professional journeyman carpenter before rethinking his professional career interests and beginning his academic studies in mathematics and physics at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, Germany.

He subsequently transferred to the ETH in Zurich where he studied civil engineering from 1955 to 1958 and worked there as assistant (1959–1963) before joining Stahlton/BBRV, where he was involved in the development of prestressing and precasting systems and the design of concrete structures. His broad background eventually led to his being chosen professor at the ETH in 1967 where his research interests focused on risk and reliability including human error and on the safety of transportation systems. Schneider became involved in IABSE the year following his appointment to the chair of Structural Engineering out of interest in attending the New York Congress.

J¨org Schneider (b. 1934), IABSE Vice-President, chair of numerous committees, and one of the most active developers of the Association from 1970 to the present

Ever since 1972, Schneider has been continuously involved in active committee work and has impacted the development of the Association as few members have before or since. According to his colleagues, Schneider has been the spiritus rector of most of the improvements and developments in the IABSE from the 1970s to 2000. Based as he was at the ETH and thus in direct contact with the Secretariat and with Executive Director Alain Golay with whom he worked together closely, Schneider always refused representational functions but eagerly accepted substantive tasks in which he could make a real contribution. Among the many committees and boards on which he left his mark, Schneider was elected general secretary (1973–1975), during which time he chaired the committee that developed the bylaw revision of 1974, perhaps the single most influential change in the Association since its founding. He was active in the Administrative Committee (1977–1999), served on both the first and second long-range plan committees as chair, initiated the idea of graduated membership fees, and was secretary of the Technical Committee from 1979 to 1987. Together with Golay he developed 159 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

and proposed the foundation of the journal SEI and named it in 1991 and he served as chair of the Publications Committee and of its successor the Editorial Board (1974 ad–hoc, and then 1979–1993). Schneider also served as chair of the Liaison Committee (1994–1995) of which he was a member from 1979, and served as organizer and co-organizer of the inter-association conferences in Innsbruck 1997 and Malta 2001. He also served as IABSE Vice-President for two terms from 1992 to 2001, refusing to be considered for nomination as president in 1993.

After his second term as vice-president, Schneider was awarded Honorary Membership in 2002.

Silman, Robert (b. 1935) Robert Silman graduated from Cornell University with a BA in engineering in 1956 and with BCE and an M.Sc. in civil engineering from New York University in 1960 and 1963.

He subsequently worked with many consulting engineering firms in New York and with Ove Arup and Partners in London, and taught at Yale University, Columbia University, and the Polytechnic Institute of New York before founding his own consulting firm in 1966. Silman is an expert in historical and modern construction systems and was among the earliest professionals interested in sustainable design.

Robert Silman (b. 1935), He is an Honorary Member of the American Institute of border-crosser between engi- Architects (AIA) New York chapter. Silman’s many interests neering and architecture bridge between architecture, structural engineering, history, and advocate for sustainable sustainability, and preservation. His passion for education and the development of young professionals has led him to design issues introduce many innovative ideas to IABSE, among them, an integrative design workshop in Helsinki in 1988 and in New Delhi in 1992, and sustainable design in the 1999 Rio de Janeiro Symposium for which he was also the scientific chair.

Silman served as founding chair of Working Commission 7 and was instrumental in obtaining the passage of IABSE’s Ethical Principles for the Practice of Structural Engineering in 2002.

Silman’s abiding interest in green engineering led to his authorship of the declaration on sustainable development. In 2004 he was awarded the IABSE Foundation’s Anton Tedesko Medal.

Stussi, Fritz (1901–1982), 3rd IABSE President ¨ (1951–1966) Fritz St¨ussi studied civil engineering under Rohn at the ETH, graduated in 1923, and became his assistant for bridge construction and structural statics (1924–1926). He then worked in industry while earning his doctorate in 1930 with the dissertation, “Sicherheit statisch unbestimmter Fachwerke bei Ver¨anderung einzelner Stabquerschnitte. Anwendung auf die Verst¨arkung von Fachwerktr¨agern” (The safety of indeterminate trusses under varying member cross-section. Application for strengthening trusses). Rohn then made it possible for him to work a year in 1930 for Othmar Ammann at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in New York City on the Kill van Kull arch bridge, and it was also Rohn who called St¨ussi back to the ETH first as lecturer from 1935 and then as professor for steel construction in 1937.

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St¨ussi had broad interests connected with steel construction and engineering theory and had written a “habilitation” thesis for the venia legendi in 1935 based on his work with Carl Kollbrunner on the analysis of the continuous beam with two degrees of static indeterminacy, during which he discovered the paradox of ultimate load theory.364 He presented this issue at the Berlin Congress in 1936 attacking the work of Hermann Maier-Leibnitz. Despite the clarification of the paradox in 1951,365 St¨ussi remained an adamant supporter of elastic theory in the face of a growing interest in plastic theory as propounded by his erstwhile student and later colleague and IABSE President Bruno Th¨urlimann. “St¨ussi and Th¨urlimann became involved in an acrimonious argument about the ultimate load method in 1961/62. Th¨urlimann published the kinematic approach to the elastic hinge method, based on the principle of virtual displacements, in order to calculate the ultimate load. . .”366 Upon Karner’s death in 1937, St¨ussi succeeded him as general secretary of IABSE with the specialty of steel construction.

From 1949 to 1951 he was also Rektor of the ETH. When Andreae retired as president of IABSE after the Li`ege Congress, St¨ussi was elected to replace him in 1951. As St¨ussi himself wrote in 1979 on the occasion of IABSE’s 50th anniversary: “If I were to pick out what for me was the most important aspect of my association with IABSE, it would be that through this international collaboration I have made several very worthwhile friendships.” This is a curious statement considering that he was writing on his contribution to the development of the Association, and it throws light on his character and what he considered important in IABSE.

Top: St¨ussi, Fritz (1901– 1982), steel specialist and theoretician, bottom: Third IABSE President St¨ussi probably as an assistant of Arthur Rohn’s around 1925 (photo: gift of Fritz St¨ussi in IABSE archive)

In later years, St¨ussi began to develop his latent interest in history, possibly awakened by ¨ Hans Straub’s book Die Geschichte der Bauingenieurkunst. Ein Uberblick von der Antike bis in die Neuzeit (1949), and in part spurred by his admiration for Othmar Ammann. He had collaborated on a study of Guillaume-Henri Dufour’s work as early as 1947 and had written articles on Henri Navier and Leonardo da Vinci. In 1974 he published a book Othmar H. Ammann. Sein Beitrag zur Entwicklung des Br¨uckenbaus. His valedictory lecture “Weitgespannte H¨angebr¨ucken” at the ETH in 1966 combined his interests in history and limit spans, and his contribution on history at the New York Congress in 1968 was a conscious attempt to expand the scope of interest of the Association.

As president and in contrast to his two predecessors, St¨ussi also presided over the physical expansion of the Association in a time of rapidly growing prosperity and, also in contrast to the hands-off approach of Rohn and Andreae, he fostered his own interest in steel construction and theory in the Association. This was both to the advantage and disadvantage of the Association’s development as it gave rise to a reaction and the foundation of a number of specialist organizations and this kept IABSE’s focus general. Many felt that St¨ussi unduly stressed steel construction to the detriment of concrete, and this, together with the eagerness of equally dominant personalities, led to the foundation of CEB (later FIB) and ICSS (later IASS) in 1953.

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His collaboration with Vice-President Kl¨onne after 1954 apparently strengthened this trend.367 This focus conflicted with St¨ussi’s earnest desire to keep IABSE the only and comprehensive international structural engineering association. The proliferation of international engineering groups resulted from the tension between these two goals.

St¨ussi assumed the presidency during one of the most active periods of construction Europe had yet seen. The redevelopment of the devastated countries’ infrastructure ravaged by the war was in full swing, the other industrially developed nations and some of those that had newly gained independence participated as well, and structural engineers were faced with new and inspiring projects, some of them larger even than the pre-war German Autobahn. Upon his retirement from the presidency in 1966, St¨ussi was awarded the Honorary President distinction.

Unfortunately, St¨ussi, the longest serving president of the Association for a total of 15 years, was not a good manager in financial matters and he left office with the Association’s finances in a shambles. He used a great deal of IABSE’s money and, for example, always flew first class.368 Also unknown is why, under the dire financial circumstances, the Permanent Committee meeting of 1963 approved the budget for the following year,369 or why they subsequently approved the accounts of 1964 and that of 1965 in Funchal.370 However, in the organization and development of the Association and its international contacts St¨ussi did excellent work: During his presidency (1951–1966), he presided over the readmission of members from Germany and Japan to IABSE in 1951 (apparently the first international association to do so) and the reelection of Moritz Kl¨onne as vice-president in 1954. A total of four congresses were held during his tenure: the 1952 Cambridge/London, the 1956 Lisbon/Porto, the 1960 Stockholm, and the 1964 Rio de Janeiro Congresses. In 1957 St¨ussi was approached by Frank Baron of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to chair a session of that organization.371 St¨ussi welcomed the opportunity and expanded upon the idea, which resulted in a joint meeting in 1958.372 From this ensued a contact between IABSE and that organization that endures to this day. One of the results of this close contact was the joint foundation of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat CTBUH in 1969.

St¨ussi also cofounded the Liaison Committee in 1958 and at his insistence tightly bound it to IABSE. Known as a biased martinet in his dealings with students and colleagues at the ETH, he was as forceful in his guidance of IABSE.373

Thurlimann, Bruno (1923–2008), ¨ 5th IABSE President (1977–1985)

Bruno Th¨urlimann (1923– 2008), theoretician and forensic expert, 5th IABSE President

Th¨urlimann graduated from the ETH in 1946 and worked as an assistant under Pierre Lardy before earning his Ph.D. at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1951. He also joined IABSE that year and worked briefly in research at the Swiss Institute for Testing Materials EMPA in D¨ubendorf and at Brown University, before becoming assistant professor and then full professor at Lehigh University in 1953. The connection of IABSE with Lehigh University has been a particularly intensive one, with many prominent members who either graduated from or taught there, among them Jean-Claude Badoux, Lynn Beedle, and John H. Fisher, and the three IABSE Presidents Manfred Hirt, John M. Hanson, and Bruno Th¨urlimann.

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In 1960 Th¨urlimann left Lehigh upon being chosen as Lardy’s replacement at the ETH for the chair of Statics, Structures, Bridges in Masonry, Concrete, Reinforced Concrete, and Prestressed Concrete which title was simplified to Statics and Structures in 1973.

His primary contribution to the field was in the theory of plasticity (in the course of which his controversy with St¨ussi developed), and he was involved as consultant for many projects, including the construction of the CN Tower in Toronto, the analysis of structural problems in the John Hancock Tower in Boston, and in the examination of the failure of the Norwegian oil platform Sleipner A. He was honorary member of ASCE and ACI and member of both the US and the Swiss Academies of Sciences.

Before his election as president, Th¨urlimann served as general secretary (1959–1964). Given the urgency with which his predecessor Cosandey advocated a true internationalization of the Association, the trans-Atlantically educated academic with a worldwide viewpoint was certainly an appropriate choice of president in 1977. Before that he was one of three additional Members elected to the first Administrative Committee in 1975. During his term as president (1977–1985), Th¨urlimann presided over the 50th Anniversary Congress in Vienna 1980 and that at Vancouver in 1984. International work was particularly important to him and his tenure was characterized by leadership through consensus. In his retirement communication, Th¨urlimann displayed a broad interest when he defined two areas that needed increased attention in the future: the importance of conceptual design in structures and the dangers of overregulation which last demonstrated that the field of structural engineering could not be separated from political and social questions.374 The John Hancock Tower, 1976, IABSE Prize was introduced during his term in office. Upon Boston retirement from the office of the presidency he was awarded both the Honorary Presidency and Honorary Membership in 1985, and the International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering in 1997.

In the early days of the Association, the outgoing president was consulted and often suggested his successor. Thus Rohn suggested Andreae, and Andreae probably recommended St¨ussi.

St¨ussi recommended Cosandey, and Cosandey probably Th¨urlimann. So when Th¨urlimann’s tenure ended in 1985, he proposed Pozzi, who had implemented the bylaw revision of 1974 in collaboration with Golay and Schneider, as his replacement. Pozzi had been a colleague at the ETH and they shared similar views. However, as Pozzi had left his professorship for the chairmanship of the international engineering firm Motor Columbus AG some years before, there was some resistance to his appointment. Many delegates to the Permanent Committee felt that an academic should hold the post. There were moreover two other excellent candidates: Hans von Gunten and Schneider, both ETH professors. Schneider was one of the most active innovators in IABSE, but some conservative Swiss members of the Permanent Committee resented that he had remained a German citizen and not applied for Swiss citizenship despite his two decades at the ETH. It was their opinion, although the bylaws did not stipulate it, that the IABSE President should be Swiss. As the non-Swiss members of the Permanent Committee preferred to see a Swiss president too, they left the decision to the Swiss group. Schneider, who anyway preferred not to accept representational positions, had made it quite clear that he would decline a nomination.375 So the committee 163 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

chose Hans von Gunten, an equally excellent candidate who had an amply proven and very successful administrative record in several IABSE posts and as chair of two ETH departments and head of two research institutes, and who was also by then Rektor of the ETH. This choice proved of great advantage for the continued internationalization and development of the Association.

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IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Appendices

Membership Development

Individual Members plus Associative Members (*Associative Members were related to Collective Members until 1955. A Collective Member had a minimum of two Associative Members, Additional associative membership could be purchased).

Individual Members plus the representatives of Collective Members (as from 1956 a Collective Member could appoint two representatives).

Graph of IABSE membership development 1929-2009

Detailed listing of congress sessions After each theme title and sub-session only those speakers are mentioned who were closely associated with the development and guidance of IABSE, who were among the IABSE honorees, or whom history has shown to have been particularly eminent in the development of their speciality. A complete list of speakers and the titles of their individual contributions can be found in the reports of each congress, and the liberty was taken here to correct the English translations of some of the session titles.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, completed in 1997, was presented with the 2001 IABSE Outstanding Structure for “the use of imaginative engineering applications that made possible this exciting architecture� (photo: Katarina Malaga, Sweden)

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Paris 1932. The sessions were as follows: I: Stability and strength of structural members under pressure and bending (with among others, presentations by Mirko Roˇs, Leopold Karner, Friedrich Bleich, Stepan Timoshenko, Alfred Hawranek, Stefan Bryła, and Friedrich Hartmann).

II: Slabs and shells in reinforced concrete (with Max Ritter, Wilhelm Petry, and a discussion by Robert Maillart on a paper by Maksymilian T. Huber on mushroom slabs).

III: Welding in steel (with Th. Godard, Roˇs, Stefan Bryła, and Ferdinand Campus).

IV: Long-span beam bridges in reinforced concrete (with a paper by Luigi Santarella).

V: Dynamic loading on bridges (with Timoshenko, Ottorino Sesini, Bleich, and Louis Cambournac who for the first time submitted the results of tests on composite beams that he had carried out in 1927 [Kurrer, Karl-Eugen, The History of the Theory of Structures, 2008 Berlin: Ernst & Sohn, p. 465], and Campus).

VI: Advances in analysis of reinforced concrete with considerations on material characteristics (with Roˇs, Campus, and a discussion by Eug`ene Freyssinet).

VII: Connecting steel beams to reinforced concrete (with Santarella, Fritz von Emperger, Hawranek, Rudolf Saliger, and discussion by Campus and Fritz St¨ussi).

VIII: Soil research (with Karl von Terzaghi).

Berlin/Munich 1936. The sessions were as follows: I: Importance of the ductility of steel for calculating and dimensioning steel work, especially when statically indeterminate (with papers by G´abor von Kazinczy, Hermann Maier-Leibnitz, Kurt Kl¨oppel, Josef Fritsche, and Fritz St¨ussi).

II: Stressing and degree of safety in reinforced concrete structures, from the designer’s point of view.

Subsections: a: Influence of stationary and of repeated loading. b: Means for increasing the tensile strength of concrete and reducing cracking. c: Use of high-tensile steel (with papers by Mirko Roˇs, Stefan Bryła, and Maksymilian Huber). d: Influence of concreting and dilatation (i.e., expansion) joints (with discussion by Roˇs).

III: Practical questions in connection with welded steel structures.

Subsections: a: Influence of dynamic and frequently alternating loading on welded structures (research work and its practical application) with another paper by Roˇs. b: Design and execution of welds with special consideration of thermal stresses (with a paper

by Alberto Fava). c: Inspection and control of welded joints (with yet another contribution by Roˇs).

IV: Recent points of view concerning the calculation and design of bridge and structural engineering (works) in reinforced concrete (with a report by Wilhelm Petry).

Subsections: a: Walled structures (with a paper by Ulrich Finsterwalder). b: Wide-span (i.e., long-span) bridges (with a contribution by Alfred Hawranek).

V: Theory and research work on details for steel structures of welded and riveted construction (reported by Louis Cambournac and with papers by Bryła and St¨ussi).

VI: Concrete and reinforced concrete in hydraulic engineering (dams, pipe lines, pressure galleries, etc.) reported by Ferdinand Campus and with a paper by Karl Hofacker.

VII: Application of steel in bridge and structural engineering and in hydraulic construction.

