Ahlborn to Co-chair Scientific Committee for Structural Concrete Congress



 

 
Associate Professor Tess Ahlborn (CEE) has been named the co-chair of the Scientific Committee for the Third Congress of the International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib), to be held in Washington, DC, May 29-June 2, 2010, in conjunction with the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Convention and the National Bridge Conference.

The Scientific Committee consists of experts spanning all interests within the international concrete industry and will shape the fib 2010 Technical and Scientific program. Ahlborn is "leading the effort to build an unprecedented international program for the 2010 event," said Jim Toscas, president of PCI. As co-chair, she is responsible for inviting nearly 100 international experts to participate and for coordinating their activities, including reviewing refereed papers and posters and organizing and moderating sessions. More than 1,200 abstracts, 450-600 papers and posters and 40-50 sessions are expected.

"We are tremendously proud of Dr. Ahlborn's leadership in the field of transportation materials," said Provost Lesley Lovett-Doust. "Her colleagues, in appointing her co-chair of this important conference, clearly recognize her expertise in high performance concrete. Tess is often consulted on concrete infrastructure failures in the US and beyond; her research places Michigan Tech at the forefront of innovation in new, more durable and more sustainable materials.

"These new concretes are crucial to maintaining the transportation infrastructure that connects and unifies the nation, contributing to the mobility of goods and services that drives the US economy. I particularly appreciate the fact that Tess integrates teaching and research by involving students in her work, providing them with a world-class opportunity to build the future of civil engineering."

Ahlborn is an active member of PCI, serving on the Committees on Bridges, Sustainability, Concrete Materials Technology, Research and Development, and Student Education. She is also one of three academics to serve by invitation on PCI's most prestigious committee, the Technical Activities Council, which oversees all PCI technical publications and activities of the technical committees.

Ahlborn is also a member of fib, which currently hosts the only worldwide committee overseeing the implementation of ultra-high performance concrete, an extremely durable concrete that is five to six times stronger than concrete typically used in US bridges. Michigan Tech is one of the only research universities in the US that is capable of mixing, casting, curing and testing UHPC.

She has participated in the May 2008 fib Symposium in Amsterdam and will co-present "Sustainable Solutions for Transportation Infrastructure in the US Precast Concrete Industry" at the June 2009 fib Symposium in London.

On campus, Ahlborn directs the activities of the Cement and Concrete Research Laboratory (formerly Benedict Laboratory), one of Michigan Tech's largest research facilities. The laboratory employees nearly 30 undergraduate and graduate students annually with other participating faculty and has over $1 million in research funding. She is the director of the Center for Structural Durability with the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute, an MDOT Center of Excellence.
 

 

 

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