Zdeněk P. Bažant

McCormick Institute Professor, Walter P. Murphy Professor

Northwestern University, USA

Born and educated in Prague (Ph.D. 1963), Bažant joined Northwestern in 1969, where he has been W.P. Murphy Professor since 1990 and simultaneously McCormick Institute Professor since 2002, and Director of Center for Concrete and Geomaterials (1981-87). He was inducted to NAS, NAE, Am. Acad. of Arts & Sci., Royal Soc. London, the national academies of Austria, Japan, Italy, Spain, Canada, Czech Rep., Greece, India, Lombardy and Turin, Academia Europaea and Eur. Acad. Sci. & Arts. Honorary Member of: ASCE, ASME, ACI, RILEM. Received Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art I. Class from Pres. of Austria; 7 honorary doctorates (Prague, Karlsruhe, Colorado-Boulder, Milan, Lyon, Vienna, Ohio State); U. Minnesota); ASME Medal, ASME Timoshenko, Nadai and Warner Medals; ASCE von Kármán, Freudenthal, Newmark, Biot, Mindlin, TY Lin and Croes Medals, SES Prager Medal; Guggenheim Fellow; Outstanding Res. Award from Am. Soc. for Composites; RILEM L’Hermite Medal; Exner Medal (Austria); Torroja Medal (Madrid); etc. He authored nine books, on Scaling of Struct. Strength, Creep in Concrete Str., Inelastic Analysis, Fracture and Size Effect, Stability of Structures, Concrete at High Temp., Creep & Hygrothermal Effects, Probab. Mech. of Quasibrittle Str., and Quasibrittle Fracture Mechanics. H-index: 146, 90,000 cit. (Google). In 2019 Stanford U. weighted and filtered citation survey∗ (see PLoS), he was ranked worldwide no.1 in CE and no.2 in Engrg. In 2015, ASCE established ZP Bažant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention.

“For distinguished lifetime research achievements and outstanding lifelong contributions to the field of damage mechanics”. Awarded in May 2023 in Baton Rouge.

Leong Hien Poh

Associate Professor

National University of Singapore, Singapore

Dr Leong Hien POH is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore. He obtained his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees from the National University of Singapore in 2003 and 2005 respectively. Before pursuing his PhD, he had worked in the Building and Construction Authority (Business Development Division). He received his Ph.D. in 2011 under a joint degree program between the National University of Singapore and the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Dr Poh is interested in developing material models that bridge across the micro and macro scales – where fine-scale fluctuations are incorporated efficiently at the coarse-scale for engineering applications. His research topics include mechanics of materials, damage mechanics, higher-order continua, multi-scale methods and homogenization techniques.

“For promising scholarly career and excellent research contributions to the field of damage mechanics”. Awarded in May 2023 in Baton Rouge.