American Society of Civil Engineers

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. Its constitution was based on the older Boston Society of Civil Engineers from 1848.

ASCE is dedicated to the advancement of the science and profession of civil engineering and the enhancement of human welfare through the activities of society members. In 1828, John Kilbourn of Ohio managed a short-lived "Civil Engineering Journal," editorializing about the recent incorporation of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great Britain that same year, Kilbourn suggested that the American corps of engineers could constitute an American society of civil engineers.

William Strickland
Pennsylvanians Edward Miller and Solomon. W. Roberts, the latter being Chief Engineer for the Allegheny Portage railroad, the first crossing of the Allegheny mountains (1831–1834)

Forty engineers actually appeared at the February 1839 meeting in Baltimore, including J. Edgar Thomson (Future Chief Engineer and later President of the Pennsylvania Railroad), Wright, Roberts, Edward Miller, and the Maryland engineers Isaac Trimble and Benjamin Henry Latrobe II and attendees from as far as Massachusetts, Illinois, and Louisiana.

The proposed constitution failed, and no further attempts were made to form another society. Unlike earlier associations such as the American Philosophical Society, these newer associations were not seeking to limit membership as much as pursue "more specialized interests." Membership eligibility was restricted to "civil, geological, mining and mechanical Engineers, architects, and other persons who, by profession, are interested in the advancement of science." The meetings only went through 1855 and with the advent of the American Civil War, the society suspended its activities.

The reconvened ASCE met at the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York until 1875 when the society moved to 4 East 23rd Street. The ASCE moved again in 1877 to 104 East 20th Street and in 1881 to 127 East 23rd Street. She was the first female member of ASCE, where she was allowed to be a junior member, but was denied advancement to associate member in 1916 because of her gender. In 2015, she was posthumously advanced to ASCE Fellow status.

ASCE's headquarters relocated to the Engineering Societies' Building in 1917; additional floors were added on top of the building to accommodate the society's new offices. The weight of the extra stories could not be supported on the existing pilings, so four new steel columns were constructed through the structure, supported directly on the bedrock. In 1961, ASCE's headquarters moved from the Engineering Societies' Building to the United Engineering Center, a new skyscraper built for twenty different engineering societies across from the headquarters of the United Nations. In 1996, ASCE relocated its headquarters from New York City to Reston, Virginia. The relocation to the Washington metropolitan area was made to bring ASCE's headquarters closer to the legislative branch of the federal government and also reduced operating costs.

thumb|right|U.S. stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the ASCE in 1952

In 1999, the ASCE elected the top-ten "civil engineering achievements that had the greatest positive impact on life in the 20th century" in "broad categories". Monuments of the Millennium were a "combination of technical engineering achievement, courage and inspiration, and a dramatic influence on the development of [their] communities".

The achievements and monuments that best exemplified them included:

Airport design and development the Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan
Dams the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in the United States
Interstate Highway System "the system overall" The society also seeks to "develop and support civil engineer leaders, and advocate infrastructure and environmental stewardship."

Civil Engineering Certification Inc. (CEC), affiliated with ASCE, has been established to support specialty certification academies for civil engineering specialties and is accredited by the Council of Engineering and Scientific Specialty Boards (CESB). CEC also handles safety certification for state, municipal, and federal buildings, formerly the province of the now-defunct Building Security Council. The Committee on Critical Infrastructure (CCI) provides vision and guidance on ASCE activities related to critical infrastructure resilience, including planning, design, construction, O&M, and event mitigation, response and recovery.

Certification is the recognition of attaining advanced knowledge and skills in a specialty area of civil engineering. ASCE offers certifications for engineers who demonstrate advanced knowledge and skills in their area of engineering.

American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE)
Academy of Geo-Professionals (AGP)
Academy of Coastal, Ocean, Port & Navigation Engineers (ACOPNE)

Awards and designations

thumb|right|250px|ASCE Historical Marker at [[Philadelphia City Hall.]]

ASCE honors civil engineers through many Society Awards including the Norman medal (1874), Wellington prize (1921), Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, the Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) awards in the categories of construction, design, education, government and management, the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (OCEA) for projects, the Henry L. Michel Award for Industry Advancement of Research and the Charles Pankow Award for innovation, 12 scholarships and fellowships for student members.

Created in 1968 by ASCE's Sanitary Engineering Division, the Wesley W. Horner award is named after former ASCE President Wesley W. Horner, and given to a recently peer reviewed published paper in the fields of hydrology, urban drainage, or sewerage. Special consideration is given to private practice engineering work that is recognized as a valuable contribution to the field of environmental engineering.

The Lifetime Achievement Award has been presented annually since 1999 and recognizes five different individual leaders. One award is present in each category of design, construction, government, education, and management.

Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize

In July 1946, the Board of Direction authorized annual awards on recommendation by the society's Committee on Research to stimulate research in civil engineering. In October 1964, Mrs. Alberta Reed Huber endowed these prizes in honor of her husband, Walter L. Huber, past president, ASCE. The Huber Prize is considered the highest level mid-career research prize in civil engineering and is awarded for outstanding achievements and contributions in research with respect to all disciplines of civil engineering.

LTPP International Data Analysis Contest Award

The LTPP International Data Analysis Contest is an annual data analysis contest held by the ASCE in collaboration with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The participants utilize Long-Term Pavement Performance Program (LTPP) data as part of their analysis.

