The Charles Massonnet Award
In
1998, the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork created the "Charles
Massonnet Award" to recognize a prominent scientist who highly contributed
to the advancement of scientific and technical support to constructional steelwork,
and who had worked or is working in a Technical Committee of ECCS as a Full Member
or as a Chairman or a Secretary of one of the mentioned committees. It is presented
every year.
This Award had been named for Professor Charles Massonnet to keep his memory. Indeed, Professor Charles Massonnet was an eminent expert and academic, but also one of the most leading personalities members of ECCS who contributed to the promotion of the use of steel in construction through his work and his tuition in stability, plasticity and strength of materials.
Born on 14 April 1914 in Arlon, in the Belgian Province of Luxembourg, Professor Charles Massonnet was a scientist of national level (professor at the University of Liège, Belgium) as well as of international level (Doctor Honoris Causa at the Technology University of Göteborg, in Sweden, the Federal Polytechnical School of Zürich, in Switzerland, Associate Member of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States of America, Foreign Member of the Polish Academia of Sciences). Professor Charles Massonnet passed by on 4th April 1996.
The Charles Massonnet
Award is presented in principle every year by an ECCS member association.
The
members of the board and the official(s) of ECCS will not be eligible for the
award during the time of their office.
The nominated person will be proposed
to the executive board by the nomination committee and will be submitted to the
vote at the spring meeting of the executive board at a simple majority of the
members present.
Awards : The Charles Massonnet award consists of a plaque
bearing the name of the recipient, the date, and mention of ECCS.
The Charles Massonnet Award 2007
This
year the selected candidate more than fulfilled the criteria for the award.
He
will always be recognised as 'Mr Fire of Europe', over a period of twenty years.
The 2007 awardee was the leading professor in the development of the 'Natural
Fire Safety Concept', under his leadership the relationship of the fire load to
the risk to a structure and its occupants was researched and tested. It is due
to his work that structures' can now be fire engineered with a significant benefit
to the industry, building owners and users.
Our 2007 awardee also has had a
very considerable influence on the development and production of the Eurocodes
and has been the author or co-author of a large number of publications for Eurocodes
1, 3 and 4. His technical contribution is without question very much reflecting
the persons whose name is on this award.
As for his involvement with the ECCS,
he has been the ECCS President on three occasions, possibly a record that will
never be equalled. He was the representative of his country on the Executive Board
from 1981 to 2006. Chairman of the Promotions Management Board from 1996 to 2003,
Chairman of Technical Committee 5 CAD-Cam from 1993 to 2000, Chairman of Technical
Working Group 3.8 Design Manual to EC1.2 and 3.
During the early 90's he served
on the organisation Committee that lead to the formation of the Technical Management
Board and the Promotions Management Board.
The 2007 Charles Massonnet Award
has been presented to a man of many talents and interests, the irrepressible Prof.
Eng. Jean-Baptiste Schleich.
| Scientific contributions | Relevancy for application | Important works |
Scientific
contributions: Prof. Eng. Jean-Baptiste Schleich has provided essential
contributions to steel construction as well for normal conditions of use as for
the fire situation. Relevancy
for application: The previously described development may be directly
used by civil engineers as the corresponding essentials have been included inside
Eurocodes, namely the Fire Part of Eurocode 1, i.e. EN1991-1-2. That document
was voted unanimously by the twenty CEN - National Standards Associations in July
2002 and is available at CEN since 20.11.2002. Important
works: For all the following documents Prof. Eng. Jean-Baptiste Schleich either was main author as being Chairman of the corresponding Working Group, either was the author. ECCS - Technical Note N°55; Calculation of the Fire
Resistance of Centrally Loaded Composite Steel-Concrete Columns Exposed to the
Standard Fire, 129 pages, 1988. About twenty CEC Research Projects published as EUR Reports may be added to this list. |
The Charles Massonnet Award 2006
The
2006 Charles Massonnet Award has been made to Professor Manfred Hirt, from EPFL,
Switzerland.
Professor Hirt is member of the following ECCS Technical Committees:
TC 2- Aluminium, TC 6-Fatigue & Fracture, TC 10-Connections. He wrote more
than 130 publications as author or co-author (http://icom.epfl.ch/puoblications/).
Director
of the Steel Structures Laboratory (ICOM) of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
at Lausanne (EPFL), Prof. Hirt is known on the international scene for his expertise
in the field of fatigue and fracture mechanics of steel structures, loads and
action on structures, structural safety and serviceability and steel-concrete
composite construction. In August 2003, he had been elected President of the International
Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). Congratulations!
The Charles Massonnet Award 2005
The
laureate of the Charles Massonnet 2005 was Professor Giulio BALLIO, Rector of
the University of Milano, “Politecnico di Milano”, in Italy.
