Forensic Engineering Awards

The 2009 Forensic Engineering Award is awarded posthumously to Rameshchandra N. Raikar, F.ACI, F.IE, F.ISSE, F.CSCE, F.IStructE (Fig. 1). Mr. Raikar passed from this life on March 8, 2008, at his home in Mumbai, India. His death followed a stroke, suffered while he was delivering the welcoming address at the First International Conference on Forensic Engineering in Mumbai, India, on December 6, 2007. His was a life lived to the fullest, surrounded by the love of his family, earning the highest esteem of his clients, employees, and professional colleagues, and dedicated to altruistic pursuits that inspired and encouraged excellence.

Mr. Raikar received a B.E. (Civil) in 1962 from the College of Engineering in Pune, and in 1967 an M.I.Struct.E (UK) by examination. In 1967, he founded his consulting practice in Mumbai, Structwel Designers and Consultants Pvt. Ltd. His firm became a leading civil engineering consultancy, providing designs for innovative new construction as well as coordinating the repair and rehabilitation of existing structures. Mr. Raikar received numerous citations from international engineering organizations during his career. He wrote four books that detailed case histories from his consultancy and provided guidance for improving the performance and durability of constructed works. One of these books, Learning from Failures, received a special award from the Association of Consulting Civil Engineers (India) and was judged the “best publication in the field of civil engineering for the benefit of consulting engineers.” His two sons, Chetan Raikar and Kaustubh Raikar, continue to direct the consulting firm.

Rameshchandra Raikar was instrumental in establishing the India Chapter of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) as one of the most highly respected professional organizations in the world. It is the largest chapter of ACI and had received the Excellent Chapter Award for eight consecutive years at the time of his death. He organized numerous international conferences and contributed in many other ways to international professional development. In 2004, ACI awarded him the prestigious level of Honorary Membership “in recognition of his countless years of service to ACI and its India Chapter; for his unlimited enthusiasm to ensure quality concrete; and for his faithful labors in support of international cooperation.” Mr. Raikar was a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India), the Institution of Structural Engineers (UK), the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (CSCE), and many other organizations. He was a founding member of the Editorial Review Board for the ASCE/TCFE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. Based on his vision and the inspiration of his contributions, a new Forensic Council of India is currently being established with the assistance of the international forensic engineering community.

An important aspect of Rameshchandra Raikar’s career was his legendary encouragement of young people entering the design and construction professions. Among other innovative programs, he initiated an annual “cube test competition” for engineering students. In recognition of the acute shortage of qualified construction supervisors in India, he established a new 1-year construction supervisors’ course. The course is offered to qualified persons who could not meet the full qualifications to enter the prestigious academic institutions in India. This course is producing skilled supervisors to provide the critical link between construction workers and design engineers desperately needed in this time of infrastructure expansion in India.

Rubin M. Zallen, P.E. (Fig. 2), is the recipient of the 2010 Forensic Engineering Award. He is principal of Zallen Engineering, located in Framingham, Massachusetts, providing consulting services in structural and forensic engineering. He has experience in structural design, structural investigation, and construction of buildings, bridges, and special structures.

Mr. Zallen received a bachelor of civil engineering degree from Syracuse University in 1951 and a master of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1959. While studying at MIT, he took advanced studies in structural and geotechnical engineering.

The first and formative part of Mr. Zallen’s career was in construction, first at the Bethlehem Steel Company and then working for a general contractor doing construction supervision, field layout, and estimating. Among his early projects were a multistory industrial building in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, a nine-story building with a control tower at Logan International Airport in Boston, and a Nike missile site. These early years in construction gave Mr. Zallen a sense of structure, a solid foundation in construction procedures, and an understanding of the workings of the construction industry, which had a great influence on his subsequent career.

Rubin Zallen moved over to the design and structural engineering side of the construction industry at the end of the 1950s and worked for a number of engineering firms, starting as a structural designer and working up to chief structural engineer. In 1966, he established his own consulting firm, Rubin M. Zallen Associates, performing design of buildings, bridges, and special structures. One of his more substantial structural designs was that of the Massachusetts Civil Defense Center, a partially underground structure designed to resist a nuclear blast. Mr. Zallen was required to undertake innovative research to establish design criteria and methodology. Other significant structural designs were the Eastern Airlines Hanger at Logan International Airport, a 73-m (240-ft) guyed microwave tower, and the Brandeis University Science Center. The latter project was the first in the Boston area to use posttensioned concrete.