Subsections: a: Application of steel in bridge and structural engineering (with papers by Moritz Kl¨onne and Bryła). b: Application of steel in hydraulic construction (with yet another contribution by Roˇs).

VIII: Research concerning building ground (i.e., soil research; reported by Max Ritter and with contributions by Albert Caquot and Curt Kollbrunner). Roˇs also contributed to the “free discussions”.

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Li`ege 1948. The five sessions were: I: Assembling devices and structural details in steel structures.

Subsections: a: The present state of welding techniques (with presentations among others by Ferdinand Campus and Frantiˇsek Faltus). b: The design of connections (with Charles Massonnet). c: Strength and stability of thin-walled structures (with Henri Louis and Curt Kollbrunner). d: Bending and torsion of solid web-girders (with a paper by Henrik Nylander).

II: Developments in building structures in concrete and masonry.

Subsections: a: Progress realized in the quality of concrete (with a paper by Campus). b: Prestressed concrete. c: New types of reinforcement. d: Notable structures executed since 1936 (with a contribution by Eug`ene Freyssinet on his recent bridges and one by Karl Hofacker).

III: Developments in long-span steel bridges (with a paper in the form of an addendum to the report on this session by Othmar H. Ammann).

Subsections: a: Technical and economic considerations in the selection of the type (with Fritz St¨ussi). b: Suspension bridges (with Fritz St¨ussi). c: Long-span arch bridges.

IV: Slabs and various curved structures in reinforced concrete.

Subsections: a: Flat slabs or girderless floors. b: Continuous slabs. c: Strength and stability of slabs and plates (mistranslated as “discs”) and shells in curved or folded-plate (mistranslated as “cord”) form in concrete (with Eduardo Torroja). d: Theory and construction of arched dams (with Pierre Lardy).

V: Analysis of safety and the effect of dynamic forces (with Ferdinand Campus).

Subsections: a: Safety of structures. b: Effect of dynamic forces on structures.

Cambridge/London 1952. This conference had a three-tiered hierarchy with parts, sessions, and subsessions.

Part A: Analytical theory and safety. The sessions were: I: Bases of calculations: safety (presented by Eduardo Torroja).

Subsections: a: Loading of bridges and structures (influence of wind, earthquakes, etc.). b: Dynamic problems. c: Consideration of the actual conditions for deformation (plasticity, creep, etc., with contributions

by Jacques Heyman and George Winter). d: General conclusions regarding safety of structures (with papers by J´ulio Ferry Borges, and a discussion by John F. Baker).

II: Development of the methods of calculation (presented by Pierre Lardy).

Subsections: a: Analytical methods of the theory of elasticity and plasticity. b: Numerical methods in applied statics (with a paper by Fritz St¨ussi).

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c: Other methods of calculation (approximation methods, relaxation method, calculation regarding rupture, experimental statics, etc., with discussions by Henry Cowan, Charles Massonnet, and Fritz St¨ussi).

Part B: Steel and metal structures. The sessions were: I: Fundamental principles reported by Henri Louis.

Subsections: a: High-grade structural steel, light metals (with no papers presented). b: Welding and welded connections.

II: Practical applications.

Subsections: a: Problems in steel building construction with a presentations by George Winter, Georg W¨astlund ¨ and Lars Ostlund, Oleg Kerensky, Charles Massonnet, Hubert Shirley-Smith and Friedrich Reinitzhuber and discussion by Charles Massonnet and Fritz St¨ussi, and b: Structures in light metals (with a contribution by Fritz St¨ussi) c: Special erection methods.

Part C: Concrete and reinforced concrete structures. The sessions were: I: Fundamental principles and the properties of concrete.

Subsections: a: Composition of concrete; influence of the preparation, transport and placing on the design of structures. b: Properties of concrete, average tensile strengths and their variations (with no papers presented). c: Effect of repeated and continuous loading and creep (with no papers presented). d: Corrosion of concrete and reinforcement (with a presentation by J. R. Robinson).

II: Current problems of concrete and reinforced concrete; prestressed concrete.

Subsections: a: Current problems of concrete and reinforced concrete (with papers by Cowan and Hubert R¨usch). b: Progress in design and execution in connection with prestressed concrete (with papers by Gustave Magnel and Ulrich Finsterwalder). c: Dynamic stressing and fatigue strengths.

Lisbon/Oporto 1956. The working sessions were: I: Loading and strength of bridges and structures. a: Behavior of materials and structures under statical long-term loading (with a paper notably by Ferdinand Campus). b: Behavior of materials and structures under dynamic loading (vibrations, fatigue, impact) (with paper by Fritz St¨ussi and discussion by Hubert R¨usch).

II: Slabs and various curved structures in reinforced concrete. a: General calculation in elastic and plastic fields; experimental methods (with paper by Bernard Gilg). b: Application of the methods of calculation to steel structures (with a paper by Felix J. Samuely). c: Application of the methods of calculation to reinforced concrete structures (another paper by Samuely).

III: Welded steel structures. a: Systematic investigation of constructional details: theory and experiment (papers by Frantiˇsek Faltus, St¨ussi, and Henri Louis). b: Various welding methods for the execution of welded steel construction.

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IV: Structures in steel and light alloys. a: Light construction in steel (paper by St¨ussi). b: Construction in light alloy (with St¨ussi). c: Various structures such as power transmission poles (papers by Faltus, Campus, and Charles Massonnet). d: Maintenance of metal structures (with discussions by George Winter, Hubert Shirley-Smith, and Massonnet).

V: Special problems of reinforced and prestressed concrete. a: Crack formation (use of high-tensile steels and steels with high bond strength, end anchorages, distribution of reinforcement, shear strength). b: Influence of atmospheric actions and of temperature changes on the behavior of structures (paper by Campus). c: Safety (calculation against cracking, rupture, etc.) (with discussion by J´ulio Ferry Borges, Hubert R¨usch, and Alan J. Harris).

VI: Practice of reinforced and prestressed concrete. a: Execution of structures (formwork, shuttering, placing and control of concrete, transport of concrete, jointing of prefabricated elements, observation, control and maintenance of structures) (paper by Louis). b: New developments (with paper by Ulrich Finsterwalder). Eduardo Torroja, Louis Cambournac, and John Parcel participated as members of the Executive Committee, and William Henderson, Oleg Kerensky, Leo Finzi, Guido Oberti, Atsushi Hirai, and Ove Arup also contributed to the discussion although they did not present papers.

Stockholm 1960. The sessions were: Steel: I: Basis of structural design. a: Properties of materials. b: Development of methods of calculation (with papers among others by Bernard Gilg and Charles Massonnet).

II: New developments of connection in metal structures (with Pierre Dubas). a: Welding (with papers by Frantiˇsek Faltus and Henri Louis). b: Prestressed high-strength bolts (with a paper by Bruno Th¨urlimann).

III: Steel skeleton (with George Winter). a: Design and execution (with paper by Curt Kollbrunner and discussion by Dubas). b: Slabs and walls. c: Erection and safety of the workmen (with Fritz St¨ussi and Massonnet contributing to the discussion).

Reinforced and prestressed concrete: IV. New developments in bridge building (with Louis). a: Progress and failures in bridge building (with a paper by Ulrich Finsterwalder). b: Safety (with discussion by Hans Wittfoht).

V. Prefabricated structures (with Georg W¨astlund). a: Connection methods (with paper by Douglas McHenry). b: Redistribution of stresses due to creep.

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VI. Free contributions to important new developments (this was a new theme - with Kerensky and papers by W¨astlund, Louis, and Th¨urlimann).

Rio de Janeiro 1964. The sessions under General questions were: I: New trends in the methods of calculation. a: The mathematical formulation of structural problems for the use of electronic computers. b: Function and use of model tests (with papers by Guido Oberti, J´ulio Ferry Borges, and Fritz St¨ussi). c: The notion of safety and its role in the calculation and design of structures with particular reference to the effect of plastic deformations on the distribution of forces and moments (with papers by Charles Massonnet and George Winter). d: Special applications (e.g., calculation of space structures).

The theme Metal structures comprised: II: Structural steels, means of connection (with Pierre Dubas). a: High-tensile steels and their fabrication (paper by Dubas). b: Friction grip bolts (high-strength bolts) (with papers by Frantiˇsek Faltus, John Fisher, Lynn Beedle, and Oleg Kerensky). c: Welding and gluing (with paper by Curt Kollbrunner). d: Fatigue life of structural members (paper by Fisher and discussion by St¨ussi and William Henderson). e: Plastic design with reference to high-tensile steels and modern methods of connection (with paper by Massonnet).

III: Special constructions for steel bridges. a: b: c: d:

Curved bridges and skew bridges.

Elevated roadways (with paper by Winter and discussion by Kerensky).

Prestressed steel bridges.

Lightweight decks (with a contribution by Friedrich Reinitzhuber).

The theme Reinforced and prestressed concrete included: IV: Special problems (shear, prestressing, prefabrication) (with Bruno Th¨urlimann). a: Shear strength (including influence of stirrups on bond, anchorage and shear; influence of shrinkage and temperature) (with contributions by Fritz Leonhardt, Hubert R¨usch, J. R. Robinson, and Georg W¨astlund). b: Design and erection of prefabricated structures.

V: Behavior of structures (report by Douglas McHenry). a: no section a. b: Experience from tests of structures beyond elastic limits. c: Corrosion of reinforcing steels and resulting damage.

The theme Special problems was represented by: VI: Structural details in highway bridges (report by J. R. Robinson). a: Expansion joints in the bridge deck (with a paper by Guy Grattesat).

New York 1968: The sessions were: I: Safety. a: Critical appraisal of safety criteria and their basic concepts (including a paper by Guido Oberti and a discussion by J¨org Schlaich).

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b: Combination of the theories of elasticity, plasticity, and viscosity in studying the safety of structures. c: Optimization of structures (with contribution by Frantiˇsek Faltus and conclusions by J. R. Robinson).

II: Thin-walled structures. a: Theoretical solutions and test-results (with discussion by George Winter). b: Light-gage cold-formed structures (with contribution by Leo Finzi). c: Thin-walled deep plate girders (contribution by Lynn Beedle and discussion by Charles Massonnet).

III: Tall multi-story buildings. a: Plastic design (with papers by Jacques Heyman and Beedle, and a discussion contribution by Massonnet). b: Column-free box-type framing with and without core. c: Dynamic effects of wind and earthquake (with a paper by Alan Davenport).

IV: New practices in concrete structures. a: New trends in design and construction of long-span bridges and viaducts (skew, flat slabs, torsion box) (with a paper by Ulrich Finsterwalder and contributions by Finsterwalder and Fritz Leonhardt). b: Partially prestressed members (with contributions by Bruno Th¨urlimann and Georg W¨astlund).

V: New practices in concrete buildings. a: Special problems of tall buildings (shear walls, stability of columns, effect of thermal gradients, construction problems) (with a paper by Fazlur Khan). b: Structural lightweight aggregate concrete (concrete technology, structural design). c: Dynamic behavior of reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete buildings under horizontal forces and the design of joints (including wind, earthquake, blast effects) (with a conclusion by W¨astlund).

VI: Dynamic loads (in particular wind and earthquake loads) (with remarks by J´ulio Ferry Borges and conclusions by J. R. Robinson).

Amsterdam 1972. The themes of the sessions were: I: The influence on strength and deformations of the following non-linear phenomena, a: Plasticity and viscosity (with comments by Charles Massonnet). b: Post-critical buckling (with contributions by Massonnet, Paul Grundy, and Henrik Nylander and discussion by George Winter).

II: Interaction problems in structures. a: interaction of different materials (with remarks by Leo Finzi).

III: Long-spanned roofs. a: cable and cable-suspended roofs (with remarks by Fritz Leonhardt). b: Space structures (with paper by Bo Edlund). c: Thin-walled metal shells (with conclusions by Friedrich Reinitzhuber).

IV: Interrelationship between design and methods of construction for elevated highways and viaducts (with papers by Masatane Kokubu and Edlund, and remarks by Christian Menn).

V: Tall slender structures (with remarks by Leonhardt and conclusions by Georg W¨astlund).

VI: Experimental study of the behavior of structures under loads.

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a: Checking of actual structures. b: Model study for design.

VII: New developments (with conclusions by J. R. Robinson).

Tokyo 1976. The sessions began with the theme: I: Design philosophy and decision processes for structures. a: Planning of structures and its relationship to construction methods. b: Achievement of safety and economy in design and construction. c: Serviceability and maintenance (papers by Angelo Pozzi, Gerard Fox, Fritz Leonhardt, Yukio Maeda, and Guido Oberti).

II: Progress in structural optimization. a: Optimization concepts and techniques in structural design. b: System and geometrical optimization for linear and non-linear structural behavior. c: Examples of computer-aided optimal design of structures (paper by Maeda).

III: Behavior of building structures under the effect of fire. a: Thermal effects of fires in buildings. b: Design of steel and composite structures for fire resistance. c: Design of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures for fire resistance (with a paper by Charles Massonnet).

IV: Special structures (steel, concrete, composite: comparative studies). a: Offshore structures. b: Foundation structure for tall buildings. c: Foundation structures for long-span bridges (with papers by Bruno Th¨urlimann,Fritz Leonhardt, Niels Gimsing, and Bernard Wex).

V: Application of high-strength steels including weathering steels to high-rise and long-span structures. a: Structural behavior including hybrid construction. b: Design problems. c: Fabrication and erection problems (with papers by John Fisher, Yukio Maeda, and Pierre Dubas).

VI: Precast structures. a: Safety and stability of elements and structures. b: Developments in manufacture and assembly. c: New applications including submerged and floating structures (with papers by Masatane Kokubu and Michel Virlogeux).

VII: Progress on tall buildings, progress in the design of plate- and box-girders, progress on bridge loading (with papers by Massonnet and William Henderson).

Vienna 1980. The themes, not subdivided into sessions this time, were as follows: I: Aesthetics in structural engineering (with papers among others by Fritz Leonhardt, Manabu Ito, David Billington, Fazlur Kahn, and Heinz Isler).

II: Modern timber structures (papers by Bo Edlund, Julius Natterer, and Ernst Gehri).

III: Management in the design and execution of important constructions (i.e. large structures) (with papers by Hans Wittfoht and Angelo Pozzi).

IV: Special structures (with a paper by Bernard Raspaud and poster sessions including one by Tang Huan Cheng).

V: Building under extreme conditions (with conclusions by Edmund Happold).

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VI: Building physics (with papers by Fritz Leonhardt and Henry Cowan, and a poster session and conclusion by Leonhardt).

VII: Computer analysis and structural engineering (with a poster session).

VIII: Trends in big bridge engineering (with papers by Niels Gimsing, Manabu Ito, and Klaus Ostenfeld, and a poster session with presentations by Niels Gimsing, and Michel Virlogeux).

IX: Lessons from the behavior of structures (Hans Hugi, with papers by Alexander Scordelis, Yukio Maeda, John Fisher, John Hanson, John Breen, and Michel Virlogeux, and one poster).

X: Safety concepts (introduced by Ferry Borges, and a free discussion with contributions by Marita ¨ Kersken-Bradley, Lars Ostlund, and J¨org Schneider).

XI: Influence of soil behavior on structural design. In addition there was an exhibition of photographs on engineering construction in Australia.

Vancouver 1984. The themes and seminars were: A: The structural design process.

B: Engineering and Construction management (with a paper by Angelo Pozzi).

C1: Structural engineering in earthquake zones.

C2: Structural engineering in Arctic zones.

D: New frontiers in structural engineering (with papers by Edmund Happold, Yukio Maeda, J¨org Schlaich, T. Y. Lin, and Leo Finzi).

Seminar I: Seminar II: Seminar III: Seminar IV: Seminar V: Seminar VI: Seminar VII: Seminar VIII: Seminar IX: Seminar X: Seminar XI: Seminar XII:

Hybrid and composite structures.

Computer-aided structural engineering (with paper by Yukio Maeda).

Transit guideway structures (with paper by Roger Dorton).

Thermal performance of buildings (with paper by Henry Cowan).

Developments in the design of steel structures (with conclusions by Jean-Claude Badoux).

Wind effects on structures (with paper by Alan Davenport, Maeda, Ito, and conclusions

by Ernst Gehri).

Developments in the construction of steel structures (with a paper by Klaus Ostenfeld and conclusions by Jean-Claude Badoux).

Snow and ice effects on structures (with a paper by AlanDavenport).

Developments in the design of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures (with papers by J¨org Schlaich, Bernard Raspaud, and John Breen).

Developments in the design and construction of wood structures (with papers by Ernst Gehri, Mario Fontana, and Bo Edlund).

Developments in the construction of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures.

Professional responsibility in structural engineering as a panel discussion.

There were poster sessions: 1: Structural design process (with posters by Klaus Ostenfeld and Niels Gimsing).

2: Construction management, health and safety.

3: Computer-aided structural engineering.

4: Innovative bridge structures.

5: Transit guideway structures (with two posters by Claude Servant and one by Roger Dorton).

6: Concrete structures (with posters by Kiyoshi Muto and Klaus Ostenfeld).

7: Steel structures (with a poster by Jacques Combault).

8: Innovative building structures (with a poster by J¨org Schlaich).

9: Structural engineering in earthquake zones.

