ASCE has honored Anil Kumar Agrawal, Ph.D., P.E., F.SEI, M.ASCE, with the 2022 Ernest E. Howard Award for significant contributions in structural engineering for extreme hazard mitigation and blast and impact protection of highway bridges.
Agrawal’s hazard mitigation research has been incorporated into the AASHTO Guide and Standard Specifications for Bridges. New York DOT (and others) have adopted his modeling methods for deterioration of bridge components. He is the editor of ASCE’s Journal of Bridge Engineering and is himself widely published. In addition to his impactful research, he is training the next generation of structural engineers at City College of New York. He is also an active and longtime volunteer with ASCE.
He joined the CE department at CCNY in 1998, and for the last 20 years he has provided exceptional contributions to the scholarships of teaching, research, and service. He has achieved international “stardom” in the field of bridge engineering and smart structures, with emphasis on resiliency and hazard mitigation of structures for extreme events, which are worldwide and contemporary pressing issues of interest, particularly in New York and coastal cities in the U.S. He is a devoted and engaging teacher and mentor, a renowned scholar, a notable leader in academics and professional organizations, and an enthusiastic ambassador for the advancement of structural engineering worldwide.
Agrawal leads an active research team with several doctoral students and scholars, and by the end of 2019 he graduated about 15 Ph.D. students. His research has been supported by various state and federal agencies with over $10 million to date, including about $3.5 million in recent years out of a $9.9 million contract for five years awarded from the Federal Highway Administration for Hazard Mitigation of Structures. Among his many achievements, he is president of the U.S. panel of the International Association for Structural Control and Monitoring; associate editor of various journals; and chair of numerous conferences, seminars, and symposia. His publications record includes 105 journal papers, 110 conference articles, and various book chapters, position papers, and reports. The measure of quality and impact of his work in Google Scholar are notable, as exemplified by 4,550 citations, with a very high impact factor (h-index = 38) and over 60 publications with at least 10 citations each (i10-index = 64).
He is a representative in the Faculty Senate for the Grove School of Engineering and served as chair of the senate’s Assessment Committee. In 2015, he received CCNY’s highest faculty honor, the President’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Teaching and Service.
The Ernest E. Howard Award is given to a member of the Society who has made a definite contribution to the advancement of structural engineering through research, planning, design, or construction.
