Weidlinger-sponsored award presented at SAVIAC conference; Weidlinger principals appear in Discovery Channel 9/11 documentary; Weidlinger CEO addresses industry's future at Professional Women in Construction event; Weidlinger researcher publishes a comprehensive review of blast analysis approaches.

11.2008 Charles Needham Receives 2008 Weidlinger-Sponsored SAVIAC Award

The Shock and Vibration Information Analysis Center (SAVIAC) presented its most prestigious honor, the 2008 Mel Baron Award, to Mr. Charles Needham for his pioneering work in modeling strong shock airblast and interactions with structures. The award was presented to Needham by Dr. Eric Rinehart of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency on October 27, 2008, at SAVIAC’s 79th Shock and Vibration Symposium, held in Orlando, Florida. The award is named for a Weidlinger founding principal, Dr. Melvin L. Baron, in recognition of his technical contributions and leadership in computational structural dynamics and shock- and vibration-related specialties. Previous honorees are: Dr. Eugene Sevin (1998), Dr. Ted Belytschko (1999), Dr. Walter D. Pilkey (2000), Dr. Thomas L. Geers (2001), Mr. George J. O’Hara (2002), Dr. Ivan S. Sandler (2003), Mr. David O. Smallwood (2004), and Dr. Frank L. DiMaggio (2006) and Dr. John A. DeRuntz, Jr. (2007). SAVIAC is jointly sponsored by the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and Department of Energy laboratories. It serves as an informational resource for US agency representatives, contractors, and academics concerned with structural dynamics design, analysis, testing, shock physics, and weapons effects.

09.08 Levy and Abboud Featured in 9/11 Documentary

Matthys Levy, Weidlinger Chairman Emeritus, and Dr. Najib Abboud, a Weidlinger principal, were featured in several segments of an hour-long Discovery Channel documentary, 9/11: The Towers and the Pentagon. It was first aired on September 7, 2008, at 8:00 pm and has been repeated several times. The documentary compares the very different outcomes for the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and, based on in-depth interviews with a few key engineers, attempts to explain in lay terms why the towers collapsed and the Pentagon remained standing. In 2004, Levy and Abboud led the most comprehensive multidisciplinary study of the tower collapses to date, proving that the collapse of one tower did not cause the collapse of the other. The investigation recreated the condition of the towers at various critical points in time from impact to collapse, using analyses of the available data, including original structural engineering plans and thousands of photos and dozens of videos, as well as advanced computer modeling and fire evaluation techniques.

08.2008 Weidlnger CEO Comments on Industry's Future as Honored Guest of Professional Women in Construction

Dr. Raymond Daddazio, President and CEO of Weidlinger, was one of six honored guests at the annual “Meet the Architects and Engineers” event of the Professional Women in Construction (PWC) New York, held on August 21, 2008. In brief comments on the industry’s future, Daddazio predicted an inevitable downturn of revenues and profits, citing the financial drain of two wars, the effect of increasing prices for materials and fuels on construction costs, the subprime mortgage crisis, political instability in Eastern Europe, and the rise of the US dollar against the Euro. He saw positive signs in Governor’s Paterson’s recent efforts to enforce fiscal reality and the possibility that some kind of congestion pricing will be adopted. He concluded: “Forward thinking federal legislation, like the proposal for a National Infrastructure Bank and the opportunities presented by green initiatives leading to our energy independence, have enormous economic potential for us.” PWC’s mission is “to advance professional, entrepreneurial, and management opportunities for women and other ‘non-traditional’ populations in construction and related industries.”

07.2008 Weidlinger Researcher Reviews Anti-Terrorism Blast Analysis Approaches for German Publication

Weidlinger research engineer Dr. Marcus Rutner collaborated with European engineers on a section of Steel Construction 2008 (Steel Construction is an annual German publication of Wiley). The section provides a comprehensive review of approaches to anti-terrorism blast analysis using state-of-the-art software tools. Dr. Rutner wrote four of the six articles: the first two present theoretical background and various approaches to defining blast load and calculating structural response; the third focuses on progressive collapse mitigation in the context of US GSA and Eurocode requirements; and the fourth explores hardening of critical members (such as ground-floor columns in high-rise buildings) to survive nearby explosions. The European authors contributed discussions of fire effects and failure modes of doors, windows, and facades.