American Concrete Institute Announces New Officers for 2012

President, vice president and board members elected

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The American Concrete Institute (ACI) introduced its 2012-2013 president, vice president and four board members during the ACI Spring 2012 Convention in Dallas, Texas.

James K. Wight was elected to serve as president of the Institute for 2012-2013. William E. Rushing Jr. has been elected ACI vice president for a two-year term, and Anne M. Ellis is now the Institute's senior vice president, which is also a two-year term. Additionally, four members have been elected to serve on the ACI Board of Direction, each for three-year terms.

President
James K. Wight, FACI and FASCE, is the Frank E. Richart Jr. Collegiate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. He has been a Professor in the structural engineering area of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department since September 1973, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on structural analysis and design of reinforced concrete structures. Wight received his BS and MS in civil engineering from Michigan State University in 1969 and 1970, and his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1973.

Wight is known for his work in earthquake-resistant design of concrete structures. His more recent research has concentrated on the strength and inelastic behavior of connections in composite structures (reinforced concrete and steel) and the use of high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete composites for earthquake-resistant design of critical members in concrete structures. He has been involved with post-earthquake damage studies following earthquakes in Mexico, Chile, Armenia, Egypt, California, Japan, and India.

An active member of ACI since 1973, Wight was named a Fellow of the Institute in 1984 and previously served on the ACI Board of Direction. He is a past Chair of the ACI Technical Activities Committee; ACI Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; and Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 352, Joints and Connections in Monolithic Concrete Structures. He is a Past President of the ACI Greater Michigan Chapter.

ACI has honored him with the Delmar L. Bloem Distinguished Service Award, the Joe W. Kelly Award, the Arthur J. Boase Award, the Alfred E. Lindau Award, the Chester Paul Siess Award for Excellence in Structural Research, and the Wason Medal for the Most Meritorious Paper in 2011. He has also received the Arthur Y. Moy Award from the ACI Greater Michigan Chapter for outstanding service in the field of concrete technology.

At the University of Michigan, Wight has received awards for his teaching and service, including the ASCE Student Chapter Teacher of the Year Award (several times), the College of Engineering's Distinguished Service and Teaching Excellence Awards, the Rackham Graduate School Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award, and the State of Michigan Award for Outstanding Teaching. He has also received distinguished alumni awards from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Departments of the University of Illinois and Michigan State University.

Vice President
William E. Rushing Jr., FACI, is a Vice President with Waldemar S. Nelson & Co., Inc., New Orleans, LA. He chairs the ACI Financial Advisory Committee and is a member of the Task Group on Strategic Plan Review and ACI Committees 314, Simplified Design of Concrete Buildings; 351, Foundations for Equipment and Machinery; 376, Concrete Structures for Refrigerated Liquefied Gas Containment; E702, Designing Concrete Structures; S801, Student Activities; and a Director for Creative Association Management (CAM). In addition, he serves on Subcommittees 314-B, Preliminary Design and Economic Impact; 314-D, Design Aids; and the 314 Task Group to Update IPS-1.

Rushing previously served on the ACI Board of Direction and is a past Chair of the Convention Committee and a past member of the Educational Activities Committee. He received the Henry L. Kennedy Award in 2011 "in recognition of his outstanding service to the Institute and his leadership of many educational and administrative committees." He received the Chapter Activities Award in 2003.

A member of the ACI Louisiana Chapter, Rushing previously served on the chapter's Board of Direction and was its President in 1998. He currently serves as the Chapter Awards Committee Chairman. Rushing served as Vice Chair of the ACI Fall 1996 Convention and Co-Chair of the ACI Fall 2009 Convention in New Orleans. He received the ACI Louisiana Chapter Activity Award in 2004 and the Chapter Distinguished Member Award in 2010.

He received his BS in civil engineering from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, in 1981. He is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Arizona. Rushing is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

Directors
Roger J. Becker is the Managing Director of Research and Development for the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI), Chicago, IL. Prior to joining PCI, he worked for 26 years as a Consulting Structural Engineer specializing in design and research in precast concrete. He then joined The Spancrete Group, a multi-division, multi-plant precast concrete producer where he worked for 11 years in various capacities. He is a Fellow of ACI and PCI.

Becker is active in professional societies in addition to PCI. He is a member of ACI Committees 301, Specifications for Concrete; 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; ACI Subcommittees 301-F, Precast Concrete Panels; 318-C, Safety, Serviceability, and Analysis; 318-G, Precast and Prestressed Concrete; Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 423, Prestressed Concrete; the Concrete Research Council; and the Technology Management Committee of the ACI Strategic Development Council. He is also a member of the Structural Design for Fire Conditions Standards Committee at ASCE.

At PCI, Becker is responsible for the Hollow Core Slab Producers Committee, the Fire Committee, the Prestressing Steel Committee, the Parking Structures Committee, and the Sandwich Wall Panel Committee, in addition to the Research and Development Council. He has been the co-author of the first and second editions of the PCI Manual for the Design of Hollow Core Slabs and has co-authored papers on shear in hollow core slabs and a special precast concrete seismic resistant shear wall panel.

Becker is a licensed professional engineer in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan, and a licensed structural engineer in Illinois.

Jeffrey W. Coleman, FACI, is both a licensed professional engineer and an Attorney at Law and Principal Partner in the law firm of Coleman, Hull & van Vliet, PLLP, Minneapolis, MN. He has been an ACI member for over 30 years. He is the author of Legal Issues in Concrete Construction, published by ACI in 2004, and previously authored the "Concrete Legal Notes" section of Concrete International.

Coleman is Chair of ACI Committee 132, Responsibility in Concrete Construction. He is a member of the Construction Liaison Committee, Financial Advisory Committee, TAC Construction Standards Committee, and ACI Committee 563, Specifications for Repair of Structural Concrete in Buildings. He previously served as a member of ACI Committee 301, Specifications for Concrete.

Coleman received his BS in civil engineering in 1976 and MS in structural engineering in 1977, both from Iowa State University, Ames, IA. His MS thesis work involved research funded by the Iowa Department of Transportation and studied fatigue behavior of air-entrained concrete. This led to his early involvement with ACI Committee 215, Fatigue of Concrete.

After receiving his MS degree, Coleman moved to Minneapolis/St. Paul, where he practiced as a Structural Engineer with Ellerbe Associates, Inc. After completing his law degree in 1984, Coleman served as General Counsel for Ellerbe, Inc. (later Ellerbe Becket, Inc., and now part of AECOM). After spending 2 years with Hart Bruner & O'Brien, a Minneapolis boutique construction law firm, he started his own firm in 1991, which was quickly merged and renamed Coleman, Hull & van Vliet, PLLP.

He is a current member of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Concrete Council (MCC) and will serve as MCC President in 2013. He is also a member of the American Society of Concrete Contractors. Coleman is licensed as a professional engineer in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and as a lawyer in Minnesota and Wisconsin; however, he practices regularly in other states through admission pro hac vice.

Robert J. Frosch, FACI, is a Professor of civil engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. He received his BSE from Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, in 1991 and his MSE and PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 and 1996, respectively. He is active in both research and teaching specializing in structural engineering. He is a licensed professional engineer in Indiana and Louisiana. He is also a member of PCI, ASCE, and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Frosch is actively involved in technical committee work. He serves as Chair of ACI Subcommittee 318-D, Flexure and Axial Loads: Beams, Slabs, and Columns, and is a past Chair and member of ACI Committee 224, Cracking. He serves on ACI Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; ACI Subcommittees 318-SC, 318 Steering Committee; 318 Task Group R-Reinforcement; and 318-WA, International Workshop-Structural Concrete in the Americas; Joint ACI-ASCE Committees 408, Bond and Development of Reinforcement, and 445, Shear and Torsion; ACI Faculty Network; Financial Advisory Committee; Membership Committee; and Publications Committee. He is also active with PCI, where he serves as a member of the Technical Activities Council and the Research and Development Council.
His research interests include the design and behavior of structural concrete, earthquake engineering, bridge engineering, and the repair and rehabilitation of structures. His work has been used in the formation of changes in the ACI Building Code and AASHTO Design Specifications. His excellence in teaching and research has been recognized by his students and colleagues at Purdue with the Harold Munson Teaching Award, the Edmund M. Burke Outstanding Professor Award, and the Roy E. and Myrna Wansik Civil Engineering Research Award. He is a recipient of the ACI Young Member Award for Professional Achievement, the PCI Young Educator Achievement Award, and the University of Texas at Austin Outstanding Young Alumnus Award.

Steven H. Kosmatka, FACI, is Vice President of Research and Technical Services at the Portland Cement Association (PCA), Skokie, IL. Previously, he was Managing Director of the same group (2000-2003). Kosmatka also served as Director of Construction Information Services (1996-1999) and Manager of Research and Development (1992-1995). He joined PCA in 1984 as a Concrete Engineer. Prior to that, he was in charge of the cement, concrete, and petrography laboratories for Twin City Testing Corporation, St. Paul, MN.

His current responsibilities include oversight of product standards, cement and concrete technology, concrete knowledge, library and technical services, and cement manufacturing. He also oversees the PCA Education Foundation's fellowship research program and PCA's core research, including research projects on buildings, cement technology, concrete technology, sustainability, pavements, bridges, cement manufacture, safety, and environmental technology.
Kosmatka is a member of ACI Committees 123, Research and Current Developments; 225, Hydraulic Cements; 232, Fly Ash and Natural Pozzolans in Concrete; 318, Structural Concrete Building Code; Subcommittee 318-A, General, Concrete and Construction; Concrete Research Council; and Strategic Development Council Technology Transfer Advisory Group. He is a past member of the ACI Technical Activities Committee. He is an Honorary Member of ASTM Committees C1, Cement, and C9, Concrete and Concrete Aggregates. He is also a member of Transportation Research Board Committees AFN10, Basic Research and Emerging Technologies, and AFN15T, Nanotechnology-Based Concrete Materials.

He participates on advisory boards and committees for the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center, RMC Research and Education Foundation, and research projects at the Federal Highway Administration and the European Cement Research Academy. He is also engaged in the activities of the IEEE/IAS/PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference and the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub.

Kosmatka has authored over 50 publications on cement and concrete technology, including Design and Control of Concrete Mixtures. He speaks internationally on topics ranging from durability to standards and sustainability. He is a licensed professional engineer, a civil engineering graduate of the University of North Dakota and a graduate of the Institute for Organization Management.

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