Fellowship to Advance Civil Engineering Professor's Work on Structural Steel Connections

University Relations

Gary Prinz

A University of Arkansas civil engineering professor has been awarded a $200,000 fellowship to pursue research related to structural steel performance during earthquakes.

Gary Prinz, assistant professor of civil engineering, received the 2018 Milek Faculty Fellowship Award, which recognizes a promising young university faculty member who teaches and conducts U.S.-based research into structural steel. The fellowship will fund Prinz's research to increase the architectural flexibility of steel seismic systems by increasing the understanding and performance of skewed special moment frame beam-to-column connections.

Architectural constraints often arise in the design of steel buildings, Prinz said, challenging structural design approaches and sometimes limiting the competitiveness of steel as a construction material. This project hopes to address the need for seismic systems and connection designs that give engineers more options when designing steel structures.

The Milek Fellowship is awarded by the American Institute of Steel Construction's Committee on Research. Committee members praised Prinz's "enthusiasm and promise as a future leader in the steel industry," according to the award.

Funding from the award will help support graduate student researchers who will have high potential to be valuable contributors to be structural steel construction industry.

Prinz leads the University of Arkansas Steel Structures Research Laboratory, where his research efforts focus on steel infrastructure challenges related to extreme and repeated loads.