Alumnus honored with the Nathan M. Newmark Medal from ASCE

By Peter Murphy

According to ASCE, the medal recognizes a member who, “through contributions in structural mechanics, has helped substantially to strengthen the scientific base of structural engineering.”

Nagarajaiah is a former student of Professor Emeritus and 2011 Nathan M. Newmark medal winner, Andrei Reinhorn. Nagarajaiah also worked with both Reinhorn and 2015 Newmark medal winner and  SUNY Distinguished Professor Michael Constantinou on US Patent 8,857,110,B2, Negative Stiffness Device and Method.

During and after earning his PhD, Nagarajaiah did substantial work with UB’s MCEER. From 1998 to 2014, Nagarajaiah co-authored nine technical reports for MCEER with Constantinou and Reinhorn on three different grants. Nagarajaiah developed the 3-D BASIS class of computer programs for the response-history analysis of seismically isolated buildings while conducting research through MCEER. These programs featured developments that were later adopted by Computers and Structures, Inc. to develop the widely-used programs, SAP2000 and ETABS.

Nagarajaiah is a professor of civil engineering, mechanical engineering and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University. He is credited on four different patents, and each have had a significant impact on structural engineering.

Nagarajaiah was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors last year, and is a fellow of both ASCE, and ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute. He also received the 2015 Moisseiff Award and 2017 Reese Research Prize from the Society.