There was a further session called Last minute reports with a contribution by Jean Muller.

Helsinki 1988. The themes were: A: Applications of advanced materials (with papers by J¨org Schlaich and Peter Head).

B: Computer-aided engineering.

C: Inspection, assessment, and maintenance (with papers by Roger Dorton and Leo Finzi).

D: Building physics and design (with paper by Fernando Branco).

175 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

The seminars were: I: Structural response under exceptional circumstances (with paper by Yukio Maeda).

II: Management techniques of renovation (with paper by Fernando Branco).

III: Special topics in design and analysis.

IV: Influence of details on structural performance (with paper by David Nethercot).

V: Modeling of structures.

VI: Long-span structures (with papers by J¨org Schlaich, Michel Virlogeux, Javier Manterola, Klaus Ostenfeld, Yozo Fujino, Manabu Ito, and Leo Finzi).

VII: Advanced technologies for fabrication and erection (with paper by Jean-Marie Cremer).

The poster sessions were more successful than before and were organized into categories: 1: Innovative bridge structures (with presentations by J¨org Schlaich and Claude Servant); 2: Innovative building structures; 3: Offshore structures; 4: Innovative special structures; 5: Outstanding Nordic structures; 6: Mixed structural systems (with contributions by Bo Edlund and Masato Abe); 7: Computer-aided engineering (with contribution by Bo Edlund).

New Delhi 1992. The plenary sessions were titled: I: New horizons in structural engineering.

II: Structural contribution to natural disaster reduction (with presentations by Alan Davenport and Ninan Koshi).

III: Impact of structures on the environment (with a talk by Christian Menn and an associated poster session).

IV: Financing projects: world trends.

Special a: b: c: d:

sessions: Tensioned structures (with contributions by Edmund Happold and J¨org Schlaich).

Offshore fixed and floating structures (with an associated poster session).

Renewable energy structures (with a contribution by J¨org Schlaich).

High-rise buildings (with a contribution by Hal Iyengar and an associated poster session).

The seminars, the first three of which had attached poster sessions were titled: 1: Creative design as reflected in practical applications (with poster by Aarne Jutila).

2: Bridge design and construction.

3: Structures to withstand natural disasters.

4: Continuing education: scope and objectives.

5: Urban transport structures (with papers by Sudhangsu Chakraborty and Bidhan C. Roy).

6: Bridge management systems (with paper by Fernando Branco).

7: Society-engineer-environment (with presentation by Tippur Subba Rao).

Furthermore, there were so-called “teach-ins” titled: 1: Structural concrete: concepts and practices (with contributions by John Breen and Schlaich).

2: Durability in design, detailing and construction.

3: Expert systems in structural engineering (with contribution by James H. Garrett).

A design workshop also took place, but it was not reported in detail in the post-congress report.

Copenhagen 1996.

I: Environmental impact of large engineering works (with a paper by Tippur Subba Rao).

II: Large bridges.

III: Aesthetics in structural engineering (with papers by Michel Virlogeux and Klaus Ostenfeld).

IV: Structural engineering and mitigation of natural disasters.

P1rt 1: Lessons from the Hanshin earthquake in Japan.

P2rt 2: Mitigation of natural disasters.

V: High-performance structural materials (with papers by Luc Taerwe and Peter Head).

VI: Structural engineering for sustainable development.

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The special sessions were: a: Management of structures (with paper by Fernando Branco). b: Demolition and recycling of structures. c: Expansion joints, bearings and hydraulic equipment (with a paper by John Fisher). d: Design of concrete structured for construction and maintenance (with papers by Jean-Marie Cremer and John Breen). e: Reliability-based serviceability criteria in design. f: Risk analysis in engineering decision making (with a paper by Niels Peter Høj). g: Construction efficiency through adapted design (with a paper by Jacques Combault). Operational control of structures.

Again there were several workshops: 1: Interaction structures—foundations (with a contribution by Jacques Combault).

2: Elasticity and plasticity in design.

3: Impact of computer technology (with contribution by James Garrett).

4: Structural connections and assembly techniques.

5: Super long-span bridges (with contributions by Manabu Ito, Alan Davenport, Niels Gimsing, Klaus Ostenfeld, and Michel Virlogeux).

6: Design-construct impact on the work of the structural engineer.

7: Structural Eurocodes—first experiences.

The poster sessions had contributions from Roger Dorton, Yozo Fujino, Luc Taerwe, and others.

Lucerne 2000. The themes were: I: Urban transportation: needs and vision.

Subsections: a: Aesthetics, sustainability, and the environment. b: Construction issues in urban areas.

II: Structures for urban transportation.

Subsections: a: Bridge design, bridge construction, bridges—special cases. b: Pedestrian structures. c: Tunnel design. d: Tunnel construction. e: Railway stations. f: Airport structures. g: Structures in and on water.

III: Conservation of existing structures.

Subsections: a: Structural assessment by analysis. b: Assessment by site investigation. c: Structural repair and rehabilitation. d: Strengthening of structures. e: Management of existing structures. f: Information technology for infrastructure management. g: Alp-transit.

IV: Large transportation projects.

V: Integrating Copenhagen and Malmoe.

Shanghai 2004.

I: Planning and evaluation.

II: Design and analysis.

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III: Construction and materials.

IV: Maintenance, operation, and life cycle considerations.

Six keynote lectures by M-C. Tang, S. Zheng, Holger S. Svensson, J. Y. R. Liew, Koichi Takanashi, and Mikael W. Braestrup.

Chicago 2008. Keynote addresses were given by William F. Baker (structural engineer of the world’s currently tallest building, the Burj Kalifa in Dubai), Peter Head, Holger Svensson, Christian Cremona, Loring Wyllie, Qingzhong You, and Antony Wood (Executive Director of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, CTBUH).

Keywords—An attempt to detect shifts in professional interest over the years

by J¨org Schneider The basis of the following is the “Detailed Listing of Congress Sessions,” from which I extracted keywords leaving out the obvious ones like bridge, structure, analysis, material, beam, etc, which would appear in each of the congresses. I put the many synonyms or quasi-synonyms together under one of the terms. I then drafted the following two tables. The first lists the keywords in groups, which somehow are consistent. The second lists the keywords according to their first appearance. It is interesting to learn in which year a keyword appears for the first time, how often it reappears, and when it disappears.

However, there is always the will and intention of the congress organizer (or the respective scientific committee) behind the themes, which then may or may not show up in the keywords extracted from the titles, and the contributions presented under a title do not always fit the ideas of the organizer either.

From 1967 onwards the symposia and then the other conferences, workshops etc. exerted an influence on the congress themes as well. A more thorough analysis would include these other events as well.

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Keywords listed in groups 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords Materials Steel High-tensile steel Weathering steel Welding Light alloys Concrete Prestressed Concrete Lightweight concrete Prefabrication, Precast structures Composite construction Advanced materials Masonry Timber Soil & Foundation Arguments Health and Safety

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1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords Structural Safety Serviceability Durability Quality Economy Responsibility Reliability Risk analysis Aesthetics Lessons from existing structures Theory Strength Ductility Plastic Deformations Creep, Viscosity Redistribution of forces and moments Redistribution of stresses Elasticity Theory Plasticity Theory

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1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords Non-linear phenomena Stability Model tests Influence of details Structures and Structural elements Slabs Flat slabs Folded-plates Shell structures Walls Long-span bridges Tall slender structures Curved and Skew bridges Box-girder bridges Tension structures Elevated roadways Long-spanned roofs Space structures

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1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

Keywords Hybrid construction Submerged and floating structures Offshore structures Urban transportation structures Nordic structures Tunneling Connections, Joints, Bearings High-strength bolts Loading and Influences Stationary loading Dynamic loading Repeated loading Fatigue Impact Vibration

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1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

Keywords Thermal stresses Atmospheric actions Extreme conditions Corrosion Wind Snow Ice Earthquake Natural disaster reduction Fire and Fire Resistance Procedures Manufacture, Erection, Execution Inspection, Control, Checking Operation Maintenance Assessment, Evaluation Monitoring Rehabilitation and Repair Renovation, Conservation

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1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964

1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008

Keywords Demolition Recycling Terms and Activities Computer Technology, Expert Systems Optimization Decision making Management Building physics Modeling Environment Societyengineerenvironment Sustainable development Financing Renewable energy Creativity Education Designconstruct impact Eurocodes Infrastructure Life Cycle Considerations

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Concrete Steel Welding Soil & Foundation Dynamic loading Slabs Stability Long-span bridges Shell structures Composite construction Strength Structural Safety Inspection, Control, Checking High-tensile steel Stationary loading Thermal stresses Ductility Repeated loading Prestressed Concrete Connections, Joints, Bearings Manufacture, Erection, Execution

1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords

Keywords listed according to first appearance and number of repetitions

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Economy Quality Masonry Flat slabs Folded-plates Plasticity Theory Fatigue Elasticity Theory Light alloys Corrosion Serviceability Maintenance Impact Vibration Atmospheric actions Creep, Viscosity Health and Safety Redistribution of stresses Walls High-strength bolts Computer Technology, Expert Systems

1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords

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Timber Redistribution of forces and moments Model tests Prefabrication, Precast structures Plastic Deformations Curved and Skew bridges Elevated roadways Tall slender structures Wind Earthquake Optimization Lightweight concrete Non-linear phenomena Long-spanned roofs Space structures Hybrid construction Offshore structures Decision making Box-girder bridges Weathering steel

1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords

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Submerged and floating structures Fire and Fire Resistance Aesthetics Lessons from behaviour of structures Extreme conditions Management Building physics Responsibility Snow Ice Assessment, Evaluation Renovation, Conservation Advanced materials Influence of details Nordic structures Modeling Environment Urban transportation structures

1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords

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Natural disaster reduction Tension structures Durability Society-engineerenvironment Financing Renewable energy Creativity Education Sustainable development Design-construct impact Eurocodes Reliability Demolition Recycling Risk analysis Tunneling Rehabilitation and Repair Infrastructure Operation Life Cycle Considerations Monitoring

1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Keywords

The IABSE President with all the Past-Presidents at the 2000 Lucerne Congress: John M. Hanson, Bruno Th¨urlimann, President Klaus Ostenfeld, Hans von Gunten, President-Elect Manabu Ito, and Maurice Cosandey

Klaus Ostenfeld, President Jacques Combault, Manfred A. Hirt, Manabu Ito, John M. Hanson, and President-Elect Predrag Popovic in 2009; of the surviving Past-Presidents, only Maurice Cosandey is missing in this photograph

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IABSE office holders Presidents 2007–2010 2004–2007 2001–2004 1997–2001 1993–1997 1985–1993 1977–1985 1966–1977 1951–1966 1938–1951 1929–1938

Jacques Combault, France Manfred A. Hirt, Switzerland Manabu Ito, Japan Klaus H. Ostenfeld, Denmark John M. Hanson, USA Hans von Gunten, Switzerland Bruno Th¨urlimann, Switzerland Maurice Cosandey, Switzerland Fritz St¨ussi, Switzerland Charles Andreae, Switzerland Arthur Rohn, Switzerland

President-Elect 2009–2010 2006–2007 2003–2004 2000–2001 1996–1997

Predrag (Pete) Popovic, USA Jacques Combault, France Manfred A. Hirt, Switzerland Manabu Ito, Japan Klaus H. Ostenfeld, Denmark

Vice-Presidents 2009–2013 2009–2013 2009–2013 2007–2011 2007–2011 2007–2011 2007–2011 2005–2013 2005–2013 2005–2013 2005–2009 2003–2011 2001–2009 2001–2009 2001–2006 2001–2003 1999–2007 1999–2007 1999–2007 1997–2005 1997–2005 1997–2005 1997–2000 1995–2003 1993–1999 1993–2001 1993–2001 1993–2001 1993–1999

Fernando Branco, Portugal Yaojun Ge, China Julio Timerman, Brazil Mario Fontana, Switzerland Bidhan C. Roy, India Jan A. Wium, South Africa Riccardo Zandonini, Italy Yozo Fujino, Japan David Nethercot, UK Sung-Pil Chang, Korea Rep. Predrag (Pete) Popovic, USA Holger S. Svensson, Germany Gilson Marchesini, Brazil Haifan Xiang, China Jacques Combault, France Manfred A. Hirt, Switzerland Bo Edlund, Sweden Aarne Jutila, Finland Silvino Pompeu-Santos, Portugal Sudhangsu S. Chakraborty, India Koichi Takanashi, Japan Loring A. Wyllie, Jr., USA Ferdinand Tschemmernegg, Austria J¨org Schlaich, Germany Roger A. Dorton, Canada Ekasit Limsuwan, Thailand Bernard Raspaud, France J¨org Schneider, Switzerland Roberto Riccioni, Italy

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1993–1999 1991–1997 1989–1997 1989–1997 1989–1997 1989–1993 1989–1993 1989–1993 1987–1995 1987–1991 1985–1993 1985–1991 1985–1989 1983–1989 1983–1987 1983–1987 1983–1985 1981–1989 1979–1987 1979–1987 1977–1985 1977–1985 1976–1983 1975–1983 1975–1983 1973–1976 1972–1979 1969–1977 1969–1976 1966–1977 1966–1975 1965–1973 1965–1967 1965–1969 1963–1969 1963–1966 1963–1965 1962–1966 1962–1962 1958–1961 1957–1963 1953–1965 1953–1962 1949–1963 1946–1957 1946–1956 1936–1945 1935–1936 1932–1935 1931–1940 1930–1949 1930–1941 1930–1931

Gilberto do Valle, Brazil Klaus H. Ostenfeld, Denmark Manabu Ito, Japan Ernst Roubin, Austria David W. Quinion, UK John M. Hanson, USA Giorgio Macchi, Italy Tippur N. Subba Rao, India Hans Wittfoht, Germany Jean Mathivat, France Niilo Kurvinen, Finland Milcho Brainov, Bulgaria Bernard Wex, UK Masatane Kokubu, Japan Peter F. Adams, Canada Sergio Marques de Souza, Brazil Ifedayo O. Oladapo, Nigeria Peter F. Adams, Canada Sergio Marques de Souza, Brazil Gerard F. Fox, USA Leo Finzi, Italy H. Thul, Federal Republic of Germany Josef Aichhorn, Austria Jean Despeyroux, France Jiri J. Pechar, Czechslovakia Atsushi Hirai, Japan Elmer K. Timby, USA William Henderson, UK Cornelius J. Louw, the Netherlands Friedrich Reinitzhuber, Federal Republic of Germany Nicolas Esquillan, France Georg W¨astlund, Sweden Jewell M. Garrelts, USA Elmer K. Timby, USA Hubert Shirley-Smith, UK Henri Louis, Belgium Sergio Marques de Souza, Brazil Hubert R¨usch, Federal Republic of Germany Antonio Alves de Noronha K. G. Hjort, Sweden John I. Parcel, USA Jos´e Belard da Fonseca, Portugal Moritz Kl¨onne, Federal Republic of Germany Louis Cambournac, France Ferdinand Campus, Belgium Ewart S. Andrews, UK Stefan Bryła, Poland Giuseppe Cafarelli, Italy Vittorio Fantucci, Italy Sir Thomas Hudson Beare, UK Gaston Pigeaud, France Moritz Kl¨onne, Germany J. Mitchell Moncrieff, UK

192 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Scientific Secretaries/Technical Advisors (replaced from 1975 by members of the Technical Committee) 1974–1975 1968–1975 1965–1972 1964–1974 1964–1975 1964–1968 1959–1964 1957–1964 1953–1957 1951–1959 1949–1953 1949–1964 1947–1965 1946–1951 1946–1949 1938–1946 1936–1941 1933–1949 1929–1936 1929–1933 1929–1946 1929–1938

Jean Despeyroux, France Jewell M. Garrelts, USA Hermann Beer, Austria J. R. Robinson, France Guido Oberti, Italy Douglas McHenry, USA Henri Louis, Belgium Cyril Stapley Chettoe, UK John I. Parcel, USA Eduardo Torroja, Spain Ernest E. Howard, USA Louis Grelot, France Georg W¨astlund, Sweden Paul Pieter Bijlaard, the Netherlands Othmar H. Ammann, USA Anker Engelund, Denmark Erich Bornemann, Germany Louis Cambournac, France Wilhelm Petry, Germany Th. Godard, France Ferdinand Campus, Belgium Friedrich Bleich, Austria

General Secretaries (these were all from Switzerland and replaced from 1975 by Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary of the Technical Committee) 1973–1975 1969–1973 1967–1975 1964–1969 1959–1964 1959–1975 1957–1959 1946–1959 1936–1951 1930–1946 1929–1936

J¨org Schneider Angelo Pozzi Hans von Gunten Christian Menn Bruno Th¨urlimann Pierre Dubas Max Walt Pierre Lardy Fritz St¨ussi Max Ritter Leopold Karner

Chair of the Technical Committee (from 1975) 2009–2013 2005–2009 2001–2005 1999–2001 1995–1999 1991–1995

Leo Wagemans, the Netherlands Fernando Branco, Portugal David A. Nethercot, UK Manfred A. Hirt, Switzerland Bo Edlund, Sweden Jacques Brozzetti, France

