ASCE has honored Ross B. Corotis, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., F.EMI, F.SEI, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE, with the 2023 Masanobu Shinozuka Medal for his leadership and visionary research in the development and practical application of structural reliability theory.
Corotis is one of only a very few premier scholars in the field of structural reliability. Over his career he has garnered thousands of citations, but his research profile goes much further than academic measures. His work has had a profound impact on engineering practice, with many of the techniques he developed serving practice for decades and continuing to do so into the future. The importance of his work straddling fundamental scholarship and engineering practice has been recognized in his selection to the NAE.
In terms of service to the engineering community, it is nearly impossible to find any scholar who has done more to support ASCE in the field of civil engineering through professional service. He has edited two ASCE journals, and initiated, chaired, and served as a member on numerous technical committees within EMI, SEI, and ACI. He has always been a friendly, approachable presence for young researchers in the community seeking membership.
Corotis has also had a major impact on education. He was the founding chair of the civil engineering department at Johns Hopkins University, when the School of Engineering was reformulated after an ill-advised period of closing down for an approximately 15-year period in the late 1960s and ’70s. He himself has graduated students at all levels who are in highly successful careers today.
The Masanobu Shinozuka Medal was instituted on October 8, 2013, to honor Masanobu Shinozuka, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, NAE, a pioneer in stochastic systems study and its applications to civil engineering, primarily through mechanical and aerospace engineering.
