July 6, 2006

Armen Der Kiureghian is Awarded the Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal

Yerevan - June 28, 2006. Armen Der Kiureghian, Dean of the College of Engineering at the American University of Armenia and Professor of Civil Engineering and holder of the Taisei Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded the Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for his research contributions. The Chair of the Executive Committee of the Engineering Mechanics Division of ASCE presented the Medal during an official ceremony of the U.S. National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, in Boulder, Colorado. Together with several colleagues, Dr. Der Kiurerghian also received the Thomas A. Middlebrooks award from the ASCE Geo-Institute for a paper he co-authored with colleagues at UC Berkeley.

Der Kiureghian has made important contributions in the areas of probabilistic modeling, structural and system reliability, risk analysis, random vibrations and earthquake engineering. He has developed novel methods for safety and reliability assessment of complex structures and systems, pioneered the now growing field of finite element reliability methods, created new algorithms for reliability-based optimal design, and developed new approaches for solving nonlinear random vibration problems and for probabilistic seismic analysis of buildings, bridges and equipment. These contributions have appeared in more than 300 publications, including close to 100 peer-refereed journal papers and book chapters.

Armen Der Kiureghian received his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering in 1970 and his M.Sc. in Structural Engineering in 1971 from Teheran University, Iran, and his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975. After three years as Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California, he joined the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley, where he has served as Assistant Professor (1978-81), Associate Professor (1981-85), Professor (1985), Vice Chair (1990-93) and Chair (1997 2001) of the Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials Program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Since 1999, he has held the Taisei Chair in the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley.

In the aftermath of the devastating 1988 earthquake in Armenia, Der Kiureghian was instrumental in founding the American University of Armenia (AUA) in Yerevan, Armenia, as an affiliate of the University of California. Since 1991, concurrently with his Berkeley position, Der Kiureghian has served as the Founding Dean of Engineering of AUA, where he has established Master of Science programs in Earthquake Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Computer & Information Science.

As a teacher, Der Kiureghian has been successful in training a large number of students in probabilistic methods and risk and reliability analysis. His 23 doctoral graduates hold leading positions in academia and industry throughout the world.

Der Kiureghian's awards and honors include the ASCE W. L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, a Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship Award at the University of Ljubljana, the CERRA Award from the Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association, and Distinguished Alumnus awards from Tehran University (2004) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2006).

He is an elected foreign member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. In 2001, he was awarded the Movses Khorenatsi medal by the Government of Armenia for his contributions in advancing higher education in Armenia and for his role in establishing the AUA.

Armen Der Kiureghian receiving the Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal.