Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Reston, Va. — Ross B. Corotis, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., F.ASCE, NAE, professor of engineering at the University of Colorado in Denver, was recently named a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The Society’s highest accolade, active distinguished membership is comprised of approximately only 200 of its 140,000 members worldwide. Corotis will be presented the award, in honor of exceptional contributions to the field of civil engineering through research on risk assessment and reliability in the built environment, on October 20-22, 2011, at ASCE’s Annual Civil Engineering Conference in Memphis, Tenn.
Corotis has created eminent contributions to the field of risk and reliability engineering, including the application of applying random vibrations to dynamic responses of structures. He has modeled live loads on buildings, system reliability of structures, life-cycle engineering and risk analysis considering multiple attributes. Corotis also has multiple educational achievements. At Johns Hopkins University, he was chosen to re-establish the department of civil engineering as a founding chair. He then became the dean of engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, until leaving to return to teaching and performing research full time.
Corotis’ research has granted him positions as a Jefferson Fellow in the U.S. Department of State and a science advisor in the Office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) affairs. Corotis drafted the call, coordinated and obtained approval for the first ever UNESCO science center to be based in the United States. His continued education and research granted him election into the National Academy of Engineering for his model based on new methods of reliability assessment and optimization of structures, as well as his contributions to engineering education. Corotis has also held officer positions at the National Academy of Engineering where he served as vice chair and chair.
His research has held a deeply profound place in the field of civil engineering. He has held several conferences and published numerous books and papers on topics, including probability and structural methods and geo-technological reliability. Corotis has been recognized by many internationally recognized universities in the United States for his excellence in research and teaching. He is a registered structural engineer in the state of Illinois, and a registered professional engineer in Illinois, Maryland and Colorado.
Corotis received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate’s degrees in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is currently a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is a current resident of Colorado.
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) represents more than 140,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society.
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