Daniel R. Cook, P.E., P.Eng, S.E., F.ASCE, an associate principal with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, in Boston, has been named a fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Cook is an accomplished structural engineer specializing in failure investigation and repair, rehabilitation, and structural retrofit of modern and historic systems. He also has diverse experience overseeing new structural design, construction engineering, and demolition planning projects. He is committed to sharing lessons learned and best practices from his investigations of various structural failures to reduce the likelihood of similar tragedies occurring in the future.
Passionate about his work, he contributes his knowledge to the industry and stays active through various professional organizations and teaching opportunities affiliated with ASCE. Most notably, he has held several local and national leadership positions with ASCE’s Construction Institute (CI). He first joined the CI Boston Chapter through the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, then rose to CI’s national Board in October 2016 before ultimately leading CI as president from October 2020 through 2021, helping CI navigate the COVID pandemic. During that time, he worked diligently through CI and his roles on the Technical Region Board of Governors (TRBG) and the Region and Institute Presidential Group (RIPG) to bolster communications and enhance relationships between all 10 ASCE Regions and the local and national factions of all nine ASCE Institutes, a task made more challenging by the impossibility of in-person gatherings.
He has also been an instrumental member of CI’s Temporary Works committee, serving as the primary liaison to the CI Board. He is a long-serving member of ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and has presented and published papers at several ASCE proceedings, including Structures Congress, the CI Summit, and the Forensic Engineering Congress.
Cook is also dedicated to attracting, developing, and retaining young and future engineers for the betterment of the civil engineering, structural engineering, and construction industries as a whole, whether within the walls of SGH, the CI Young Professionals Council, CI Student Days events, his alma mater, local STEAM events, or beyond. In addition to his role with ASCE’s Technical Institutes, Cook was formerly a corresponding member of the Member Communities Committee (MCC); this evolved into his membership on the Committee on Professional Career Growth (CPCG), where he helped create the ASCE Career Discovery Series and revamp the ASCE Engineering Grades as valuable resources for future and current engineers and employers worldwide.
He holds bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering and architecture and a master’s degree in structural engineering from Lehigh University. He is also a guest lecturer at Lehigh University and a former adjunct faculty member at Wentworth Institute of Technology.