193 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

1987–1991 1983–1987 1979–1983 1975–1979

Yukio Maeda, Japan Hans Wittfoht, Federal Republic of Germany Bernard P. Wex, UK Fritz Leonhardt, Federal Republic of Germany

Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee (from 1975) 2008–2009 2005–2008 2001–2005 1999–2001 1995–1999 1991–1995 1987–1991 1983–1987 1979–1983 1977–1979 1975–1977

Leo Wagemans, the Netherlands James H. Garrett, Jr., USA Fernando Branco, Portugal David A. Nethercot, UK Manfred A. Hirt, Switzerland Bo Edlund, Sweden Jacques Brozzetti, France Yukio Maeda, Japan Hans Wittfoht, Federal Republic of Germany Bernard P. Wex, UK Ivan M. Viest, USA

Secretary of the Technical Committee (1975–1995) 1987–1995 Robert Fechtig, Switzerland 1979–1987 J¨org Schneider, Switzerland 1975–1979 Hans von Gunten, Switzerland

Administrative Committee 2007–2010 Jacques Combault, France 2005– David Nethercot, UK 2005– Ueli Brunner, Switzerland 2005– Thomas Vogel, Switzerland 2005–2009 Fernando Branco, Portugal 2001–2008 Simon F. Bailey, UK 2001–2004 Manabu Ito, Japan 2000–2007 Manfred A. Hirt, Switzerland 1997–2001 Klaus H. Ostenfeld, Denmark 1997–2005 Otto K¨unzle, Switzerland 1995–1999 Bo Edlund, Sweden 1994–2001 Eugen Br¨uhwiler, Switzerland 1993–1997 John M. Hanson, USA 1993–1997 Hans Hofacker, Switzerland 1986–1996 Robert Fechtig, Switzerland 1985–1993 Hans von Gunten, Switzerland 1979–1989 Angelo Pozzi, Switzerland 1975–1984 Bruno Th¨urlimann, Switzerland 1975–2005 Alain Golay, Switzerland 1975–1998 J¨org Schneider, Switzerland 1975–1979 Maurice Cosandey, Switzerland 1975–1979 Fritz Leonhardt, Federal Republic of Germany 1975–1979 Hans von Gunten, Switzerland

194 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Secretary/Executive Director 2005– Ulrich Brunner 1975–2005 Alain Golay (part-time position, replaced in 1975 by full-time Executive Director) 1971–1974 Alain Golay 1965–1970 Ernst Gehri 1946–1965 Lily Gretener 1929–1946 Pierre E. Soutter

IABSE Foundation for the Advancement of Structural Engineering Presidents 2003– 1997–2003 1995–1997 1993–1995

Klaus H. Ostenfeld, Denmark John C. (Jean-Claude) Badoux, Switzerland Robert Fechtig, Switzerland Hans von Gunten, Switzerland

Honors, Awards, Distinctions, Prizes Honorary Presidents, 1938–1993 Since 1993 the past-presidents have been included among the honorary members.

1993 1985 1977 1966 1951 1938

Hans von Gunten (b. 1930) Bruno Th¨urlimann (1923–2008) Maurice Cosandey (b. 1918) Fritz St¨ussi (1901–1982) Charles Andreae (1874–1964) Arthur Rohn (1878–1956)

Honorary Members, from 1949 Honorary membership is presented to a long-standing individual member of IABSE for exceptional service rendered to the Association.

2009: 2009: 2008: 2007: 2007: 2006: 2005: 2002: 2002: 2000: 2000: 1998: 1997: 1996: 1996: 1993: 1992:

Bo L.O. Edlund, Sweden Bernard Raspaud, France Manfred A. Hirt, Switzerland Sudhangsu. S. Chakraborty, India Loring A. Wyllie, Jr, USA Paul Grundy, Australia Alain Golay, Switzerland Klaus H. Ostenfeld, Denmark J¨org Schneider, Switzerland Anton F. Steffen, Switzerland John C. (Jean-Claude) Badoux, Switzerland Manabu Ito, Japan John M. Hanson, USA Niels J. Gimsing, Denmark Aksel G. Frandsen, Denmark Hans von Gunten, Switzerland Tippur N. Subba Rao, India

195 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

1992: Ninan Koshi, India 1991: Yukio Maeda, Japan 1990: Bernard Patrick Wex, UK 1989: J´ulio Ferry Borges, Portugal 1988: Gerard Francis Fox, USA 1985: Pierre Dubas, Switzerland 1985: Leo Finzi, Italy 1985: Bruno Th¨urlimann, Switzerland 1984: Roger A. Dorton, Canada 1984: Peter F. Adams, Canada 1980: Josef Aichhorn, Austria 1979: Guido Oberti, Italy 1979: Charles E. Massonnet, Belgium 1979: Fritz Leonhardt, Federal Republic of Germany 1977: William Henderson, UK 1977: Maurice Cosandey, Switzerland 1977: Lynn S. Beedle, USA 1977: Friedrich Reinitzhuber. Federal Republic of Germany 1976: Atsushi Hirai, Japan 1975: Frantisek Faltus, Czechoslovakia 1972: Cornelius J. Louw, the Netherlands 1969: Elmer K. Timby, USA 1969: Sir Hubert Shirley-Smith, UK 1965: S´ergio Marques de Souza, Brazil 1965: Jose Belard da Fonseca, Portugal 1963: John I. Parcel, USA 1963 Louis Grelot, France 1963: K. J. Hjort, Sweden 1963: Cyril Stapley Chettoe, UK 1963: Louis Cambournac, France 1957: Ferdinand Campus, Belgium 1949: Gaston Pigeaud, France

International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering, from 1976 The International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering is presented to people for outstanding contributions in the field of structural engineering, with special reference to usefulness to society.

Fields of endeavor may include planning, design, construction, materials, equipment, education, research, government, or management. The Award was established in 1975 and the first presented in 1976.

2009: 2008: 2007: 2006: 2005: 2004: 2003: 2002: 2001: 2000: 1998: 1997: 1996: 1995: 1994: 1993:

Christian Menn, Switzerland Thomas Paulay, New Zealand Manabu Ito, Japan Javier Manterola, Spain Jean-Marie Cremer, Belgium Chander Alimchandani, India Michel Virlogeux, France Ian Liddell, UK John W. Fisher, USA John E. Breen, USA Peter Head, UK Bruno Th¨urlimann, Switzerland Alan G. Davenport, Canada Mamoru Kawaguchi, Japan Tippur N. Subba Rao, India Jean Muller, France

196 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

1992: 1991: 1990: 1989: 1987: 1986: 1985: 1984: 1983: 1982: 1982: 1981: 1980: 1979: 1978: 1977: 1976:

Leo Finzi, Italy J¨org Schlaich, Federal Republic of Germany ¨ Lars Ostlund, Sweden Hans Wittfoht, Federal Republic of Germany Guohao Li, China Masatane Kokubu, Japan J´ulio Ferry Borges, Portugal Henrik Nylander, Sweden Guido Oberti, Italy George Winter, USA Fazlur Raman Khan, USA Fritz Leonhardt, Federal Republic of Germany Nicholas Esquillan, France Oleg A. Kerensky, UK Anton Tedesko, USA Ulrich Finsterwalder, Federal Republic of Germany Kiyoshi Muto, Japan

IABSE Prize, from 1983 The IABSE Prize was established to honor and encourage a member early in his or her career for an outstanding achievement in structural engineering. The Award is conferred on an individual member, 40 years of age or younger. The IABSE Prize was established in 1972 and the first presented in 1983.

2009: 2008: 2007: 2006: 2005: 2004: 2003: 2002: 2001: 2000: 1999: 1998: 1997: 1996: 1995: 1994: 1993: 1992: 1991: 1990: 1988: 1987: 1986: 1985: 1984: 1983:

Tetsuya Ishida, Japan Kaori Fujita, Japan Risto Kiviluoma, Finland Kourosh Kayvani, Australia Bohua Qin, China Christian Cremona, France Juan Sobrino, Spain Veerendra N. Heggade, India Masato Abe, Japan John Webb, Australia Niels Peter Høj, Denmark Mourad M. Bakhoum, Egypt Ulrike Kuhlmann, Germany Moema Para Noronha, Brazil Bertrand Deroubaix, France Lucie Vandewalle, Belgium Ekkehard Fehling, Germany James Garrett, USA Luc Taerwe, Belgium Junichiro Niwa, Japan Santiago Calatrava, Spain Claude Servant, France Marita Kersken-Bradley, Germany Franco Mola, Italy Mikael W. Braestrup, Denmark Michel Virlogeux, France

Outstanding Paper Award, from 1992 It is presented each year to the author/s of a paper published in the preceding year’s issues of Structural Engineering International (SEI). It was established in 1992, with the first two years 1991 and 1992 awarded at the Rome Symposium in 1993.

197 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

2008: “Design and Experimental Investigation of the Joints of Inclined Struts for the Widening of Bridge Deck Slabs”. Philippe Men´etrey and Eugen Br¨uhwiler, Switzerland. Published in SEI 4/2008 2007: “Pedestrian Lateral Action on Lively Footbridges: A New Load Model”.

Fiammetta Venuti, Luca Bruno and Paulo Napoli, Italy. Published in SEI 4/2007 2006: “Time Variant Structural Performance of the Certosa Cable-Stayed Bridge”.

Fabio Biondini, Italy, Dan M. Frangopol, USA, and P. Giorgio Malerba, Italy. Published in SEI 3/2006 2005: “Temperature in the Box Girder of the Normandy Bridge”.

Jean-Michel Lucas, Michel Virlogeux, and Claude Louis, France. Published in SEI 3/2005 2004: “Mechanical Properties and Remaining Strength of Corroded Bridge Wires”.

Shun-Ichi Nakamura, Keita Suzumura, and Toshimi Tarui, Japan. Published in SEI 1/2004 2003: “Elasto-Plastic Model for Timber-Concrete Composite Beams with Ductile Connection”. Andrea Frangi and Mario Fontana, Switzerland. Published in SEI 2/2003 2002: “Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Historical Churches”.

Stefano Sorace and Gloria Terenzi, Italy. Published in SEI 4/2002 2001: “A Re-definition of Stiffness of Reinforced Concrete Elements and its Implications in Seismic Design”. Thomas Paulay, New Zealand. Published in SEI 1/2001 2000: “Aerodynamics of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge—60 Years Later”.

Allan Larsen, Denmark. Published in SEI 4/2000 1999: “Design and Construction of the Millennium Dome”.

Ian Liddell and Paul Westbury, UK. Published in SEI 3/1999 1998: “Tension Chord Model for Structural Concrete”.

Peter Marti, Manuel Alvarez, Walter Kaufmann, and Viktor Sigrist, Switzerland. Published in SEI 4/1998 1997: “Rehabilitation of the Mexico City Cathedral”.

Roberto Meli and Roberto Sanchez-Ramirez, Mexico. Published in SEI 2/1997 1996: “Economic Considerations of Displacement-Based Seismic Design of Structural Concrete Buildings”. Luis Garcia, Colombia. Published in SEI 4/1996 1995: “Tuned Vibration Absorbers for ‘Lively’ Structures”.

Hugo Bachmann and Benedikt Weber, Switzerland. Published in SEI 1/1995 1994: “Solar Thermal Electricity Generation”.

J¨org Schlaich, Germany. Published in SEI 2/1994 1993: “Traffic Loads on Bridges”.

Ton Vrouwenvelder and Paul Waarts, The Netherlands. Published in SEI 3/1993 1992: “Carbon-Fibre-Reinforced Polymers: Modern Materials in Bridge Engineering”.

Urs Meier, Switzerland. Published in SEI 1/1992 1991: “Gibraltar Strait Crossings—A Challenge to Bridge and Structural Engineers”.

Philip Chow and T.Y. Lin, USA. Published in SEI 2/1991

Anton Tedesko Medal, from 1998 Anton Tedesko (1903–1994) was an outstanding engineer, eminent designer, and builder of innovative structures, one who with a warm human touch has given guidance and strength to many in the profession.

In order to honor the memory of this prestigious structural engineer and teacher, the IABSE Foundation Council created the Anton Tedesko Medal in 1998. It is presented to a distinguished Laureate structural engineer in recognition of his or her life achievement, and at the same time it provides CHF 25,000 Fellowship for a study leave to a promising young engineer to gain practical experience in prestigious engineering firms outside his or her home country.

2008 2007 2004 2002 2000 1998

Laureate Laureate Laureate Laureate Laureate Laureate

Hai-Fan Xiang, China, and Fellow Marvin Sabado, Philippines John C. (Jean-Claude) Badoux, Switzerland, and Fellow Anand Pravesh Singh, Nepal Robert Silman, USA, and Fellow John Anderson, USA Hajime Okamura, Japan, and Fellow Amorn Pimanmas, Thailand Niels J. Gimsing, Denmark, and Fellow Dong Xu, China Alexander C. Scordelis, USA, and Fellow Diego Cobo del Arco, Spain

198 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Outstanding Structure Award, from 2000 This award was established in 1998 and first awarded in 2000.

It is one of the highest distinctions awarded by IABSE and recognizes, in different regions of the world, some of the most remarkable, innovative, creative, or otherwise stimulating structures, but not necessarily the largest, longest, highest, or otherwise record-breaking structures. Sustainability and respect of the environment is also an important factor. Any civil engineering structure in the world is eligible for nomination, provided it represents a major contribution from structural engineers and has been substantially completed in the year preceding the nomination. Structures will usually be typical engineering structures such as bridges, towers, and roofs. They may also be buildings, designed by architects in close co-operation with structural engineers.

2009: Church of the Most Holy Trinity, Fatima, Portugal Tri-Countries Bridge, Weil am Rhein, Germany, and Huningue, France 2008: Copenhagen Opera House, Denmark Shanghai Lupu Bridge, China 2007: New Roof of the Comm- President Jacques Combault unveiling the 2008 Outstanding Strucerzbank-Arena, Frank- ture Award Plaque at the Lupu Bridge during the Shanghai Bridge furt, Germany Workshop in 2009 2006: Central Bus Station Hamburg, Germany Rion-Antirion Bridge, Greece Millau Viaduct, France 2005: Gateshead Millennium Bridge, UK 2004: Milwaukee Art Museum Addition, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Funchal Airport Extension, Madeira Island, Portugal 2003: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt Bras de la Plaine Bridge, Reunion Island, France 2002: Miho Museum Bridge, Japan Stade de France, Paris, France Ă˜resund Fixed Link, Denmark–Sweden

199 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

The Outstanding Structure Award Ceremony at the Lupu Bridge

Past-President Klaus Ostenfeld and President Jacques Combault climb the Lupu Bridge, 2009

200 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

2001: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain Sunniberg Bridge, Klosters, Switzerland 2000: Glass Hall of Leipzig, Germany Keyence Corporation Head Office and Laboratory, Osaka, Japan

Young Engineers Outstanding Contribution Award, from 2002 A jury selects two outstanding contributions presented by young engineers (under 35) at the annual IABSE Symposium or quadrennial Congress and presents them with the “Young Engineers Outstanding Contribution Award,” consisting of a diploma and prize money.

From 2002 to 2004 the awards were sponsored by firms or National Groups, from 2005 they are funded exclusively by the IABSE Fellows.

Loring Wyllie Jr., President Jacques Combault and Past-President Manfred A. Hirt at the 2006 Outstanding Structure Award ceremony at the Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece

2009 David Ferrant, Thailand. “Construction Engineering of the Kanchanaphisek Bridge” Ey¨up Selc¸ukoglu, Switzerland. “Towards the Plastic Design of Glulam Concrete Composite Structures” 2008 Roman Wendner, Austria. “Structural Assessment Using Identified Bending Stiffness” Christian Eckhardt, Germany. “A Unique Transparent Structure for the New Footbridge Across a Moat in Darmstadt, Germany” 2007 Joao Ramoa Correira, Portugal. “Lifetime Performance of GFRP Pultruded Profiles for Structural Applications” Benjamin Braun, Germany. “A survey on Patch Loading Models for Bridge Launching” 2006 Dalei Wang, China. “Wind Speed Criteria of Traffic Safety on a Long Trans-Oceanic Bridge” Marcus Rutner, USA. “Blast Resistant Performance of Steel and Composite Bridge Piers” 2005 Cristina Oliveira, Portugal. “Buckling and Yielding Trigger Devices for Seismically Isolated Railway Bridges” Andrea Frangi, Switzerland. “Fire Performance Based Design of Multistorey Timber Buildings” 2004 Tongyi Zhang, China. “Structural Design of the Giant CD Canopy of Beijing Zhongguancun Software Plaza” (Prize sponsored by Sika—A Global Player in Construction Chemicals and Industrial Material, Switzerland) Ulrich Castrischer, Germany. “Prefabricated Hybrid Frame Bridges for Metropolitan Traffic Routes” (Prize sponsored by the China Highway Planning and Design Institute/HPDI, China) Wolfram Kuhlmann, Germany. “Historic Buildings under Earthquake Loads” (Prize sponsored by Jiangsu Fasten-Nippon Steel Cable Co. Ltd.)

