Forensic Engineering Awards

The 2011 national Forensic Engineering Award is awarded to Kimball J. Beasley, P.E., F.ASCE (Fig. 1). Over the past 42 years, Mr. Beasley’s principal practice has involved investigation of failures and performance problems with a wide variety of structural systems and building facades. He has extensive experience with diagnostic testing and instrumentation to evaluate the cause of failures. Over his career, he has conducted more than 1,600 failure investigations on historic and contemporary buildings and structures. He has investigated distress and instability of numerous buildings associated with disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, floods, and terrorist attacks. Mr. Beasley serves as a consultant to clients involved in litigation. He frequently testifies as an expert witness at trial, mediation, and arbitration. He joined the firm of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc., in 1973 and is currently a Senior Principal in WJE’s Princeton, New Jersey, office.

Kimball Beasley holds a Bachelor of Science degree in structural and materials engineering from the University of Illinois, Chicago, and an MBA from Pace University, New York. He is a registered Professional Engineer in 10 states. He is a Fellow of ASCE and a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). He has served on ASCE’s Technical Council on Forensic Engineering (TCFE), now the Forensic Engineering Division (FED), since 1985. He is past chair of TCFE’s Executive Committee, and is a member of the Editorial Review Board of the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities.

Mr. Beasley has authored and coauthored over 40 technical papers and book chapters on topics such as building façade failures and case studies, investigation tools and methods, field and laboratory testing, concrete failures, marble hysteresis, latent façade failures, and risk assessment. He is married to Elizabeth Beasley and has two sons, James and Jonathan Beasley, and two grandchildren, Melody and Delaney.

The 2012 national Forensic Engineering Award is awarded to Glenn R. Bell, P.E., F.ASCE (Fig. 2). Glenn Bell has worked for Simpson Gumpertz & Heger for 40 years, the last 20 as Senior Principal and Chief Executive Officer of the firm. He has led noted projects involving design, investigation, and rehabilitation of buildings. Mr. Bell’s forensic investigations include the Hyatt Regency Kansas City Walkways Collapse, the scaffold collapse at the John Hancock Tower in Chicago, and the September 11, 2001, collapse of World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2 for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is registered as a P.E. and/or S.E. in 10 states, as a CE in the United Kingdom, and is a Fellow in the ASCE, in the Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), and in the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) in the United Kingdom.

Glenn Bell was one of the early drivers in the formation of the ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering (TCFE), now the ASCE Forensic Engineering Division (FED), in the 1980s. He was a member of the first Executive Committee for the TCFE and was influential in developing the Council’s focus. He served as Chairman of the TCFE Executive Committee, the TCFE Committee on Dissemination of Failure Information, and the TCFE Committee on Practices to Reduce Failures. He has served many years on the Editorial Review Board of the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. Beyond ASCE, Glenn Bell is an active member of other professional societies, including ACI, ACEC, ASTM, EERI, and IABSE. He is author of numerous professional publications and has lectured extensively on the causes of failure and their prevention. He has been invited to present many keynote lectures at professional conferences. His contributions have been recognized by a number of prestigious awards, most recently the Edmund Friedman Professional Recognition Award (ASCE, 2014).

The 2013 national Forensic Engineering Award is awarded to Norbert J. Delatte, Jr., P.E., Ph.D., F.ASCE (Fig. 3). Dr. Delatte is Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cleveland State University. He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering from The Citadel in 1984, a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996.

Dr. Delatte is the author of Beyond failure: Forensic case studies for civil engineers (ASCE) and Concrete Pavement design, construction, and performance, 2nd Edition (Taylor and Francis, 2014). In addition, he is the Chief Editor of the ASCE Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, and serves as an Editorial Review Board member for the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. Dr. Delatte is a registered professional engineer in the states of Ohio and Alabama and in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is the former chair of the ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering Executive Committee (TCFE), now the Forensic Engineering Division (FED), and the TCFE Education Committee. He is also a former member of the ASCE Committee on Education. Dr. Delatte has been instrumental in the development and presentation of faculty workshops aimed at integrating failure related information into professional education. These successful workshops have been presented throughout the United States and internationally.

