University of Washington College of Engineering to Honor Ray Clough

Friday, May 8, 2009 6-9PM.
University of Washington College of Engineering

The University of Washington’s College of Engineering has just announced the 2009 Diamond Award honorees. The awards recognize the outstanding achievements, ingenuity and entrepreneurship of all engineers. Professor Ray Clough, a 1942 BS graduate of the Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington, has been honored with the 2009 award for Distinguished Achievement in Academia.

From 1950-1995 Ray W. Clough was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley where he significantly contributed to the field of earthquake engineering through teaching, research and consulting. His most important research contribution in structural engineering was as a co-developer in the "Finite Element Method" (beginning with a classic paper in 1956 that he co-authored), which forever revolutionized the field of structural analysis and design, as well as many other disciplines that now uses this method for analysis. In the 1960s he developed a series of publications that contained pioneering methods for computer earthquake analysis of tall buildings, which became the basis for commercial computer programs, such as SAP 2000, now standard in engineering practice. He co-authored the book entitled, Dynamics of Structures, with J. Penzien which was a standard textbook used for over 20 years. He also was a consultant for several prominent tall buildings including San Francisco's TransAmerica Tower.

For more information about the awards or recipients, please visit http://www.engr.washington.edu/alumcomm/diamond/.