201 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

President Manfred A. Hirt at the technical console of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in London during the presentation of the 2005 Outstanding Structure Award 2003 Annette Boegle, Germany. “Evaluation in Conceptual Design—a Pedestrian /Cyclist Bridge in Stuttgart” (Prize sponsored by East Japan Railway Company, Japan) Hans Peter G¨unther, Germany. “Fatigue Behaviour of Steel Bridge Girders” (Prize sponsored by OC Lucerne 2000/Swiss Group of IABSE, Switzerland) 2002 Tobia Zordan, Italy. “Design and Analysis of a Variable Stiffness Movable Footbridge” (Prize sponsored by OC Lucerne 2000/Swiss Group of IABSE, Switzerland) Rigoberto Burgueno, Mexico. “Development of an FRP Membrane” (Prize sponsored by the Australian Group of IABSE)

202 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Source Information

1. Personal communication to the author.

2. Tschepper, Walter & Aichhorn, Josef. On the history of the international association for bridge and structural engineering. In 50 Years Jubilee Brochure 1929–1979. IABSE: Zurich, 1979; p. 5; SBZ 1923; 81: p. 82.

3. Roˇs, Mirko. Dreissig Jahre T¨atigkeit der Technischen Kommission des Verbandes Schweiz.

Br¨uckenbau- und Stahlhochbau- Unternehmungen (TKVSB), 1916–1946. Zurich, 1946; pp. 5–6.

4. Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 7.

5. Der Eisenbau 1911.

6. Zeitschrift des Vereines Deutscher Ingenieure, 20 November 1897; 41(47).

7. Guggenb¨uhl, Gottfried. Geschichte der Eidgen¨ossischen Technischen Hochschule in Z¨urich. Im ¨ Uberblick dargestellt. . . Buchverlag der Neuen Z¨urcher Zeitung: Zurich, 1955; 153.

8. Erni, Hans. Leben und Wirken von Prof. Roˇs. In Festschrift Mirko Roˇs. 1950 Verlag Vogt-Schild AG: Solothurn, p. 9.

9. Erni. op. cit., p. 11.

10. Guggenb¨uhl. op. cit., p. 154.

11. SBZ, 74(48): p. 729.

12. Erni. op. cit., pp. 12, 16.

13. ibid., pp. 14–15.

14. ibid., p. 15.

15. 50 Years Jubilee Brochure 1929–1979. IABSE: Zurich, 1979; pp. 73–76.

16. “Den geselligen H¨ohepunkt bildete ein animiertes Bankett, an dem Pr¨asident R. Wartmann die Fachkollegen mit ihren Damen namens des gastgebenden V.S.B. willkommen hiess. In allen Tischreden, die mit musikalischen Darbeitungen und sogar einer dramatischen Szene angenehm abwechselten, kam das Bed¨urfnis eines kollegialen Gedankenaustausches als eines geistigen Br¨uckenbaues zwischen den vertretenen V¨olkern zum Ausdruck. Man war allseitig gl¨ucklich in dem Bewusstsein, wenigstens f¨ur einige Stunden das Trennende vergessen und das Einende geniessen zu d¨urfen, und man war auch einig im Dank an Kollege M. Roˇs, der als Triebfeder nicht nur der wissenschafltichen, sondern auch der rein menschlichen Bestrebungen der T.K. so erfolgreich wirkt.” SBZ, 81: p. 84.

17. SBZ, 74: p. 729.

18. “Je me souviens des promenades le long de la rive du Lac Leman a` Montreux-Territet en 1933, avec MM. Maillart et Santarella, a` la soir´ee tombante. Tandis que les grands cygnes glissaient d’une allure hi´eratique sur les eaux doucement clapotantes, M. Maillart expliquait finement comment il avait surmont´e les difficult´es de construction d’un appontement bordant le lac, puis M. Sananella e´ voquait les rites religieux de la Rome antique pour magnifier la fonction des constructeurs de ponts et e´ num´erait les travaux de recherche qu’il comptait entreprendre dans un esprit de grande universalit´e et que la mort devait bientˆot interrompre.” Ferdinand Campus. In Proceedings of the 1948 Congress, p. 81 (IABSE archive).

19. Minutes of the meeting signed by Roˇs on EMPA letterhead (IABSE archive).

203 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

52.

SBZ, 88: p. 66. ibid., 88: p. 175, and printed flyer dated June 1926 (IABSE archive). ibid., 88: p. 176.

1932 Congress, Preliminary Publication, 1: p. 7 (IABSE archive).

“F¨ur einen unerfahrenen Ingenieur, zwei Jahre nach dem Absolutorium in Wien, war es ein Erlebnis so viele prominente M¨anner der Wissenschaft und Praxis zu treffen, kennen zu lernen, den regen Gedankenaustausch zu verfolgen und auch vieles zu erfahren, was nicht in der Schule gelehrt wurde. Schulweisheit, Wissenschaft und Praxis, Achtung vor Bauvorschriften und freie Sch¨opfung sind eben nicht kongruente Begriffe.” Faltus, Bulletin B 10(79): p. 2.

1932 Congress, Preliminary Publication, 1: p. 2 (IABSE archive); examples of the folder in the IABSE archive. ibid., p. 2.

Ostenfeld, Christian. A. Ostenfeld og hans samtid. . .. Teknisk Forlag: Copenhagen, 1966; p. 340.

SBZ, 88: p. 190.

Grelot, Louis. Bulletin #9, September 1st, 1949; p. 2.

Subsequently one of the founders and the first Secretary of IABSE. “Der Vorsitzende Prof. Dr. Ing. A Rohn, Pr¨asident des Schweizerischen Schulrates, und seine Mitarbeiter, vor allen der immer heitere 1. Sekret¨ar, Prof. Mirko Ros, und die Herren Prof. Karner, Ritter, usw. haben es verstanden die vielsprachige, hetrogene Menge zu einer erspriesslichen Zusammenarbeit zu bringen. Auch die Disziplin bei den Vortr¨agen war hervorragend. Selbst die prominentesten Vortragenden mussten sich den vorgesehenen Vortragszeiten gehorsam f¨ugen. Viel besprochen und schmunzelnd kommentiert wurde der Vorfall beim Vortrag von Dr. Emperger, einem der damals f¨uhrenden Altmeister des Eisenbetonbaues. Als er in seinem breitangelegten Vortrag u¨ ber : ‘Versuche mit S¨aulen aus umschn¨urtem Beton und umschn¨urtem Gusseisen’ die Worte sprach: ‘Meine Herren, jetzt habe ich kurz angedeutet, wor¨uber ich in einem Vortrag sprechen werde. . .’, stand der Vorsitzende auf und sagte: “Es tut mir leid, aber Ihre Vortragszeit ist abgelaufen. Ich danke Ihnen.’ Beifall im Auditorium, der verduzte Vortragende musste sich verabschieden. Erst in einer eingesparten Viertelstunde des Nachmittags konnte Dr. Emperger seinen Vortrag in gek¨urzter Zeit zu Ende f¨uhren.” Faltus op. cit., p. 2. ibid., p. 3.

SBZ, 88: pp. 200–201. ibid., p. 66. ibid., p. 249. ibid., pp. 19–20. ibid., p. 266.

SBZ, 74: p. 729.

SBZ, 88: p. 328. ibid., p. 218. ibid., p. 227.

SBZ, 92: pp. 51–52.

1932 Congress, Preliminary Publication, 1: p. 7 (IABSE archive). ¨ Saliger’s Uber die Festigkeit ver¨anderlich elastischer Konstruktionen, insbesondere von EisenbetonBauten, had appeared as early as 1904.

Obituary in Der Stahlbau, January 1952; 21(1): p. 18.

As Roˇs regretfully noted in the Permanent Committee meeting of June 3rd of that year: Minutes of the Permanent Committee, June 3rd, 1938; p. 4 (IABSE archive).

Hartmann, Friedrich. Aesthetik im Br¨uckenbau unter besonderer Ber¨ucksichtigung der Eisenbr¨ucken Franz Deuticke: Leipzig/Vienna, 1928.

SBZ, 92: p. 261. ibid., pp. 261–263. ibid., pp. 262–263.

Ostenfeld, Christian. A. Ostenfeld og hans samtid. Teknisk Forlag: Copenhagen, 1966; 121.

Moersch, Emil. Der Betoneisenbau. Seine Theorie und Anwendung. Konrad Wittwer: Stuttgart, 1902. This work reappeared in 1906 as Der Eisenbetonbau and went through a total of five editions of increasing size until 1950.

204 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

53. Ostenfeld C. op. cit., p. 107. “I udlandet havde der vist sig en voksende interesse for at skabe en international sammenslutning af rent faglig art for at dyrke de bærende konstruktioners teori og praksis. I begyndelsen af maj 1928 udsendte han en indbydelse til en kreds af ingeniører, der særligt arbejdede med hans fag, og 14 indbudte samledes til et mode p˚a hans kontor p˚a laboratoriet d. 15. maj om aftenen.”

54. Alfred Moe to Bruno Th¨urlimann July 7th, 1979, letter in photo album given by Moe to IABSE, p. 3 (IABSE archive).

55. ibid., p. 4.

56. Grelot, Louis. Bulletin #9, September 1st, 1949; p. 2.

57. SBZ, 94: p. 287.

58. Letter by Roˇs, October 7th, 1929 (IABSE archive).

59. Minutes of the first meeting of the Permanent Committee in Lugano, April 4th–5th, 1930; p. 2 (IABSE archive).

60. S´eance de Zurich le 29 octobre 1929. Liste de pr´esence (IABSE archive).

61. Bulletin #9, September 1949; p. 4.

62. Protokoll der Sitzung in Olten (July 19th, 1929) (IABSE archive).

63. Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 10.

64. SBZ, 94: p. 278; 74: pp. 729–730.

65. “. . .der Ingenieur sei berufen, nicht nur materielle, sondern auch geistige Br¨ucken zu bauen.”

SBZ, 74: p. 730.

66. Minutes of the first meeting of the Permanent Committee in Lugano, April 4th–5th, 1930; p. 2 (IABSE archive).

67. Circular letter to the members of the Permanent Committee July 22nd, 1936 (IABSE archive).

68. “Die Vereinigung bezweckt die Zusammenarbeit der Fachleute der einzelnen Staaten, den Austausch von Ideen, Erkenntnissen theoretischer und praktischer Natur und Resultaten von Versuchsforschungen. Die jeweilig wichtigsten Fragen und Probleme werden einem besonderen Arbeitsausschuss f¨ur die wissenschaftliche und versuchstechnische Weiterbearbeitung vorbereitet, Anregungen hierzu gegeben, um die Bearbeitung aller Aufgaben, bei bester Koordination der Arbeiten in den einzelnen L¨andern, rationeller zu gestalten. Druckschriften und Berichte werden die Versuchsergebnisse und erzielten praktischen Erfahrungen den Mitgliedern zug¨anglich machen.

“Neben dieser kontinuierlichen Zusammenarbeit sollen in mehr oder weniger gr¨osseren Zeitabst¨anden Kongresse veranstaltet werden, um durch pers¨onliche F¨uhlungsnahme der weiteren Kreise der Mitglieder die Aufgabe des St¨andigen Ausschusses erweitern und f¨ordern zu k¨onnen.

“Die in Z¨urich beschlossene Organisation besteht aus dem ‘St¨andigen Ausschuss’, in den jedes Land je nach der Zahl seiner pers¨onlichen und K¨orperschaftsmitglieder ein oder zwei Vertreter (f¨ur jeden Vertreter sind bis zwei Stellvertreter namhaft zu machen) delegiert.” SBZ, vol. 94:, p. 278.

69. Gaston Pigeaud in Minutes, Executive Committee, 17 May 1932; p. 3 (IABSE archive).

70. Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting April 4th–5th, 1930; p. 1 (IABSE archive).

71. ibid., 1930; p. 2 (IABSE archive).

72. ibid., 1930; p. 3 (IABSE archive).

73. Bulletin 5: p. 2.

74. SBZ, 94: pp. 278, 335; 1932 Congress, Preliminary Publication, 1: p. 7 (IABSE archive).

75. Kurrer, Karl-Eugen. The History of the Theory of Structures. Ernst & Sohn: Berlin, 2008; p. 747.

76. ibid., p. 440.

77. Report of General Secretary Karner on the Permanent Committee meeting of April 9th–11th, 1931; p. 3 (IABSE archive).

78. Ferdinand Campus in Proceedings of the 1948 Congress, p. 80 (IABSE archive).

79. Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting April 4th–5th, 1930; p. 3 (IABSE archive).

80. ibid., pp. 9–10.

81. Report of General Secretary Karner on the Permanent Committee meeting of April 9th–11th, 1931; p. 1 (IABSE archive).

82. Letter to Rohn June 11th, 1930 and confirmation of acceptance July 2nd, 1930 (IABSE archive).

83. Grelot, Louis. Bulletin #9, 1st September 1949; p. 2.

84. Minutes of the Paris Executive Committee meeting of 1930; p. 1 (IABSE archive).

85. Bulletin #8, 1947 Obituary, p. 2.

86. ibid., p. 3.

205 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

87.

88.

89.

90.

91.

92.

93.

94.

95.

96.

97.

98.

99.

100.

101.

102.

103.

104.

105.

106.

107.

108.

109.

110.

111.

112.

113.

114.

115.

116.

117.

118.

119.

120.

121.

122.

123.

124.

125.

126.

127.

128.

129.

130.

131.

132.

133.

134.

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of 1930; p. 3 (IABSE archive).

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of June 5, 1931; p. 2 (IABSE archive). ibid., pp. 3–4 (IABSE archive).

Golay, Alain. Revision of the Bylaws: a milestone in IABSE’s long-range plan, SEI, 1(91): p. 56.

Bulletin #23(24): pp. 23–24.

Personal communication from Past-President Hans von Gunten.

Bulletin #7, 1941; p. 5.

Bulletin #9, September 1949; pp. 9–10.

Permanent Committee meeting of June 6th, 1950 in Paris, as reported in Bulletin 10: p. 5.

Bulletin #23(24): pp. 15–17.

Golay, Alain. Revision of the Bylaws: a milestone in IABSE’s long-range plan, SEI, 1(91): p. 56.

Bulletin #25, 1969; p. 15.

Bulletin B 13(80): p. 3.

Communication from Past-President Hans von Gunten, February 23rd, 2010. “Als die Franzosen davon h¨orten, schickten sie eine Delegation nach Z¨urich, wo ich sie als Pr¨asident empfing (im Rektorat). Die Franzosen drohten mit einen Massenaustritt aus der Vereinigung, wenn das Vorhaben durchgesetzt w¨urde. Deshalb empfahl ich der beratenden Kommission, davon abzusehen.”

Information from Golay, September 01, 2010.

At the Permanent Committee Meeting 2010 in Venice, the decision was finally taken to make English the official language (see: SEI 4(10): p. 473).

Bulletin, 3(77): p. 9.

Golay, Alain. Revision of the Bylaws: a milestone in IABSE’s long-range plan. SEI, 1(91): p. 56.

SEI, 3(96): pp. 211–212.

Circular letter to the members of the Permanent Committee July 22nd, 1936 (IABSE archive).

Aperc¸u sur la 2`eme s´eance du Comit´e Permanent de l’Association International pour les Construction en Acier et B´eton Arm´e du 9 au 11 avril 1931 a` Zurich, pp. 1–2 (IABSE Archive).

Rohn, circular letter of March 28th, 1933 (IABSE archive).

Minutes of Executive and Permanent Committees, June 1st–5th, 1939; p. 3 (IABSE archive).

Bulletin #25, 1969; p. 13: one delegate for 6–24 members, two for 25–49, three for 50–99, four for 100–149, and five for 150–199.

Personal communication from Alain Golay, February 24th, 2010.

Bulletin #23(24), 1967; pp. 9–10.

Personal communication from Past-President Hans von Gunten March 16th, 2010.

Schneider’s opening speech at the Nyborg Colloquium in 1991, communicated by Schneider.

Bulletin B 39(86): p. 30.

Bulletin #8: pp. 11–12.

Interview with Kathy Gl¨unkin in SEI 2(99): p. 149.

Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting of September 1961 in Paris in Bulletin #21, 1962; p. 5; Bulletin B 46(88): p. 24.

Bulletin #25, 1969; pp. 16–17.

Bulletin #23(24): pp. 15–17.

From the New York Congress of 1968 on (Session II), this rubric included cold-formed steel.

Personal communication from Past-President Hans von Gunten, and Bulletin #25, 1969; p. 13.

Th¨urlimann. Bulletin B 12(79): p. 6. ibid., p. 6.

Draft minutes of the Technical Committee meeting 2003 in Antwerp, p. 7 in IABSE archive.

First electronic IABSE Newsletter, October 2nd, 2001; p. 2.

Personal communication from Past-President Manfred Hirt, December 30, 2010.

Interview with Kathy Gl¨unkin, SEI 2(99): p. 149.

Interview with J¨org Schneider, SEI 4(91): p. 60.

Wex. Bulletin B 26(83): p. 9.

Edlund. SEI 4(97): pp. 314–315; 4(99): pp. 307–308.

SEI 1993; 3(4): p. 272.

Personal communications from J¨org Schneider, March 16th, 2010 and Past-President Manfred Hirt December 30th, 2010.

Bulletin #21, 1962; p. 10.

206 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

135.

136.

137.

138.

139.

140.

141.

142.

143.

144.

145.

146.

147.

148.

149.

150.

151.

152.

