Presented by Dr. Richard Furlong
P.E., Ph. D., Distinguished Member of ASCE, FACI
Professor Emeritus, The University of Texas at Austin
Receive 1.0 AIA LU/HSW
12Noon – 1PM EST
Presentation Topic:
This presentation discusses the evolving use of materials, technology and need for tall structures, beginning with American structures and ending with six of the world’s tallest buildings.
Speaker Biography:
D. Furlong obtained his BSCE from Southern Methodist University 1952 followed by 6 EIT years in St. Louis with McDonnell Aircraft and F. Ray Martin, Inc. He helped design about 40 bridges, a dozen buildings, while part time, and obtained MSCE from Washington University in 1957. He joined the faculty at UT-Austin in 1958. He performed Concrete Column Research with Phil Ferguson for a PhD in 1963. He continued research with ACI , ASCE, AISC committee work on columns, composite structures, frame analysis, and design aids with part time consulting until his retirement in 1999. Afterwards, he continued consulting and began lectures for Senior learning groups.
His research and writing brought advancements to composite column design during the last third of the 20th Century. Dr. Furlong’s work in the design of composite columns helped make them important components of earthquake-resistant building frames and bridges. His research on biaxial bending of columns, column slenderness and inelastic behavior of frames contributed to improvements in design specifications for both steel and concrete structures. In addition, his studies of inverted T-beam bent caps also earned the Raymond C. Reese Award from the American Concrete Institute (ACI), while his numerous design aids for concrete structures have been part of the ACI Handbook for 25 years.
After service on the Board of Directors of both ACI and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), he was elected President of the Texas Section ASCE in 1997. He was recognized as an Honorary Member of ASCE in 2001. In 2004, Dr. Furlong was awarded the ACI’s Educational Activities Committee (EAC) Speaker of the Year Award. The award is in recognition of his efforts in establishing one of the most successful ACI seminar series, “Reinforced Concrete Design”, and for his many years as an instructor in cities across the United States.
