Cal Poly Engineering Professor Honored for Outstanding Contribution to Science

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently awarded the 2001 Norman Medal to Cal Poly's Rakesh Goel, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. The award, which carries a certificate and a gold-plated medal, was presented to Goel for his collaborative work on evaluation of nonlinear static procedure to estimate seismic demands on buildings.

Specifically, the Norman Medal, considered to be the most prestigious award from the ASCE, recognizes an author or authors of a paper judged worthy of special commendation for its merit as a contribution to engineering science. The paper co-authored by Goel and Anil K. Chopra is titled “Evaluation of NSP to Estimate Seismic Deformation: SDF Systems,” which was published in the Journal of Structural Engineering (April 200). The recommendations of this work have led to a serious re-examination by practicing engineers of performance-based seismic design procedures.

The ASCE announced the award at its annual civil engineering conference and exposition held in Houston, Texas on October 12, 2001. Goel is the first faculty member at Cal Poly to receive this honor. Last year, Goel received ASCE’s Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize for "advancing the current understanding of the earthquake response of asymmetric-plan buildings and for improving procedures for the seismic design of buildings and other structures."