153.

154.

155.

156.

157.

158.

159.

160.

161.

162.

163.

164.

165.

166.

167.

168.

169.

170.

171.

172.

173.

174.

175.

176.

177.

178.

179.

180.

181.

Bulletin #11, 1952; p. 5.

Bulletin #10: pp. 3–5.

Permanent Committee Meeting 1951 Lisbon, reported in Bulletin #11, 1952; p. 5.

Permanent Committee Meeting 1952 Cambridge reported in Bulletin #12: pp. 10–11.

This view is supported by Yves Saillard in 75o compleanno di Franco Levi. Testimonianze Testimonials. Politecnico di Torino 1989; pp. 185–216. See also: Levi, Franco. Cinquante ans d’histoire du b´eton arm´e. Presses de ENPC, 2005; pp. 42–43.

Letter from Fritz St¨ussi to Executive Committee, May 1, 1958 (IABSE archive).

International Committee for Shell Structures, Second Meeting, held in Berlin, 5-V-58 (IASS archive), pp. 2–3, communicated by Ulrich Brunner February 26th, 2010.

Minutes of the Liaison Committee meeting in Stockholm, June 29th, 1960 (IABSE archive), and Saillard. op. cit., p. 199.

FEB website.

Letter Cambournac to Levi, December 22nd, 1960 (IABSE archive).

Letter St¨ussi to Cambournac, December 2nd, 1959 (IABSE archive).

Personal discussion with Past-President Maurice Cosandey and Alain Golay, April 15th, 2010.

Information from Executive Director Ulrich Brunner, February 2010.

Bulletin #21, 1962; p. 10. ibid., pp. 10–11.

To serve members. SEI, 2(94): p. 129.

Bulletin B 39(86): p. 32.

Bulletin #7: p. 6.

Pigeaud in Proceedings of the 1948 Congress, p. 74 (IABSE archive).

Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting of December 1930; p. 4; Minutes of the Executive Committee, May 17, 1932; p. 2 (IABSE archive); & 1932 Congress, Preliminary Publication, 1: p. 7 (IABSE archive).

Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 12; undated (1930) “Zur gefl. Beachtung” (IABSE archive).

Undated and unsigned manuscript among notes of the founding and early years of the IABSE in the archive 1929–1932 (IABSE archive).

SBZ, 99: pp. 135, 136, 222.

SBZ, 100: p. 39. ibid., pp. 38–40. ibid., p. 54.

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting, May 17, 1932; p. 3 (IABSE archive). ibid., p. 2.

Bulletin #1, 1933; p. 14.

Bulletin #2, August 1st, 1934; p. 8.

Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting of April 10th, 1934; p. 6 (IABSE archive).

Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting of June 5th, 1935; p. 8 (IABSE archive).

Bulletin 4, 1935; p. 5.

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of June 4th, 1935; pp. 3–4 (IABSE archive).

Rohn letter to Executive Committee members, November 18th, 1935; pp. 1–2 (IABSE archive).

Rohn to Executive Committee members, January 20th, 1936 (IABSE archive).

Rohn to Caffarelli January 20th, 1936 (IABSE archive).

Circular letter by Rohn and Ritter dated January 25th, 1936 (IABSE archive).

Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 12.

Circular letter by Karner and Ritter dated January 28th, 1936; p. 1 (IABSE archive). ibid., pp. 1–2 (IABSE archive).

Obituary in Ser Stahlbau, January 1952; 21(1): p. 18.

Second Congress Report Booklet, 1936; pp. 8, 58–59 (IABSE archive).

Circular letter by Rohn and Ritter, February 6th, 1936 (IABSE archive).

Circular letter to the members of the Permanent Committee, May 11th, 1936 (IABSE archive).

Freiherr Paul von Eltz-R¨ubenach’s opening speech, Final Report of the 1936 Congress, p. 3 (IABSE archive). ibid., p. 3.

207 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

182. G. Caffarelli’s speech at the opening ceremony, Final Report of the 1936 Congress, p. 12 (IABSE archive).

183. Rohn’s speech at the opening ceremony, p. 7 (IABSE archive).

184. Manuscript, p. 1. “Ein Idealist gr¨ossten Ausmasses im Glauben an das zu unternehmende Werk, zugleich ein Realist und sch¨arfster Denker in dessen Verwirklichung. Ist das nicht die sch¨onste Definition des Ingenieurs. . .” (IABSE archive).

185. Manuscript in archive, p. 8.

186. Kl¨onne’s speech at the opening ceremony, 1936 Congress Final Report, p. 14 (IABSE archive).

187. According to Kl¨onne’s biography in Wikipedia.

188. Ferdinand Campus in Proceedings of the 1948 Congress, p. 80 (IABSE archive).

189. Todt’s speech at the opening ceremony, 1932 Congress Final Report, p. 24 (IABSE archive).

190. SBZ, 1936; 108(21): p. 229.

191. Carl Jegher wrote in ibid., p. 229, 1100 participants from 36 countries.

192. ibid., p. 230.

193. ibid., p. 232.

194. ibid.

195. Rohn’s closing speech at the 1936 Berlin Congress, Final Report (IABSE archive).

196. SBZ, 1936; 108(21): p. 232–233: “als letzter Kontrast alter und neuer Kulturformen—eines NSGautag-Appels auf dem K¨onigsplatz, mit 47’000 uniformierten Teilnehmern, einem Wald von Fahnen, Musik und einer Gauleiter-Rede, eines f¨ur die Kenntnis des neuen Deutschlands sehr aufschlussreichen Schauspiels, als Abschluss von 16 Tagen starker Eindr¨ucke verschiedenster Art.” 197. Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting, September 30th, 1936; p. 8 (IABSE archive).

198. Permanent Committee meeting, June 2nd, 1939 in Zurich, Bulletin #7: p. 5.

199. Noted in a letter Kl¨onne to Rohn, January 8, 1938 and letter of January 17th, mentioning Karner and naming Andreae (IABSE archive).

200. Addenda to Andreae’s circular letter of October 19th, 1939 (IABSE archive), and Bulletin #7, January 1941; p. 4.

201. Circular letter by Andreae, October 19th, 1939, right after the German invasion of Poland (IABSE archive).

202. Letter dated May 4th, 1946 (IABSE archive).

203. President Andreae in Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting of October 4th, 1946; p. 8 (IABSE archive).

204. Bulletin #8: p. 10.

205. Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting of October 4th, 1946; p. 8 (IABSE archive).

206. Kl¨onne to Andreae, November 22nd, 1946: “Die anst¨andigen Deutschen haben schmerzlich gelitten unter diesen unw¨urdigen Geschehnissen, sie weise es weit von sich, mit diesen Dingen identifiziert zu werden. Ich erkenne ohne Einschr¨ankung ein, dass es f¨ur das Ausland schwer wenn nicht unm¨oglich war, eine Unterscheidung zwischen Beteiligten und Unbeteiligten, zwischen Schuldigen und Unschuldigen zu machen. Das ganze Volk wurde belastet mit dieser Hypotek von Grausamkeit und Wahnsinn.” (IABSE archive).

207. Bulletin #9, September 1949; p. 9.

208. Minutes of the 13th meeting for the Permanent Committee, March 8th, 1948; pp. 1–4 (IABSE archive) and SBZ, 1948; 66(13): p. 184.

209. Minutes of the Permanent Committee meeting, April 4th–5th, 1930; p. 2 (IABSE archive).

210. Personal communication from Aarne Jutila, February 24th, 2010.

211. Minutes Permanent Committee April 28th, 1951; p. 3.

212. Personal communication from Past-President Hans von Gunten, February 23rd, 2010.

213. Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 14.

214. Ferdinand Campus in Proceedings of 1948 Congress, p. 81 (IABSE archive). He erroneously mentioned 1945 as the year of Bryla’s murder, and Andreae mentioned 1944 in his letter of May 4th, 1946. The Bulletin #8: p. 1 and all Polish Internet sources mention 1943.

215. Obituary, Bulletin #8: pp. 3–4.

216. Proceedings of the 1948 Li`ege Congress, pp. 89, 93 (IABSE archive), SBZ, 1948; 66: p. 636.

217. SBZ, 1948; 66(46): pp. 634–637.

218. ibid., p. 634. “. . .dieser III. Kongress der I.V.B.H. ein voller Erfolg war und die beiden fr¨uheren Kongresse in Paris 1932 und Berlin 1936 u¨ bertroffen hat. W¨ahrenddem der I. Kongress in Paris

208 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

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220.

221.

222.

223.

224.

225.

226.

227.

228.

229.

230.

231.

232.

233.

234.

235.

236.

237.

238.

239.

240.

241.

242.

243.

244.

245.

246.

247.

248.

249.

250.

251.

252.

253.

254.

255.

256.

257.

258.

259.

260.

261.

262.

263.

noch gegen die u¨ blichen Anfangsschwierigkeiten anzuk¨ampfen hatte und die damaligen Exkursionen und Abendunterhaltungen nicht alle Kongressteilnehmer befriedigten, der II. Kongress in Berlin auch unvoreingenommenen Ausl¨andern die Gefahr des nationalsozialistischen Deutschlands vor Augen f¨uhrte, war der III. Kongress in L¨uttich ein in allen Teilen vorz¨uglich organisierter Kongress, der die wissenschaftliche, praktische und freundschaftliche Zusammenarbeit f¨orderte und von welchem jeder Ausl¨ander nur mit grosser Bewunderung f¨ur Belgien nach Hause zur¨uckkehrte.”

Minister Behogne in Proceedings of he 1948 Li`ege Congress, pp. 83–84 (IABSE archive).

SBZ 1948; 66(46): p. 635.

SBZ, 70: pp. 651–653.

List of Members, fourth Congress, Cambridge (IABSE archive).

Journal of Civil Engineering 1953 1(1): pp. 13–21.

Personal information from Jacques Heyman who was there. April 26th, 2010.

Bulletin #16, 1957; p. 13; and report in IABSE archive.

B16(80): p. 47.

Bulletin #21, 1962; pp. 10–11.

Bulletin, #18, 1959; pp. 12–14.

Bulletin #21, 1961; p. 6.

Information from former Vice-President Gilson Marchesini.

Bulletin #23(24), 1967; pp. 10–13.

Bulletin #21, 1962; pp. 10–11.

Bulletin #25, 1969; pp. 4–5.

Interview J¨org Schneider with Yukio Maeda, SEI 4.91, and personal communication from J¨org Schneider, February 22nd, 2010.

Bulletin B 48(89): p. 1.

President Hans von Gunten, IABSE Report 1986; 52, foreword, p. 3.

Personal communication from Past-President Manabu Ito March 9th, 2010.

Personal communication from Past-President Hans von Gunten.

Bulletin #25, 1969; p. 7.

Obituary, Bulletin B 25(83): p. 2.

Proceedings of the 1972 Amsterdam Congress, preface (IABSE archive).

Personal communication from Hans von Gunten March 16th, 2010.

The prediction was correct, but Leonhardt’s timeframe was a little off. English became the only official language of IABSE in 2010.

Leonhardt. Proceedings of the 1976 Tokyo Congress, p. 499 (IABSE archive).

Bulletin #1(77): p. 5.

Bulletin, B 13(80): pp. 4–5 with a list of recipients.

Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 17.

Th¨urlimann in ibid., pp. 73–76.

“Before you are engineers you are first and foremost human beings”, Th¨urlimann. Proceedings of the 1980 Congress, p. 8 (IABSE archive).

Wex. Proceedings of the 1980 Congress, pp. 1129–30 (IABSE archive).

Personal communication December 13, 2010.

Th¨urlimann. Proceedings of the 1984 Congress, Preface (IABSE archive).

Wittfoht. ibid., p. 1236. von Gunten, Hans. Preface, IABSE Report, 55: p. 3. von Gunten, Hans. Preface, Post Conference Proceedings of the 1988 Congress, p. 3 (IABSE archive).

Personal communication from J¨org Schneider.

Nyborg opening speech communicated by J¨org Schneider.

Bulletin #21, 1962; pp. 10–11.

Interview with Kathy Gl¨unkin in SEI 2(99): p. 149.

Information from Sissel Niggeler January 20th, 2011.

SEI 2007; 4: p. 281.

Interview with Past-President Maurice Cosandey and Alain Golay, April 15th, 2010.

Heyman, Jacques. The Science of Structural Engineering. Imperial College Press: London, 1999; pp. 94–102; and personal communication May 2010.

209 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

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265.

266.

267.

268.

269.

270.

271.

272.

273.

274.

275.

276.

277.

278.

279.

280.

281.

282.

283.

284.

285.

286.

287.

288.

289.

290.

291.

292.

293.

294.

295.

296.

297.

298.

299.

300.

301.

302.

303.

304.

305.

306.

307.

308.

309.

310.

311.

312.

313.

314.

315.

Bulletin #21, 1962; pp. 10–11.

Bulletin #25, 1969; p. 7.

Ziesel, Wolfdietrich. Toward the ‘new engineer’. SEI 1997; 7(1): pp. 61–62.

Bulletin #7: p. 5.

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting, September 28th, 1933; p. 6 (IABSE archive).

Bulletin #9: pp. 3–4.

Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 12.

Bulletin #1, September 1933; p. 27.

Bulletin #3, June 1935; p. 32.

Bulletin #5, 1935; p. 12.

Bulletin #6, 1939; pp. 78–95.

Bulletin #7: p. 4.

President Fritz St¨ussi in foreword to Reports of the Working Commissions no. 1.

Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 17.

Editorial by President Hans von Gunten, SEI 1(91): p. 3.

Editorial by Ulrich Brunner, SEI 2010; 1: p. 5.

Bulletin B 21(82): p. 5.

Technical Committee Chair Manfred Hirt reporting in Extracts of Minutes of the Technical Committee, Lucerne 2000; p. 1 (IABSE archive).

Draft document 2, July 22nd, 2002; p. 1 (IABSE archive). ibid, Malta 2001.

Information for the whole of this section from Sissel Niggeler.

SEI 1993; 3: p. 200.

Information from Mourad Bakhoum, January 16th, 2011. ibid., citing an editorial in SEI 2(99).

See his editorial as chair of the Publications Committee in his editorial SEI 3(93).

Minutes Permanent Committee October 4th, 1946; p. 8.

Minutes Permanent Committee, March 8th, 1946, reported also in SBZ, 1948; 66(13): p. 184.

Interview with Past-President Maurice Cosandey and Alain Golay April 15th, 2010.

Interview with Past-President Maurice Cosandey and Alain Golay, April 15th, 2010.

Bulletin #9, September 1949; p. 7.

Bulletin #18, 1959; p. 11.

Bulletin #21, 1961; p. 6.

Bulletin #22, 1963; p. 4.

Document of August 28th, 1994 communicated by J¨org Schneider.

Minutes of the Executive and Permanent Committee meetings, June 1st–5th, 1939; p. 3 (IABSE archive).

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting, June 4th, 1935; p. 5 (IABSE archive).

List in IABSE Archive.

Personal communication from Alain Golay, April 21st, 2010.

Personal communication from Alain Golay, March 16th, 2010.

Bulletin #25, 1969; p. 9.

Bulletin B 43(87): pp. 19–20.

Bulletin B 46(88): p. 26.

Bulletin #6, June 1939; p. 3.

SBZ, 1964; 82: pp. 891–892.

Bulletin #11, 1952; p. 3.

Bulletin #7, 1941; p. 5.

Bulletin #18, 1959; p. 13.

Biography in Kurrer, op. cit., pp. 717–18.

Some of these dates and facts stem from Wikipedia and are not confirmed.

Voormann, Friedmar. The Use of Welding in Civil Engineering—Conditions of a Technological Innovation in the 1920s. Proceedings of the Third International Congress on Construction History 2009 Cottbus; 3: p. 1475.

Discussion of Otto Kommerell’s paper by Bryła in 1932 Congress Final Report, pp. 240–245.

All Polish sources mention December 3rd, 1943 as the date of execution.

210 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

316.

317.

318.

319.

320.

321.

322.

323.

324.

325.

326.

327.

328.

329.

330.

331.

332.

333.

334.

335.

336.

337.

338.

339.

340.

341.

342.

343.

344.

345.

346.

347.

348.

349.

350.

351.

352.

353.

354.

355.

356.

357.

358.

Obituary, Bulletin #8: pp. 3–4.

Kurrer, op. cit., p. 465.

Obituary, Bulletin #20: p. 54.

Bulletin #10: pp. 3–4.

Obituary, Bulletin B 27(83): p. 25. “(Sa) Haute culture lui permettait d’avoir la vue g´en´erale et pr´ecise de tous les e´ l´ements physiques et chimiques qui limitent nos possibilit´es. Particuli`erement ses conaissances en e´ lasticit´e des mat´eriaux, en plasticit´e, en m´ecanique des fluids lui permettaient de faire progresser nos connaissances dans le comportement si complexe des solides.” Cited In Materials and Structures, July 1983; 16(4): p. 309.

Bulletin #9, September 1949; p. 5.

Interview between Yukio Maeda and President Hans von Gunten, SEI 4(93): p. 271.

Information from Past-President Maurice Cosandey, April 15th, 2010.

Bulletin #25, 1969; p. 9.

Information from Past-President Maurice Cosandey, April 15th, 2010. ibid. ibid.

