Alfredo Ang Lecture
To Alfredo H-S. Ang, in recognition of his remarkable and pioneering contributions to the development of rational safety criteria for the design of structures using probabilistic methodology, and for his dedicated service to the profession.
During his career, Ang combined academic research and teaching in various aspects of structural engineering. His major effort was directed towards structural safety through the application of probability and reliability concepts. He made significant pioneering contributions to probability-based safety analysis and design for a wide range of structural engineering problems.
He authored or co-authored more than 300 publications and was a lead author of the two-volume textbook, Probability Concepts in Engineering Planning and Design, which has been translated into several languages and adopted by major universities worldwide. An active teacher, he developed both undergraduate and graduate courses in probabilistic methods, lectured extensively, and organized seminars and short courses.
Ang extended his theoretical work to practical problems, including seismic hazard analysis, earthquake engineering, wind engineering, offshore structures, and life-cycle cost effectiveness in design criteria development including optimal design of complex structures. As a consultant and technical adviser, he served numerous governmental and industrial organizations, both in the United States and abroad.
His work on safety criteria has had a major impact on engineering specifications and practice. He served the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for many years and in many positions, including international director of the board and chair of several committees. He also received the Nathan M. Newmark and Alfred M. Freudenthal medals, E. Howard Award, and numerous other awards from ASCE.
Given his leadership role in the development of ISRERM, The Executive Board of ISRERM proposed to establish the Alfredo Ang Lecture in honor of Professor Alfredo H-S. Ang in June 2017, starting with the 6th ISRERM. Until now, four distinguished professors have delivered the Alfredo Ang Lecture, including Professors Jie Li, Kok-Kwang Phoon, Yan-Gang Zhao, and Michael Beer. The Alfredo Ang Lecture will further strengthen ISRERM's position as one of the premium venues to share research and practice in this burgeoning field and would bring greater visibility to the body of work on how engineering contributes to the building of safer and more resilient communities.
- Siu-Kui Au
- Nanyang Technological University
Biography
Dr Au is professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore. He obtained BEng (1995) and MPhil (1997) from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and PhD (2001) from the California Institute of Technology, all in civil engineering. Before the present position he has held academic positions at NTU, City University of Hong Kong and University of Liverpool.
A chartered civil engineer, Dr Au performs fundamental and applied research in machine learning for engineering reliability and structural health monitoring (SHM). He has developed a Monte Carlo method called ‘Subset Simulation’ for uncertainty propagation and rare event simulation. See monograph ‘Engineering Risk Assessment with Subset Simulation’ (Wiley). Originally developed for seismic risk problems, the method has found applications in other disciplines, e.g., recently in nuclear fuel, power systems and air traffic. In SHM, Dr Au is experienced in full-scale dynamic testing of structures and has consulted on long-span pedestrian bridges, large-span floors/roofs, super-tall buildings, microtremors for seismic microzonation and deep sea sensing. Recent research in this area focuses on fundamental theory, computational algorithm, practical implementation, and the ‘science’ (achievable precision) of modal identification and structural system identification of full-scale structures. See monograph ‘Operational Modal Analysis: Modelling, Bayesian Inference, Uncertainty Laws’ (Springer).
Dr Au is a recipient of the IASSAR Junior Research Prize (2005), Nishino Prize (2011), JSPS Fellowship (2014) and Tan Chin Tuan Fellowship (2015). He chaired the ASCE Dynamics Committee (2014-17); is Associate Editor of Structural Health Monitoring (Sage) and Earthquake Spectra (EERI/Sage); and is Editorial Board Member of Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics (Elsevier) and Journal of Risk & Uncertainty Analysis in Engineering (ASCE-ASME) A & B.