Nathan M. Newmark Medal

At the instigation of the former students of Nathan Mortimore Newmark, the Nathan M. Newmark Medal was established in 1975 by the Engineering Mechanics Institute and Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in honor of his contributions in structural engineering and mechanics. The medal is given to an ASCE member whose outstanding contributions in structural mechanics have substantially strengthened the scientific base of structural engineering, documented in the form of papers or other written presentations. Nominations are made once a year and due on November 1.

Columbia Medal

Creation of the ASCE Columbia Medal began in 1982, "...to commemorate the first earth orbital flight of the United States Space-Shuttle Orbiter, Columbia" and is awarded for "...sustained outstanding contribution to the advancement of aerospace engineering, sciences and technology..."

ASCE Foundation

The ASCE Foundation is a charitable foundation established in 1994 to support and promote civil engineering programs that "... enhance quality of life, promote the profession, advance technical practices, and prepare civil engineers for tomorrow." It is incorporated separately from the ASCE, although it has a close relationship to it and all the foundation's personnel are employees of ASCE.

After the 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans, the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Lt Gen Carl Strock P.E., M.ASCE) requested that ASCE create an expert review panel to peer review the corps-sponsored Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, the body commissioned by the corps to assess the performance of the hurricane protection system in metro New Orleans. Lawrence Roth, deputy executive director of the ASCE led the ERP development, served as the panel's chief of staff and facilitated its interaction with IPET.

The expert panel's role was to provide an independent technical review of the IPET's activities and findings, as stated at a National Research Council meeting in New Orleans: "an independent review panel ensure[s] that the outcome is a robust, credible and defensible performance evaluation". On February 12, 2007, Lt. Gen Strock gave all expert review panel members an Outstanding Civilian Service Medals. and an accompanying press release. The press release was considered controversial because it contained information not present in the report, conflicting with the report, and minimized the Army Corps' involvement in the catastrophe: "Even without breaching, Hurricane Katrina's rainfall and surge overtopping would have caused extensive and severe flooding—and the worst loss of life and property loss ever experienced in New Orleans." The report stated that had levees and pump stations not failed, "far less property loss would have occurred and nearly two-thirds of deaths could have been avoided."

Ethics complaint

In October 2007, Raymond Seed, a University of California-Berkeley civil engineering professor and ASCE member, submitted a 42-page ethics complaint to the ASCE alleging that the corps of engineers with ASCE's help sought to minimize the corps' mistakes in the flooding, intimidate anyone who tried to intervene, and delay the final results until the public's attention had turned elsewhere. The corps acknowledged receiving a copy of the letter and refused to comment until the ASCE's Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC) had commented on the complaint. It took over a year for the ASCE to announce the results of the CPC. The ASCE self-study panel did not file charges of ethical misconduct and blamed errors on "staff" and not review panel members having created the June press release."

Review panels to examine alleged ethics breaches

On November 14, 2007, ASCE announced that U.S. Congressman Sherwood Boehlert, R‑N.Y. (ret), would lead an independent task force of outside experts to review how ASCE participated in engineering studies of national significance. ASCE President David Mongan said the review was to address criticism of ASCE´s role in assisting the Army Corps of Engineers-sponsored investigation of Katrina failures. Mongan assured citizens of metro New Orleans in a letter to the Times Picayune, that ASCE took "this matter very seriously and that appropriate actions are being taken".

The panel recommended in results released on September 12, 2008, that ASCE should immediately take steps to remove the potential for conflict of interest in its participation in post-disaster engineering studies. The most important recommendations were that peer review funds over $1 million should come from a separate source, like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), that ASCE should facilitate but not control the assessment teams, and that information to the public and press should be disseminated not under the extremely tight controls that Ray Seed and his team experienced. It concluded that ASCE should draw up an ethics policy to eliminate questions of possible conflicts of interest. On November 12, 2007, the ASCE asked Levees.org to remove the video from the internet, threatening the organization with legal action if it did not comply. On November 13, the Times-Picayune posted the video on its website. Flanked by lawyers with Adams and Reese in the presence of extensive media coverage, the group ignored the threat and posted the video to YouTube citing Louisiana's Anti-SLAPP statute, a "strategic lawsuit against public participation", which allows courts to weed out lawsuits designed to chill public participation on matters of public significance. In a response for comment, ASCE President Mongan replied, "Since the video has already been widely reposted by other organizations, moving forward, we feel our time and expertise are best utilized working to help protect the residents of New Orleans from future storms and flooding." Members of the ASCE are forbidden from making false or exaggerated statements and also from making statements for an interested party unless this is disclosed. Levees.org claimed the records showed how the external peer review would be done in four phases: Phase 1 was research and analysis on the performance of the levees, floodwalls and other important structures. Phase 2 was provision of information on the current system to prevent future flooding. Phase 3 was provision of information to evaluate alternative approaches to flood protection. Phase 4 was transfer information and knowledge gained to a broader audience within Corps and its consultancy community to communicate lessons learned. The group claimed that these records were proof that ASCE's routine powerpoint presentation from 2007 and 2008 were a public relations campaign to repair the corps' reputation. ASCE officials responded that ASCE paid for the powerpoint presentations itself and had not used USACE grant money for that purpose.

References

External links

"Centennial of Engineering" A 3¢ commemorative US postage stamp issued in 1952