Cosandey’s concluding remarks of the discussion of the bylaw revision of 1974, reported in Bulletin #31, 1975; p. 7: “L’esprit avec lequel on travaille est encore plus important que le texte.”

Note of October 24th, 1977 in the Timby file (IABSE archive).

Schindler, A. Bulletin B 16(80): p. 43.

President Manfred Hirt’s remarks while conferring Honorary Membership on Alain Golay in 2006 (IABSE archive).

Cosandey. Bulletin B 19(81).

Obituary by Gehri, Ernst. Bulletin 23(24): pp. 9–10.

Personal information from J¨org Schneider, July 06, 2010. ibid.

Robert, Henry M. Robert’s Rules of Order, first published in 1907 and many times since then to the present; Adolph Kreisberg, The ABC of Democracy, 1943.

Obituary by Max Ritter in SBZ, 1937; 109: p. 282.

Personal communication from J¨org Schneider, March 16th, 2010.

Wikipedia citing Reichshandbuch der Deutschen Gesellschaft. Munich 1995, and: Ralf Stremmel, “Kl¨onne, Franz Mathias Moritz” in Bohrmann Hans, ed., Biographien bedeutender Dortmunder Menschen in, aus und f¨ur Dortmund. Essen, 2001.

Letter from Cosandey and Golay to Kokubu March 18th, 1977 in IABSE archive.

Stahlbau, September 2005; 74: p. 718.

Ostenfeld, C. op. cit., p. 121. ibid., p. 15. ibid., p. 46. ibid., p. 50. ibid., pp. 36–38. ibid., p. 105.

Interview with Kathy Gl¨unkin in SEI 2(99): p. 148.

Interview between Yukio Maeda and President Hans von Gunten, SEI 4(93): p. 271.

Interview with President Klaus Ostenfeld, COWI Group News, August 1999; p. 23.

Louis Grelot in Bulletin #9, September 1st, 1949; p. 2. ibid., p. 2. ibid., p. 1. ibid., p. 3.

SBZ, 1956; pp. 74: 729–730.

Bulletin #6, June 1939; p. 2.

Speich, Daniel. “Die Helvetisierung der Dozentenschaft”, http://www.ethistory.ethz.ch/ besichtigungen/touren/vitrinen/politkarrieren/vitrine33 “Insbesondere in den 1930er-Jahren r¨uckte die Frage der Internationalit¨at der ETH in den Deutungshorizont fremdenfeindlicher Diskurse. 1932 reichte eine Gruppe schweizerischer Studenten und Assistenten bei der Z¨urcher Fremdenpolizei eine Beschwerde ein, mit der die ETH-Professoren verpflichtet werden sollten.” In Hinblick auf

211 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

359.

360.

361.

362.

363.

364.

365.

366.

367.

368.

369.

370.

371.

372.

373.

374.

375.

376.

die grosse Zahl arbeitsloser Ingenieure” bei der Anstellung von Assistenten k¨unftig Schweizer zu bevorzugen” (Schulratsprotokolle, SR2:1932, 17.9.1932, 80). ibid.

Erni, op. cit., p. 11.

Guggenb¨uhl, op. cit., p. 154.

Kurrer , op. cit., pp. 127, 451.

Erni, op. cit., p. 15: “Die ausgepr¨agte und oft spontan sich a¨ ussernde Individualit¨at von Prof.

Roˇs war nicht immer leicht oder bequem, haupts¨achlich dort, wo sich ganz verschiedene Charaktere begegneten. Doch seine frische, lebensvolle, gewinnende Wesensart konnte hierin manche Gegens¨atze u¨ berbr¨ucken und Situationen meistern.”

Kurrer, op. cit., p. 689.

Neal, Bernard George & Symonds, Paul Southworth. The interpretation of failure loads in the plastic theory of continuous beams and frames. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences. 1952; 19(15): pp. 15–22.

Kurrer, op. cit., p. 689 (see also pp. 134–136).

Personal communication by J¨org Schneider, March 16th, 2010.

Information from Past-President Maurice Cosandey April 15th, 2010.

Bulletin #23(24), 1967; p. 14.

Bulletin #23(24), 1967; p. 24.

Tschepper & Aichhorn, op. cit., p. 12.

Bulletin, #18 1959; pp. 12–14.

One of his former students, Ernst Basler remembers a curious incident that illustrates St¨ussi’s sometimes illogical intolerance: the students were anxious to learn about the method of moment distribution in three-dimensional frames developed by Hardy Cross in the late 1920s. St¨ussi refused, stating that it was a “Communist method” that he refused to consider! Personal communication from Ernst Basler, February 11th, 2011.

Bulletin B 36(85): pp. 32–33.

Communication from Past-President Hans von Gunten, March 16th, 2010.

Kurrer, Karl-Eugen. The History of the Theory of Structures. Ernst & Sohn: Berlin, 2008; p. 465.

212 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Index of Names (Associated with IABSE)

Abe, Masato (b. 1967), 176, 197 Adams, Peter F. (b. 1936), 95, 192, 196 Aichhorn, Josef (1912–2006), 92, 135, 192, 196, 203 Alarc´on, Enrique (b. 1942), 102 Alekseev, Vladimir V., 101 Alimchandani, Chander R. (b. 1935), 196 Alvarez, Manuel, 198 Alves de Noronha, Antonio (1904–1962), 84, 192 Ammann, Othmar Hermann (1879–1965), 79, 87, 116, 163, 169, 193 Amstutz, Eduard (1903–1985), 61 Anderson, John E. (b. 1980), 198 Anderson, William Victor (b. 1946), 46 Andreae, Charles Hermann (1874–1964), 5, 73–75, 78, 80, 135, 136, 191, 195 Andrews, Ewart Sigmund (1883–1956), 73, 75, 80, 192 Appleyard, Leigh (b. 1946), 107 Arantes e Oliveira, E., 108 Araujo, F. J. Correia de, 88 Arup, Ove Nykvist (1895–1988), 162, 171 Ashcombe, 3rd Baron. Roland Calvert Cubitt (1899–1962), 80

Basler, Ernst (b. 1929), 212 Beare, Sir Thomas Hudson (1859–1940), 17, 75, 192 Beedle, Lynn S. (1918–2003), 56, 57, 88, 117, 119, 164, 172, 173, 196 Beer, Hermann (1973), 87–89, 123, 193 Belard da Fonseca, Jos´e de Mascarenhas Pedroso (1899–1969), 84, 192 Bener, Gustav (1873–1946), 15 Bergfelt, Allan (1915–2004), 84 Bijlaard, Paul Pieter (1898–1967), 193 Billington, David Peter (b. 1928), 174 Biondini, Fabio (b. 1967), 198 Blaauwendraad, Johan (b. 1940), 97, 102 Bleich, Friedrich (1878–1950), 7, 15, 18, 69, 115, 137, 145, 158, 159, 160, 168, 193 Bleich, Hans Heinrich (1909–1985), 137 Bogle, Annette (b. 1968), 202 Bohny, Friedrich (1867), 1 Bolleter, E., 4 Bornemann, Erich (1896–1984), 74, 193 Bouma, Adolf Lubbertus, 94 Braestrup, Mikael W. (b. 1945), 43, 104, 178, 197 Brainov, Milcho (1922), 29, 31, 192 Branco, Fernando A. (b. 1953), 125, 126, 175–177, 191, 193, 194 Braun, Benjamin, 201 Breen, John E. (b. 1932), 100, 175–177, 196 Breitschaft, G¨unter (b. 1929), 101 Brozzetti, Jacques, 193, 194 Bruggeling, A. S. G., 97 Br¨uhwiler, Eugen (b. 1958), 43, 123, 136, 194, 198 Brunner, Josef (1889), 160 Brunner, Ueli (Ulrich Thomas) (b. 1957), xiv, 37, 43, 108, 137, 151, 194 Bruno, Luca (b. 1971), 198

Bachmann, Hugo (b. 1935), 198 Badoux, Jean-Claude (b. 1935), xiii, xiv, 51, 87, 94, 106, 136, 150, 164, 175, 195, 198 Bailey, Simon F. (b. 1963), 104, 123, 194 Baker, John Fleetwood, Lord Baker of Windrush (1901–1985), 115, 169 Baker, William Frazier (b. 1953), 178 Bakhoum, Mourad Michel (b. 1959), xiv, 43, 52, 125, 197, 210 B¨anziger, Jakob (b. 1927), 131 Barkhausen, 160 Baron, Frank Martin (1914–1994), 83, 164

213 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Bryła, Stefan Włsadysław (1886–1943), 6, 28, 73, 74, 76, 78, 138, 168, 192 B¨uhler, Adolf (1882–1951), 4, 15 Burgueno, Rigoberto (b. 1969), 202

Eckhardt, Christian (b. 1977), 201 Edlund, Bo Lennart Ossian (b. 1936), xiv, 47, 94, 96, 104, 144, 173–176, 191, 193–195 Eiffel, Gustave (1832–1923), 99 El-Demirdash, Ibrahim Adham, 152 Eltz-R¨ubenach, Freiherr (Peter) Paul von (1875–1943), 69–71, 207 Emperger, Fritz (Friedrich Ignaz, Edler) von (1862–1942), 5, 6, 8, 15, 63, 65, 66, 114, 137, 168 Engelund, Anker Dolleris (1889–1961), 17, 66, 75, 156, 193 Esquillan, Nicolas (1902–1989), 59, 60, 192, 197

Caffarelli, Giuseppe, 67, 70, 208 Calatrava i Vals, Santiago (b. 1951), 197 Cambournac, Louis (1886–1973), 39, 58, 60, 75, 136, 139, 168, 171, 192, 193, 196 Campos e Matos, Maria Em´ılia (b. 1922), 84, 127 Campus, Ferdinand (1894–1983), 4, 15, 18, 55, 58, 71, 75, 77, 78, 139, 141, 148, 168–170, 192, 193, 196, 203, 205, 208 Caquot, Albert (1881–1976), 10, 140, 168 Cardoso, Edgar (1913–2000), 99 Castrischer, Ulrich (b. 1971), 201 Chakraborty, Sudhangsu Sekhar (b. 1937), 50, 105, 108, 136, 176, 191, 195 Chang, Sung-Pil (b. 1943), 107, 191 Chettoe, Cyril Stapley (1893–1963), 80, 193, 196 Chow, Philip, 198 Chung, Soong-Yeal, 107 Clausen, Per (b. 1945), 102 Cobo del Arco, Diego (b. 1968), 198 Combault, Jacques Maurice (b. 1943), xiv, 108–110, 141, 142, 175, 177, 190, 191, 194, 199, 200, 201 Cosandey, Maurice (b. 1918), xiv, 48, 86, 88, 89, 114, 127, 129, 135, 142, 143, 190, 191, 194–196, 207, 209–211 Cowan, Henry Jacob (1919–2007), 170, 175 Cremer, Jean-Marie, 176, 177, 196 Cremona, Christian (b. 1965), 178, 197 Croci, Giorgio (b. 1936), 102 Cross, Hardy (1885–1959), 212 Cubitt, see Ashcombe, 80

Faber, Michael Havbro (b. 1961), 61 Faltus, Frantiˇsek (1901–1989), 145 Fanelli, Michele A. (b. 1931), 91, 95 Fantucci, Vittorio Umberto (1883–1957), 65–67, 192 Farkas, Gy¨orgy (b. 1947), 109 Farmer, David, 100 Fava, Alberto (1877–1952), 67, 168 Favre, Henry (1901–1966), 77, 148 Fechtig, Robert (b. 1931), 31, 50, 51, 194, 195 Fehling, Ekkehard (b. 1959), 197 Fern´andez Canteli, Alfonso Carlos (b. 1945), 102 Ferry Borges, J´ulio (1922–1993), 59, 61, 88, 98, 169, 171–173, 196, 197 Finsterwalder, Ulrich (1897–1988), 168, 170, 171, 173, 197 Finzi, Leo (1924–2002), 171, 173, 175, 176, 192, 196, 197 Firth, Ian (b. 1956), 46 Fisher, John W. (b. 1931), 150, 164, 172, 174, 175, 177, 196 Fontana, Mario (b. 1954), 175, 191, 198 Fox, Gerard Francis (1923–2008), 94, 99, 136, 174, 192, 196 Frandsen, Aksel G. (b. 1924), 100, 136, 195 Frangi, Andrea (b. 1971), 198, 201 Frangopol, Dan Mircea (b. 1946), 58, 198 Freyssinet, Eug`ene (1879–1962), 10, 56, 66, 67, 115, 168, 169 Fritsche, Josef, 168 Fr¨ohlich, 6 Fujino, Yozo (b. 1949), 176, 177, 191 Fujita, Kaori (b. 1970), 197 Fukumoto, Yuhshi (b. 1932), 105

Danusso, Arturo (1880–1968), 67, 155 Davenport, Alan G. (1932–2009), 173, 175–177, 196 Deroubaix, Bertrand (b. 1955), 197 Despeyroux, Jean, 192, 193 Devall´ee, A., 77, 79 Dischinger, Franz (1887–1953), 74 Dorton, Roger A. (b. 1929), 95, 101, 175, 177, 191, 196 Do Valle, Gilberto M. Barbosa (b. 1932), 192 Dreyfus, Sylvain, 64 Dubas, Pierre (1924–2006), 84, 86, 136, 171, 172, 174, 193, 196 Dunai, L´aszl´o (b. 1958), 109 Duplaix, Marcelin (–1933), 65

Galambos, Theodore V. (1929), 94 Garcia, Luis E, (b, 1948), 198 Garrelts, Jewell M. (1904–1994), 86, 192, 193 Garrett, James H. Jr. (b. 1951), 125, 176, 177, 194, 197 Ge, Yaojun (b. 1958), 110, 191

214 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Gehri, Ernst (b. 1934), 36, 37, 129, 174, 175, 195, 211 Giangreco, Elio (b. 1924), 95 Gilg, Bernard E., 81, 170, 171 Gimsing, Niels Jørgen (b. 1935), 103, 106, 136, 174, 175, 177, 195, 198 Giroux, Yves M., 57, 89 Glanzmann, Thomas (b. 1944), 52 Godard, Th., 11, 18, 168, 193 Golay, Alain (b. 1943), xi, xiv, 29–31, 37, 47, 57, 88, 104, 108, 128, 129, 135, 137, 145, 147, 161, 194, 195, 206, 207, 209, 210, 211 Gotfredsen, Hans-Henrik, 39, 98 Grattesat, Guy, 172 Grelot, Louis (1888–1970), 19, 58, 193, 196, 204, 205, 211 Gretener, Lily (1903–1966), 36, 60, 74, 85, 127–129, 147, 148, 195 Grundy, Paul (b. 1935), 44, 50, 107, 136, 173, 195 G¨unther, Hans Peter (b. 1971), 202 G¨ulkan, Polat (b. 1944), 104 Gulvanessian, Haig (b. 1941), 103 von Gunten, Hans (b. 1930), xiv, 30, 31, 38, 44, 51, 86, 92, 93, 98, 123, 142, 143, 148, 190, 191, 193–195, 206, 208–212 Guyon, Yves (1899–1975), 56 Gvozdev, Aleksei Alekseevich (1897–1986), 115

Høj, Niels Peter (b. 1959), 177, 197 Holder, E., 4 Holmberg, L. F., 156 Howard, Ernest E. (1880–1953), 193 Hubacher, C., 66 H¨ubner, Fritz, 4 Huber, Maksymilian Tytus (1872–1950), 74, 168 Hugi, Hans (b. 1927), 175 Ikeda, Hajime (b.1942), 52 Inayama, Yoshihiro (1904–1987), 90 Ingvarsson, Hans (b. 1947), 105, 106 Ishida, Tetsuya (b. 1971), 197 Isler, Heinz (1926–2009), 174 Ito, Manabu (b. 1930), xiv, 44, 86, 89, 105, 151, 174–177, 190–192, 194–196, 209 Iyengar, Srinivasa (Hal) (b. 1934), 176 Janss, Jos´e, 100 Jegher, Carl (1874–1945), 18, 67, 71, 72, 208 Jirsa, James O. (b. 1938), 103 Jurecka, Walter (1915–1994), 92 Jutila, Aarne E. (b. 1940), xiv, 52, 107, 152, 176, 191, 208 Karner, Leopold (1888–1937), 7, 11, 15, 17, 35, 71, 152, 168, 193 Kaufmann, Walter (b. 1967), 198 Kawaguchi, Mamoru (b. 1932), 196 Kayvani, Kourosh (b. 1966), 197 Kazinczy, G´abor von (1889–1964), 114, 168 Kerensky, Oleg Aleksandrovich (1905–1984), 170–172, 197 Kersken-Bradley, Marita (b. 1949), 170–172, 197 Khan, Fazlur Rahman (1929–1982), 116, 173, 197 Kiattikomol, Kraiwood, 105 Kiviluoma, Risto (b. 1967), 109, 197 Kl¨onne, Franz Mathias Moritz (1878–1962), 15, 17, 39, 65, 70, 75, 130, 141, 148, 153, 159, 164, 168, 192 Kl¨oppel, Kurt (1901–1985), 168 Kollbrunner, Curt Friedrich (1907–1983), 78, 168, 169, 171, 172 Kokubu, Masatane (1914–2004), 89, 94, 97, 154, 173, 174, 192, 197 Kommerell, Otto, 210 Koshi, Ninan (b. 1936), 101, 176, 196 Kuhlmann, Ulrike (b. 1957), 109, 197 Kuhlmann, Wolfram (b. 1974), 201 K¨unzle, Otto (b. 1943), 194 Kurvinen, Niilo (1933–2008), 192

