Civil engineering alum earns another ASCE award

By Peter Murphy

According to ASCE, Makris, Addy Family Centennial Professor of Civil Engineering in the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU), received the George Housner medal “for his contributions to passive and semi-active structural control from supplemental energy dissipation and rocking isolation to pioneering development of electrorheological dampers and health monitoring and condition assessment of fluid dampers.”

The medal honors George W. Housner, PhD, who was a professor at the California Institute of Technology, known for pioneering contributions to the field of structural control and monitoring of civil infrastructure systems. 

Makris’ research focuses on the design and protection of structures against natural and man-made hazards in association with the development and testing of response-modification devices, and the analysis and design of seismic isolated and rocking structures.

This is the third recognition Makris has received from ASCE in the last four years. In 2021, Makris was elected fellow of the society, an honor held by just 3% of the society’s members. Makris also won ASCE’s J. James R. Croes Medal in 2020 for his co-author contributions to the paper “Effect of Supplemental Hysteretic and Viscous Damping on Rocking Response of Free-Standing Columns.” In 2001, Makris received the ASCE Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize.