ASCE has honored Benjamin D. Kosbab, Ph.D., P.E., M.ASCE, with the 2025 Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. Energy Award for fundamental contributions to the deployment of mission-critical nuclear energy facilities in the United States, including large light water and advanced reactors, via analysis, design, construction, and probabilistic risk assessment, through consulting, basic and applied research, and in publications and presentations.
Kosbab’s work was crucial in identifying and retrofitting vulnerable elements, using state-of-the-art engineering analysis including probabilistic hazard analysis, soil-structure interaction, fluid-structure interaction, nonlinear dynamic finite-element simulation of earthquake effects, and determination of best retrofit strategies. Thanks to his work, operators of the nuclear facilities at Los Alamos are much better prepared for future seismic events.
Through his DANS committee work, he has helped ensure the proper design and retrofit of nuclear facilities far beyond those for which he is personally engaged. He is a very active member of the committee and has devoted many, many hours to ensure that the nuclear standards promulgated by ASCE are of the highest technical quality. Kosbab has made important and lasting contributions to both ASCE/SEI 43-19 (Seismic Design Criteria for Structures, Systems, and Components in Nuclear Facilities) and ASCE/SEI 4-16 (Seismic Analysis of Safety-Related Nuclear Structures).
The Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. Energy Award was established to recognize outstanding achievements in the energy field by a civil engineer.