Hafner, Anton, 7 Halder, Franz (1884–1972), 154 Hanson, John M. (b. 1932), xiv, 26, 27, 31, 38, 49, 123, 135, 149, 164, 175, 190–192, 194, 195 Happold, Sir Edmund (1930–1996), 94, 97, 174–176 Harris, Sir Alan James (1916–2000), 59, 171 Hartman Friedrich (1876–1945), 7, 137, 168, 204 Hawranek, Alfred (1878–1951), 2, 10, 114, 116, 168 Head, Peter (b. 1947), 175, 176, 178, 196 Heggade, Veerendra N. (b. 1962), 197 Heinerscheid, Ren´e, 96 Henderson, William (1912–1980), 83, 85, 171, 172, 174, 192, 196 Heyman, Jacques (b. 1926), 115, 169, 173, 209 Hillemeier, Bernd H. (b. 1941), 104 Hirai, Atsushi (1908–1993), 171, 192, 196 Hirt, Manfred A. (b. 1942), xiv, 44, 45, 47, 52, 86, 94, 99, 104, 110, 124, 126, 137, 150, 157, 164, 190, 191, 193–195, 201, 202, 206, 210, 211 Hjort, K. G., 84, 192 Hofacker, Hans (b. 1933), 194 Hofacker, Karl (1897–1991), 2, 42, 69, 168, 169

Lacroix, Roger (b. 1928), 97 Landberg, 76

215 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Lardy, Pierre (1903–1958), 58, 79, 148, 164, 169, 193 Larsen, Allan, 198 Larsen, Ole Damg˚ard (1942–2007), 95, 107 Lee, David J. (1931–2001), 103 Lef`evre, Paul, 100 Leonhardt, Fritz (1909–1999), 59, 144, 172–175, 194, 196, 197 Levi, Franco (1914–2009), 40, 56, 59, 207 Li, Guohao (1913–2005), 108, 197 Liddell, Ian (b. 1938), 196, 198 Liew, J. Y. R., 178 Limsuwan, Ekasit (b. 1947), 105, 111, 191 Lin, T. Y. (Tung-Yen) (1912–2003), 175, 198 Lipson, Samuel Lloyd (1914–1989), 95 L¨ossl, Richard, 42, 129 Louis, Claude, 198 Louis, Henri (1912–1966), 79, 169, 170, 171, 192, 193 Louw, Cornelius Jan (1918–1990), 88, 192, 196 Lucas, Jean-Michel, 198 Lyse, Inge Martin (1898–1990), 59

Moncrieff, John Mitchell (1865–1931), 15, 17, 192 Morandi, Riccardo (1902–1989), 92 Muller, Jean M. (1925–2005), 142, 175, 196 Muto, Kiyoshi (1903–1989), 175, 197 Nakamura, Shun-Ichi (b. 1950), 198 Napoli, Paulo (b. 1949), 198 Natterer, Julius (b. 1938), 117, 174 Nervi, Pier Luigi (1891–1979), 59, 67 Nethercot, David A. (b. 1946), 104, 176, 191, 193, 194 Ni, W. D., 102 Nielsen, Mogens Peter (b. 1935), 92 Nieminen, Jiri (b. 1942), 98 Niggeler, Sissel (b. 1958), xiv, 125, 209, 210 Nihoul, Ren´e Armand (1909–1949), 79 Niwa, Junichiro (b.1956), 197 Noronha, Moema Para (b. 1962), 197 Nylander, Henrik (1914), 169, 173, 197 Oberti, Guido (1907–2003), 155 Ohlsson, Sven, 102 Okamura, Hajime (b. 1938), 198 Oladapo, Ifedayo Olawole (b. 1934), 192 Oliveira, Cristina, 201 Olnhausen, Werner von (b. 1928), 96 Ostenfeld, Asger Skovgaard (1866–1931), 15, 17, 39, 75, 138, 155, 156 Ostenfeld, Christian (1910–1976), 10, 155, 204 Ostenfeld, Jens Henrik Bjerre (b. 1973), 155 Ostenfeld, Klaus H. (b. 1943), xiv, 10, 26, 31, 40, 44, 45, 51, 52, 103, 118, 125, 131, 149, 156, 157, 175–177, 190–192, 194, 195, 200, 211 ¨ Ostlund, Lars, 83, 170, 175, 197

Macchi, Giorgio (b. 1930), 29, 31, 95, 102, 192 Maeda, Yukio (1922–2005), 29, 31, 45, 86, 89, 99, 104, 142, 143, 154, 155, 174–176, 194, 196, 209, 211 Magnel, Gustave (1889–1955), 80, 170 Maier-Leibnitz, Hermann (1885–1962), 114, 163, 168 Maillart, Robert (1872–1940), 2, 3, 10, 15, 66, 116, 122, 159, 161, 168 Malerba, P. Giorgio (b. 1947), 198 Manterola, Javier (b. 1936), 176, 196 Manuzio, Caterina, 87, 127 Marchesini, Gilson (b. 1946), 125, 191, 209 Marti, Peter (b. 1949), 198 Massonnet, Charles (1914–1996), 88, 169–174, 196 Mathivat, Jacques (b. 1932), 192 Matikainen, Yjr¨o (b. 1943), 107 McHenry, Douglas, 171, 172, 193 Meier, Urs, 198 Meli, Roberto, 198 Men´etrey, Philippe (b. 1963), 198 Menn, Christian (b. 1927), 131, 173, 176, 193, 196 Milne, Robert J. W., 135 Mino, Sadamu (2001), 94 Moe, Alfred J. (1895), 8–12, 34–36, 63, 64, 66, 71, 72, 78, 80, 205 Moersch, Emil (1872–1950), 10, 204 Mohr, (Christian) Otto (1835–1918), 9 Mola, Franco (b. 1946), 197

Parcel, John Ira (1878–1965), 171, 192, 193, 196 Passera, Rinaldo (b. 1945), 126 Paulay, Thomas (1923–2009), 196, 198 Pechar, Jiri J., 192 Petry, Wilhelm (1883–1936), 15, 18, 77, 153, 168, 193 Pigeaud, Gaston (1864–1950), 5, 11, 15, 17, 64, 137, 148, 158, 192, 196, 205 Pimanmas, Amorn (b. 1973), 198 Pompeu-Santos, Silvino (b. 1950), 191 Popovic, Predrag (Pete) L. (b. 1944), xi, 110, 190, 191 Pozzi, Angelo (b. 1932), 28, 29, 87, 91, 129, 143, 174, 175, 193, 194 Probst, Emil Heinrich (1877–1950), 2, 10

216 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Qin, Bohua (b. 1965), 197 Quinion, David W. (b. 1926), 103, 192

Shirley-Smith, Sir Hubert (1901–1981), 87, 170, 171, 192, 196 Sigrist, Viktor (b. 1960), 198 Sikkel, Lodewijk P., 94 Silman, Robert (b. 1935), 50, 51, 106, 117, 127, 162, 198 Singh, Anand Pravesh (b. 1979), 198 Skov Nielsen, Niels Christian (b. 1948), 109 Smith, Ian F. C. (b. 1955), 99, 103 Snijder, H. H. Bert (b. 1959), 43, 123 Sobrino, Juan (b. 1966), 197 Soimakallio, Helena, 109 Sorace, Stefano (b. 1959), 198 Soutter, Pierre E. (1899–1977), 20, 36, 128, 153, 195 Souza, S´ergio Marques de (1918–2002), 85, 106, 136, 192, 196 Spaethe, Gerhard, 105 Steffen, Anton F. (b. 1938), 52, 106, 130, 195 Steinemann, R. (Miss), 81, 127 Straub, Hans (1895–1962), 164 St¨ussi, Fritz (1901–1982), 4, 28, 56, 58, 66, 75, 79, 83, 128, 136, 141, 162, 164, 168, 169, 170–172, 191, 193, 195, 207, 210 Subba Rao, Tippur Narayanara (1928–2008), 29, 31, 101, 136, 176, 192, 195, 196 Suzumura, Keita, 198 Svensson Holger S. (b. 1945), 109, 178, 191

Rackwitz, R¨udiger (b. 1941), 61 Ramoa Correira, Joao (b. 1978), 201 Raspaud, Bernard (b. 1942), 174, 175, 191, 195 Ravara, Artur Pinto (b. 1938), 98 Reese, Raymond C., 87 Reineck, Karl-Heinz (b. 1941), 100 Reinitzhuber, Friedrich (1910–2001), 81, 170, 172, 173, 192, 196 Riccioni, Roberto (b. 1941), 192 Richard, Pierre, 97 Ritter, Max (1884–1946), 4, 7, 15, 19, 75, 153, 168, 193, 211 Robinson, J. R., 170, 172–174, 193 Rocha, Manuel Coelho Mendes da (1914–1981), 88 Rockey, Kenneth Charles (1980), 88 Rohn, Arthur (1878–1956), 1, 3, 4, 15, 35, 65, 136, 158, 159, 164, 191, 195 Roˇs, Mirko Gottfried (1879–1962), 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 59, 66, 116, 137, 158, 160, 168, 203 Roth, Paul Ludwig, 8 Roubin, Ernst (b. 1948), 192 Roy, Bidhan C. (b. 1944), 176, 191 R¨usch, Hubert (1904–1979), 56, 59, 170–172, 192 Rutner, Marcus (b. 1971), 201

Taerwe, Luc (b. 1952), 108, 176, 177, 197 Takanashi, Koichi (b. 1936), 178, 191 Takeda, Y., 97 Tang, Huan Cheng (b. 1926), 93, 174 Tang, M-C. (b. 1938), 178 Taplin, Goeff (b. 1956), 43, 124 Tarui, Toshimi, 198 Tedesko (Tedesco), Anton (1903–1994), xiii, 50, 51, 131, 157, 162, 197, 198 Terenzi, Gloria, 198 Terzaghi, Karl von (1883–1963), 66, 114, 168 Tetmajer, Ludwig von (1850–1905), 160 Thul, H., 192 Th¨urlimann, Bruno (1923–2008), 3, 28, 49, 57, 84, 86, 87, 89, 92, 95, 101, 113, 142, 149, 164, 165, 171–174, 190, 191, 193–196, 205 Timby, Elmer K. (1906–1992), 86, 87, 136, 144, 192, 196 Timerman, Julio (b. 1955), 191 Timoshenko, Stepan Prokofievich (1878–1972), 66, 73, 168 Todt, Fritz (1891–1942), 68, 69, 71 Torroja, Eduardo (1899–1961), 56, 58, 116, 169, 171, 193 Torroja, Jos´e Antonio (b. 1933), 87 Tortorella, Joseph F. (b. 1958), 110 Tschemmernegg, Ferdinand, 191

Sabado, Marvin (b. 1977), 198 Saillard, Yves (1924–2007), 60, 207 Saliger, Rudolf (1873–1958), 7, 168 Samuely, Felix James (1902–1959), 170 Sanchez-Ramirez, Roberto, 198 Santarella, Luigi (1886–1935), 4, 15, 67, 114, 168 Sarja, Asko (b. 1941), 102 Schlaich, J¨org B. (b. 1934), 96, 100, 125, 172, 175, 176, 191, 197, 198 Schmid, Walter A. (1923–2005), 92 Schmidt, Horst (b. 1927), 89 Schneider, J¨org (b. 1934), xiv, 26, 28, 29, 31, 38, 39, 42, 45, 47, 50, 57, 61, 86, 95, 100, 104, 107, 123–126, 147, 161, 175, 178, 192–195, 206, 209–212 Schumacher, Ann (b. 1971), 52 Sch¨ule, Franc¸ois Louis (1860–1925), 2 Scordelis, Alexander C. (1923–2007), 175, 198 Servant, Claude (b. 1947), 175, 176, 197 Sesini, Ottorino (1892–1983), 67, 168 Sfintesco, Duiliu (1909), 89 Sherbourne, Archibald Norbert (b. 1929), 57, 91 Sherlock, Robert Henry, 73

217 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

Wex, Bernard Patrick (1922–1990), 93, 94, 136, 174, 192, 194, 196 Winter, George (1907–1982), 87, 89, 169–173, 197 Wittfoht, Hans (b. 1924), 59, 96, 171, 174, 192, 194, 197 Wium, Jan A. (b. 1957), 191 Wood Antony, 178 Wyllie, Jr, Loring A. (b. 1938), 103, 136, 178, 191, 195, 201 Wyssling, Walter (1862–1945), 2

Vandepitte, Daniel (b. 1922), 100 Vandewalle, Lucie (b. 1958), 197 Velayutham, V. (b. 1947), 108 Venuti, Fiammetta (b. 1978), 198 Vierendeel, Arthur (1852–1940), 1, 2 Viest, Ivan M. (b. 1922), 87, 194 Vincentsen, Leif (b. 1946), 109 Virlogeux, Michel (b. 1946), 174–177, 196–198 Vos, Charles Jacques (2001), 105 Vrouwenvelder, Ton (b. 1947), 61, 103, 198 Waarts, Paul, 198 Wagemans, Leo (b. 1943), 108, 109, 119, 193, 194 Walt, Max, 193 Wang, Dalei (b. 1978), 201 Wartmann, Rudolf (1873–1930), 1, 3, 203 W¨astlund, Georg (1905–1980), 56, 60, 84, 87, 89, 122, 136, 170–173, 192, 193 Webb, John (b. 1960), 197 Weber, Benedikt, 198 Wendner, Roman (b. 1981), 201 Westbury, Paul, 198

Xiang, Hai-Fan (b. 1935), 52, 108, 110, 191, 198 Xu, Dong (b. 1966), 198 You, Qingzhong, 110, 178 Zandonini, Riccardo (b. 1948), 191 Zhang, Tongyi (b. 1974), 201 Zheng, S. (b. 1965), 178 Ziegler, Otto, 15 Zordan, Tobia (b. 1971), 52, 125, 202

218 IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

About the Author Tom F. Peters is Lehigh University Emeritus Professor of Architecture and History. His writing ranges from the theory of technological thinking in civil engineering and architectural design, cultural theory in structural engineering, and pedagogical studies on teaching construction and materials, to treatises on construction history, a field he helped develop from the mid-1970s. He is the author of many influential books, reports, and articles and is known for his expertise in antiquarian books that deal with civil engineering and construction.

Born in Berkeley, California, Peters was educated in Rochester NY, Mumbai, and Zurich, before training as an architect at the ETH Zurich with a focus on construction and materials. He subsequently worked as an architect in Denmark, England, and Switzerland before turning to teaching construction and research in 1972. He holds a masters degree and a doctorate in Architecture from the ETH Zurich and a Habilitation in the history of technology from the TH Darmstadt. From 1982 to 2007 he taught architectural technology and history at the University of California at Berkeley, Cornell University, and Lehigh University, and served as Director of the Building and Technology Institute there from 1989 to 2007 and as Chair Professor and Chairman of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1998–2000).

He has lectured widely in Europe, China, and North America and has worked with schools or professional groups worldwide, serving as advisor to several undergraduate and graduate architecture programs.

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE The First 80 Years Publisher: The International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) was founded as a non-profit scientific association in 1929. Today it has more than 3900 members in over 90 countries. IABSE’s mission is to promote the exchange of knowledge and to advance the practice of structural engineering worldwide. IABSE organizes conferences and publishes the quarterly journal Structural Engineering International, as well as conference reports and other monographs, including the SED series. IABSE also presents annual awards for achievements in structural engineering.

For further Information: IABSE-AIPC-IVBH ETH Zürich CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland Phone: Int. + 41-44-633 2647 Fax: Int. + 41-44-633 1241 E-mail: secretariat@iabse.org Web: www.iabse.org

IABSE The First 80 Years (ISBN 978-3-85748-129-1)

IABSE – The First 80 Years

The International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering IABSE was founded in the aftermath of World War I in 1929 to reconnect professionals who had lost contact through the isolation of war. From the very outset the Association established a worldwide platform for the spread of information on theoretical developments and the growing proliferation of engineering specialties and tasks, and it quickly became the international voice of the profession, forming a source of reference on the field and a basis for the social recognition of structural engineering as a political, economic and cultural force to be reckoned with in the development of the 20th century. In all these goals IABSE succeeded admirably, and this is the story of the development and the far-sighted founders and dedicated participants in the association’s steady growth. It documents the events, the personalities and their ideas, talents, strengths and weaknesses, as well as what motivated them and guided the Association through the difficult years of World War II and into the expansive development in the globalized arena of the latter part of the century.

IABSE The First 80 Years Tom F. Peters

Where we go from here is unknown, but where we come from is our history and the springboard from which the human race develops. It chronicles case studies in the evolution of ideas and the life of cultural organizations. This is the story of how, through whom, and why IABSE came to be what it is today.

Tom F. Peters

International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering Association Internationale des Ponts et Charpentes Internationale Vereinigung für Brückenbau und Hochbau

IABSE AIPC IVBH