Dr. Todd Helwig Named Recipient of 2022 Fountain Award

Photo, left to right: Brian Hanks, North Carolina Department of Transportation and AASHTO T-14 Vice Chair; Ronnie Medlock, High Steel Structures; Mike Grubb, M.A.Grubb & Associates; Richard S. Fountain Award Winner Todd Helwig, Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin; Karl Frank, National Steel Bridge Alliance; Robert Wills, American Iron and Steel Institute; and Chris Garrell, National Steel Bridge Alliance.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Steel Bridge Task Force; the National Steel Bridge Alliance (NSBA); and the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) T-14 Technical Committee for Structural Steel Design have named Todd Helwig, Ph.D., director of the Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory and professor of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, as the recipient of the 2022 Richard S. Fountain Award.

Todd Helwig, Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2022 Richard S. Fountain Award.

Named for the founder of the AISI Steel Bridge Task Force, the Richard S. Fountain Award was established in 2001 to recognize leadership in steel bridge research and outstanding efforts to advance AASHTO specifications.

Dr. Helwig received the award at the meeting of the AISI Steel Bridge Task Force on February 2, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. The award was presented by Michael Grubb of M.A. Grubb & Associates, who is also the first winner of the Richard S. Fountain Award.

“We congratulate Todd Helwig on this award, which recognizes his significant contributions to the advancement of steel bridge design in many different areas, especially in the stability of steel structures, steel tub girder bracing design, and improved tub girder details,” said Robert J. Wills, P.E., vice president of construction for AISI.

Career Accomplishments

Wills noted many of Dr. Helwig’s accomplishments:

• Development and improvement of many specification provisions involving global displacement amplification of narrow I-girder bridge units.
• Analysis and design of cross-frames in straight and curved steel I-girder bridges under NCHRP Project 12-113.
• Use of half-round bearing stiffeners on I-girders to allow for a perpendicular connection between the stiffener and a cross-frame or diaphragm connection plate for any skew angle at a support.
• Investigation of lateral-torsional buckling of nonprismatic unbraced lengths.

In addition, he is the primary author of Chapter 13 of the NSBA’s “Steel Bridge Design Handbook on Bracing System Theory and Design for I-Girders and Tub Girders” and for NHI Course 130102 on Engineering for Structural Stability in Bridge Construction.

Active Technical Committees

Dr. Helwig has been active on several technical committees within the following organizations:

• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
• American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC)
• Transportation Research Board, the AISI Steel Bridge Task Force
• Structural Stability Research Council

His research has been recognized with the ASCE Collingwood Research Prize, the ASCE Moisseiff Award, and the ASCE Shortridge Hardesty Award. His work on stability bracing systems in steel bridges was recognized at the North American Steel Construction Conference with a Special Achievement Award, and he received the 2017 T. R. Higgins Lectureship Award from AISC.

Previous Award Recipients

• Robert J. Connor, Jack and Kay Hockema Professor in Civil Engineering at Purdue University (2020)
• Ed Wasserman, Senior Engineer of Bridge Design and Engineering, Modjeski and Masters (2019)
• Alexander D. Wilson, Manager of Customer Technical Services for ArcelorMittal, USA, Retired (2014)
• Ronald D. Medlock, P.E., High Steel Structures, Inc., Lancaster, PA (2013)
• Yoni Adonyi, Ph.D., P.E., professor, Omer Blodgett Chair of Welding and Materials Joining Engineering and MJE Program Coordinator at LeTourneau University (2012)
• Ahmad M. Itani, Ph.D., P.E., S.E., F. ASCE, University of Nevada, Reno (2011)
• John M. Kulicki, P.E., Modjeski and Masters, Inc. (2009)
• William J. Wright, Federal Highway Administration’s Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (2008)
• Donald W. White, Professor of Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials at the Georgia Institute of Technology (2007)
• Dean C. Krouse, Independent Consulting Metallurgical Engineer (2006)
• Dennis R. Mertz, Associate Professor, University of Delaware (2005)
• Camille Rubeiz, former Director of Transportation and Infrastructure at AISI (2003)
• Professor Karl Frank, University of Texas at Austin (2002); and
• Mike Grubb, P.E., BSDI Ltd. (2001)

Read Original Article