In 1982, Mr. Zallen changed the name of his firm to Zallen Engineering and began to specialize in forensic engineering and the retrofit of structurally deficient structures. Zallen Engineering has made numerous structural investigations, including structural steel framing collapses, a roof collapse caused by snow load, the collapse of a trunk storm sewer in Boston, partial failure of supports for prestressed concrete single tees in a parking garage, and the collapse of flying formwork. Other investigations involved the stability of lift-slab buildings, fire damage to steel-framed buildings, and investigation of cracking and water infiltration of exterior insulation and finish system curtain walls. Mr. Zallen has testified in court and in arbitration on several occasions regarding his investigations.

Rubin Zallen is a founding member of the ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering (TCFE), which was formed in 1985. He was chairman of the Committee on Practices to Reduce Failures (CPRF) and was the fifth chairman of the Executive Committee of TCFE. He is an associate editor of the ASCE/TCFE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. Mr. Zallen was a member of the TCFE Task Committee on Lift-Slab Construction and with David Peraza coauthored the book Engineering Considerations for Lift-Slab Construction.

The International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering invites our readers to the Fourth International Seminar on Forensic Geotechnical Engineering. The conference will be held in Bengaluru, India, January 10–12, 2013. Coorganizers include ASCE, the Indian Geotechnical Society, and the Indian Institute of Science.

The Indian National Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering was established in 1948, soon after the Second International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering was held in Rotterdam. The Society was affiliated to the International Society in the same year. Since then, it has striven to fulfill and promote the objectives of the international society. In December 1970, the name Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS) was adopted. In January 1994, IGS hosted the 13th International Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering.

We are pleased to provide this announcement of the activities of our Indian colleagues and wish them continued success. For further information, please visit the conference website: www.4isfge.org.

The 2012 Outstanding Reviewer Award for the Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities is given to Carl H. Carpenter, P.E. (Fig. 3).

Carl Carpenter, P.E., F.ASCE, and Life Member of ASCE, currently performs part-time groundwater consulting services, after retiring from an active engineering career in 1997. His education at Utah State University was interrupted by military service during the Korean Conflict, after which he completed his civil engineering degree in 1956. His first design experience was with Utah Power and Light Company, performing structural design of power generation and transmission services. In 1957, Mr. Carpenter accepted a position with the U.S. Geological Survey in Richland, Utah, as a hydraulic engineer. He was transferred to Salt Lake City in 1964, where he became project leader on several groundwater investigations. Following this experience, Mr. Carpenter joined the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, coordinating activities with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on several projects related to the massive Central Utah Project. These were the first of many projects designed to deliver Utah’s share of the Colorado River as drinking water to the Wasatch Front. Subsequent positions included private consulting practice with Nielson, Maxwell and Wangsgard and with James M. Montgomery, Consulting Engineers, both in Salt Lake City.

In 1981, Carpenter returned to the Central Utah Water Conservancy District as District Municipal Engineer and then joined the Provo City Water and Wastewater Department in 1985 as principal engineer, where he finished his career after 12 years of service. He describes his varied experiences as a “lot of fun” and writes, “the most satisfying experience has been the rehabilitation and salvaging of many water supply and irrigation wells for cities, water districts, and companies. It has been a great ride; I could never be so lucky a second time around!”

The Outstanding Reviewer Award was established in 2009 by the Journals Division of ASCE. Over many years, Carl Carpenter has demonstrated contributions as a voluntary peer reviewer that are exemplary in every aspect that the award is intended to recognize: timely, conscientious reviews that provide constructive comments. He has been our most reliable reviewer for manuscripts on subjects related to groundwater engineering, wastewater treatment facilities, and water supply projects. In addition, he has made an extraordinary effort to ensure that manuscripts published in this journal are of practical value, as many of our readers are practicing engineering consultants. His wide range of engineering experience is particularly useful in this regard. Finally, he has been especially helpful in consistently reading the Journal for the purpose of recommending outstanding papers for awards.

As Editor, I am sincerely gratified to present this new award. The success of ASCE peer-reviewed publications has always been dependent on the altruistic contributions of dedicated reviewers. Of course, our reviewers know that their efforts are appreciated and that they are integral to advances in theory and practice. But in my judgment, this formal recognition is long overdue. Previous recipients of the award are Richard J. Deschamps (2010) and Charles S. Hanskat (2011). I congratulate Carl Carpenter and look forward to recognizing many other deserving colleagues in the future.