Steel Bridge Task Force Announces Recipient of 2021 Dexter Award

Photo: Dr. Matthew Yarnold, second from left, with the Caney Fork Bridge Install Team. Photo by Eric James

The Steel Bridge Task Force Oversight Council of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), 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 selected Matthew Yarnold, Ph.D., P.E., assistant professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas as the recipient of the 2021 Robert J. Dexter Memorial Award Lecture.

The program was instituted in 2005 in memory of Robert J. Dexter, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, who was an internationally recognized expert on steel fracture and fatigue problems in bridges.

The Robert J. Dexter Memorial Award Lecture program provides an opportunity for individuals early in their careers in structural engineering to present a lecture on their steel bridge research activities to the Steel Bridge Task Force and to participate in its semiannual three-day meeting. Recipients become invited guests of the Steel Bridge Task Force, which is comprised of leading steel bridge experts.

Dr. Yarnold will present a lecture on his research findings at the next meeting of the Steel Bridge Task Force on August 12, 2021 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“As an assistant professor, Dr. Yarnold has already been widely published, contributing reference journal articles on a wide range of topics,” said Robert Wills, P.E., vice president of the construction group at AISI. “His extensive design and research experience are essential to solving ‘real-world’ challenges that are directly applicable to the design, construction and fabrication industries. We look forward to the contributions that he will make in the years to come to advance steel bridge design.”

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