Dan M. Frangopol, the Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture, recently received two significant international academic honors. At the Sixth International Conference on Bridge Maintenance, Safety and Management hosted by the International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety, Frangopol accepted one of the two Senior Research Prizes awarded this year -- an acknowledgement of his research contributions to his field. Frangopol was also recently named as an honorary professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) -- a distinction considered to be among an institution's highest academic honors.
An internationally-recognized leader in the emerging field of life-cycle engineering, Frangopol's research interests include the application of probabilistic concepts and methods to civil and marine engineering including structural reliability, probability-based design and optimization of buildings, bridges and naval ships, structural health monitoring, life-cycle performance maintenance and management of structures and infrastructures under uncertainty, risk-based assessment and decision making, infrastructure resilience to disasters, and stochastic mechanics. He is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, an honorary member of the Romanian Academy of Technical Sciences, and has received two honorary doctorates and numerous awards, including the prestigious Nathan M. Newmark and T. Y. Lin medals, and some of the field's highest honors from ASCE, IABSE and IASSAR, among others.