Professor
Ballio has been selected for this Award in recognition of the quality and importance
of the work he has carried out as prominent scientist and researcher.
Professor
Ballio was born in Rome, on 4 March 1940, and graduated in Aeronautical Engineering
at the “Politecnico of Milan”, in 1963. He was Ordinario of the Science
of Construction at Pavia University and, subsequently, of Construction in Steel
at the Politecnico of Milan, where he has also been responsible, since 1985, for
the Material Tests Laboratory.
Professor Ballio occupied various positions
at national level as well as at international level. He participated to various
ECCS Technical Committees and in the Editorial Board involved in drawing up the
European Recommendations for Steel Structures, published in 1978. He is also Member
of the Joint Committee for the Planning and Design of Tall Buildings of IABSE
(the Working Commission II, Steel, Metal and Timber Structures), ESDEP (member
of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Steel Design Education Program).
The Charles Massonnet Award 2003
We
are pleased to inform you that the jury decided to present the Charles Massonnet
award 2003 to Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sedlacek, the candidate presented by the
German association, DSTV.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sedlacek, born on 17 November
1938, is a leading and opinion-forming person in various ECCS technical committees,
among them TC 1, TC 6, TC 10, TC 12, TC 13 and subcommittees.
Moreover, he
is one of the most active people in the European steel research as well as in
the European codification field. His various activities cover a huge range beginning
from intelligent design of steel and composite structures to researching, applying
of research results, safety requirements, teaching and training of students and
engineers, promotion and developing of steel structures and design tools for a
better market share.
Prof. Sedlacek is playing an outstanding role in the international
development and establishing of the Eurocodes for steel structures, loading and
earthquakes, which can be also seen in his activities in the ECCS as chairman
of TC 1, in the CEN TC 250, and the DASt. He is that personality with international
appearance as well as with engineering sense who thus initiated most positive
effects on the European steel construction development.
The Charles Massonnet
Award honours annually a prominent scientist, member of an ECCS Technical Committees,
who contributed eminently to the advancement of scientific and technical support
to constructional steelwork.
Congratulations to Prof. Sedlacek for his well
deserved recognition.
The Charles Massonnet Award 2002
Prof.
Patrick J. DOWLING, University of Surrey, UK
Professor Patrick Dowling started
his working life as an employee of BCSA and subsequently worked both in industry
and academia. He was extensively involved with ECCS in plate buckling research
and was Chairman of the CEN EC3 Committee.
Professor Dowling was the “British
Steel” Professor at Imperial College London. He is the author of many books
and technical papers on steel construction. He is a Fellow of BCSA, Chairman of
the UK Structural Steel Design Awards Judging Panel, Chairman of SCI and Vice
Chancellor of the University of Surrey.
The Charles Massonnet Award 2001
The
2001 Charles Massonnet Award was presented to Prof. Federico MAZZOLANI, Director
of the” Institute of Technique of Construction” at he Engineering Faculty
of Naples.
Prof. Mazzolani was born in Milan, in 1938, and is graduated in
Civil Engineering at the University of Naples. Since 1970, Prof. Federico M. Mazzolani
co-operated with the European Convention for Constructional Steelwork, assuming
the responsibility of Committee and Twg Chairman. His activity has been characterised
by the issue of several fundamental documents, which played a leader role in the
development of the European codification at the level of both national codes and
Eurocodes.
Prof. Federico M. Mazzolani is well known for his publications and
works on seism. He is also Chairman of the International Conference on the “Behaviour
of Steel Structures in Seismic Areas” (STESSA).
The Charles Massonnet Award 2000
Scientific
Manager and Deputy General Manager of the French Technical and Industrial Centre
of Steel Construction (CTICM), Professor Jacques BROZZETTI contributed highly
to the development of the European Steel Construction. He had a long involvement
with various research projects including stability problems, composite construction,
fatigue and fire behaviour of steel structures. As a result he had been involved
with many Codes and design guides comprising writing activities. He worked with
the profession to promote the steel construction on its various aspects.
Professor
Jacques Brozzetti is teaching advanced steel and composite structures at the “Ecole
Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées”.
The Charles Massonnet Award 1999
Prof.
Jan W.B. STARK, from the University of Delft, in The Netherlands, had made substantial
contributions to the construction industry in general, and more specifically with
regard to steel and composite structures. For many years, he had been an active
member of CEN and served ECCS in various committees. The Charles Massonnet Award
was presented to him to express our gratitude for his high standard and valuable
contribution to the steel construction industry.
The Charles Massonnet Award 1998
Close collaborator of Professor Charles Massonnet, Professor René MAQUOI, was very honoured in receiving the Charles Massonnet Award in 1998, which recognize his efforts for the development of steel and composite construction. Indeed, Professor Massonnet was his “master” and conducted his first step in the ECCS activities.