ASCE has honored Mahen Mahendran, Ph.D., FIEAust, with the 2025 Shortridge Hardesty Award for cumulative efforts and outstanding achievements in applying fundamental results of research to solutions of practical engineering problems in the field of wind and fire engineering, thereby making substantial contributions to codes and standards of structural steel.
Mahendran’s contributions have been in two main areas in cold-formed steel design. These are wind engineering and fire engineering. His early research with his Ph.D. students was mostly in wind engineering design, and his later research in fire engineering. His research on wind engineering has focused mainly on the low-cycle fatigue of roof sheeting systems with screw fasteners under wind uplift. In Australia, failure from this mode resulted in massive destruction in the city of Darwin in 1974 when Cyclone Tracy traversed the city with high wind speeds. Mahendran’s research led to test methods in the Australian National Construction Code.
A perusal of Mahendran’s CV shows seven major research grants awarded in competitive environments in the field of fire design. The resulting rules are supported by his many journal articles and conference papers. He developed the test methodologies in his fire test rig at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane.
The Shortridge Hardesty Award is given to a member or members of the Society who have contributed substantially in applying fundamental results of research to the solution of practical engineering problems in the field of structural stability.
