Dan M. Frangopol, the Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture at Lehigh, has been elected to the Royal Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in its meeting of September 20th, 2016, as a foreign member. He will participate in and contribute to the class of Technical Sciences.
The Academy was founded in 1772 by Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa – the mother of Marie Antoinette – as the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters of Brussels. Its mission is to promote sciences and arts in Belgium through scientific and cultural activities and cooperation between universities in Belgium and between Belgium and the larger international academic community.
Frangopol studied for his Ph.D. at the University of Liège in Belgium for three years (1974-76) and worked in Brussels for three and a half more years (1979-83) as a design engineer before joining the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 2008, Frangopol was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) by the University of Liège.
His election to the Royal Academy of Belgium, which will be announced at the Academy's yearly meeting in Brussels on December 10, will extend the Technical Sciences class into the areas of sustainability and resilience of infrastructure – topics in which Frangopol's research and expertise are internationally recognized.
-John Gilpatrick is the Communications Specialist for the department of civil and environmental engineering at Lehigh University.
