ASCE has honored Firdaus E. Udwadia, Ph.D., M.ASCE, with the 2023 Theodore von Karman Medal for extraordinary, original, and seminal research contributions to civil, mechanical, and aerospace engineering through far-reaching advances in engineering mechanics related to earthquake engineering, structural dynamics, structural control, analytical dynamics, and structural stability.
Udwadia received his master’s and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 1972. His co-advisors for his doctoral work were George Housner and Donald Hudson. Throughout his career, Firdaus has been an original and innovative thinker who has provided leadership through his deep scholarly research in every research area within which he has worked. His contributions to earthquake engineering, structural dynamics, structural identification, full-scale testing of civil and aerospace structures, analytical and chaotic dynamics, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, closed-form exact control of nonlinear structural and mechanical systems, precision control of uncertain structural and mechanical systems, stability, and several other areas of science and engineering are indeed seminal. His work is as fundamental and deep as it is broad. A great deal of his work in each of these areas has led to new directions in research and engineering practice.
The Theodore von Karman Medal is presented to an individual in recognition of distinguished achievements in engineering mechanics that are applicable to any branch of civil engineering.
