Beedle Award

The award has been established in honor of the late Lynn S. Beedle, an international authority on stability and the development of code criteria for steel and composite structures. He was a leader and outstanding contributor to the work of the Structural Stability Research Council for a period of more than 50 years, establishing the council as the pre-eminent organization worldwide in the area of structural stability. Through Lynn Beedle’s dedicated work and leadership in the national and international arenas, the structural engineering profession has seen advanced concepts developed into practical engineering tools. He consistently and successfully endeavored to advance collaboration between researchers, engineers and code writers worldwide.

Recipients of the Lynn S. Beedle Award must meet the following criteria:

The award will be presented at the SSRC Annual Stability Conference. It consists of a framed certificate, signed by the SSRC Chair and Vice Chair.

2011 Award Winner

Prof. Nicholas Trahair
Presented May 13, 2011

Nick Trahair is an Emeritus Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney.  He has also held appointments at Washington University, the University of Sheffield, and the University of Alberta.

His research and teaching fields are in structural stability, especially the lateral buckling of steel beams, and the design of steel structures. He has published more than 220 papers in these fields.  His book Flexural-Torsional Buckling of Structures provides a major resource for researchers and designers, while his book The Behaviour and Design of Steel Structures (in 6 editions) provided advice on the steel design codes of Australia, USA, UK, and Europe.

He was a member and co-chairman for 35 years of the committee which developed the Australian steel design codes.  The 1990 code AS4100 was groundbreaking, with many innovations which have subsequently been adopted by other countries.  He is the principal developer of the computer program LIMSTEEL used by most Australian steel designers.  He gave many presentations around Australia and developed many short courses to assist practicing engineers in the use of AS4100.

He was the recipient of 6 medals, prizes, or awards of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, and of the Shortridge Hardesty Award of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

He has served on the editorial boards of a number of international journals, and have assisted many of them by reviewing papers submitted for publication.  He has also represented Australia on a number of committees of the Structural Stability Research Council.

Past Beedle Award Winners