Lehigh Professor Dan Frangopol was elected to the prestigious Academia Europaea and was conferred an Honorary Doctorate from the Politecnico di Milano.
Lehigh University's Dan M. Frangopol received multiple major international honors this academic year for various achievements during a career defined by excellence, creativity, and passion for teaching, research, and service to his field.
The first honor was election into the prestigious Academia Europaea. Frangopol was one of only four foreign members elected in the Physics and Engineering Sciences section. The goals of the Academia include promoting a wider appreciation of the value of European scholarship and research, as well as making recommendations to national governments and international agencies concerning matters affecting science, scholarship, and academic life. Current membership in the Academia stands around 3,400 – 52 of which are Nobel Laureates, and all of which are the truly top leaders in sciences and the humanities.
Frangopol also received an honorary doctorate (Laurea Magistrale ad honorem) from the Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan). During the ceremony to confer the honorary doctorate held on April 11 with about 250 participants consisting of faculty and students from Politecnico and other Italian universities including Genova, Padova, and Rome, Frangopol presented a lecture titled "Life-Cycle Civil Engineering: Accomplishments and Challenges." He is only one of four civil engineers to have received this prestigious honor – and the first since 2004 – from a civil engineering program that is ranked 14th best in the world, 5th best in Europe, and the very best in Italy. This was the fourth honorary doctorate Frangopol has received in his career.
Additionally, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Hunan University, Beijing Jiaotong University, and Chongqing Jiaotong University all recently conferred honorary professorships to Frangopol.
These achievements are on top of the Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Award for a lifetime achievement in civil engineering education that Frangopol received in March from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the 2016 Hillman Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising given by Lehigh University at the conclusion of the spring semester.
As a world leader in life-cycle civil engineering, Frangopol's contributions have defined much of the practice around design, assessment, and maintenance specifications, management methods, and optimization approaches. According to ASCE, his research has not only saved time and money, but very likely also saved lives. Furthermore, last month Frangopol accepted the invitation to join the ASCE Industry Leaders Council in order to identify tactical actions for ASCE and the civil engineering profession.
—John Gilpatrick