Page 3 - Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Robert T. Ratay, Ph.D., P.E., is a structural engineer in private practice with
over forty years of design, construction and teaching experience, and an
acknowledged expert and consultant in forensic structural engineering. He has
been an expert consultant/witness for architects, engineers, contractors, owners,
attorneys, insurance companies, and government agencies in the investigation
and litigation support of some 200 cases of structural problems. He is also an
adjunct professor at Columbia University where he developed and teaches the
graduate course of Forensic Structural Engineering, for which Forensic
Structural Engineering Handbook is the standard textbook. Earlier in his career
he had worked with such prominent firms as Le Messurier Associates, Severud
Associates, and HNTB. Prior to Columbia, he had been Professor and Chairman
of the Civil Engineering Department, then Dean of the School of Engineering at
Pratt Institute, and a professor at Polytechnic University (formerly Brooklyn
Polytech). Dr. Ratay has lectured extensively at conferences and seminars in the
United States and abroad and published in U.S. and international journals on
forensic structural engineering. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Handbook of
Temporary Structures in Construction and Structural Condition Assessment
published in 1996 and 2005, respectively. In 2003, Dr. Ratay was named by
Engineering News-Record one of the “Top Newsmakers 2003” who made a
mark in the construction industry. He has served on and chaired several techni-
cal committees, and is the originator and principal developer of Standard
SEI/ASCE 37, Design Loads on Structures During Construction. He is a Life
Member and Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a
Fellow of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering
(IABSE).