Norbert Delatte served for 11 years in the United States Army as an officer in the Corps of Engineers, including two years of service in the Republic of Korea, wartime service in the Arabian Peninsula during Operation Desert Storm, and command of an engineer company during Hurricane Andrew relief operations in southern Florida. He taught as an Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, during the 1996–1997 academic year.

This past July and August, Dr. Delatte was a Visiting Erskine Fellow, Department of Civil Engineering and Natural Resources, the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He lectured on lessons learned from failure cases in a professional development course. Also this year he gave the Saturday morning keynote lecture at IF CRASC ‘15 III Convegno di Ingegneria Forense, VI Convegno su CRolli, Affidabilità Strutturale, Consolidamento, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy. He recently spoke in Ravenna, Italy, on Challenges of megaprojects in North America, in the session “Risk management: methods to identify and quantify risks in contract-related decisions: How to limit the frequency and consequences of risks.”

The 2014 national Forensic Engineering Award is awarded to David B. Peraza, P.E., M.ASCE (Fig. 4). Mr. Peraza has over 35 years of broad structural engineering experience including design, investigations of major collapses, and evaluation of distressed buildings. He is licensed as a professional engineer in 14 states.

Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Mr. Peraza led the emergency engineering response for the City of New York. He has led high-profile structural collapse investigations around the nation, including L’Ambiance Plaza, the Four Times Square Hoist, the Miller Park crane accident, Tropicana parking garage, Dulles Jet Center, and the Philadelphia Market Street building. He has published and lectured extensively on the subject of structural failures. He is the author of a chapter in the Handbook of forensic engineering, published by McGraw-Hill, and a chapter in the handbook Structural condition assessment published by Wiley.

David Peraza has been active in ASCE’s Forensic Engineering Division (formerly Technical Council on Forensic Engineering) since the early 1990s. He has served on several committees, presented at Forensic Congresses, and served as Chair of the TCFE Executive Committee. Most recently he spearheaded the preparation of an ASCE publication, Engineering investigations of hurricane damage: Wind versus water, which assists engineers in providing high quality services, based on sound technical principles, in an efficient manner. Mr. Peraza is a member of the Editorial Review Board for the ASCE Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. He has served on other ASCE committees, including ASCE 7, “Minimum design loads for buildings and other structures,” and ASCE 37, “Design loads for structures during construction.” He is one of the founders of the ACE Mentor Program, which is a not-for-profit organization that assists high school youth interested in pursuing careers in architecture, engineering, and construction. Started in New York City, the program has spread to major cities around the country and currently serves about 8,000 students annually.

After graduating from Ohio Northern University with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, Mr. Peraza began his engineering career designing bridges for the Champaign County Engineer’s office in Ohio. While there, he became interested in investigating the causes of structural collapses. After earning his master’s degree in Civil Engineering, he moved back to New York to work at the office of Lev Zetlin Associates, later known as LZA Technology and then Thornton Tomasetti. He worked there for 22 years, beginning as a senior engineer and rising to vice president. He initially designed new buildings and renovations to buildings, and gradually transitioned to performing structural investigations. In 2005, he joined Exponent, an international engineering and scientific consulting firm, and started the Buildings and Structures practice in New York City. He is currently a Principal Engineer at Exponent, focusing on performing structural investigations.

David Peraza is active in his church, where he has been youth group leader, choir member, and chair of the Board of Trustees. He enjoys many hobbies, including scuba diving, hiking, woodworking, partner dancing, genealogy, photography, and traveling. He and his wife of 28 years, Maureen Keegan, live in Port Washington, New York, and they are the proud parents of a 21 year old daughter.