Special Issue in Honor of Professor Urs Meier

Abstract

As a cosponsor of the ASCE Journal of Composites for Construction, the International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC) has an official agreement with the Journal to publish occasional special issues. The Journal had its first IIFC-centric special issue in April 2007, and the present issue represents the second such edition. A proposal was made to ASCE that this IIFC-sponsored issue would be in honor of Professor Urs Meier, and this proposal was received with enthusiastic endorsement. It was felt that this would be timely and would constitute a fitting recognition in view of Professor Meier’s pioneering contributions to the field of fiberreinforced polymers (FRPs) in construction. It was also suggested that it would be most appropriate if there were a strong connection between the papers of the special issue and Professor Meier, either through working relationships between the authors or because the paper topics strongly relate to his work. To say that Urs Meier has enjoyed an illustrious professional career is a definite understatement. Urs Meier has held various positions at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), an institute that has approximately 800 coworkers and laboratory technicians in Dubendorf-Zurich, Switzerland. In 1983, Urs Meier rose to the rank of Deputy Director General of Empa, a position that he held until his recent retirement. In addition, he has also been lecturer and professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Over the years, Urs Meier’s accomplishments in the application of FRPs in civil engineering have had a tremendous impact on the field; indeed, he has received many accolades and worldwide recognition for his pioneering work. Especially noteworthy is his work on the poststrengthening of civil structures with carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips, which has been successfully implemented at a growing rate worldwide, and the application of CFRP stay-and posttensioning cables. Urs Meier has been a prolific researcher and engineer with more than 250 publications to his credit. He has received numerous international best paper and technical innovation awards for excellence for his research and development contributions. He has also developed a number of worldwide recognized patents within the field. Other tributes to Urs Meier include the establishment by the ISIS Canada Research Network (Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures—an organization of the Canadian government) of a specially dedicated Urs Meier Scholarship and his being acclaimed Doctor of Engineering, honoris causa, by the Royal Military College of Canada in 2005. In preparing this special issue, a number of prospective authors from the international community were initially contacted by the guest editors. Each submission was then subjected to the usual rigorous review process of the Journal; this was handled by the Journal editor in chief, Professor Charles Bakis, according to the standard procedures. Ultimately, 11 papers emanating from Canada, Greece, Japan, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States were selected. We believe that these papers reflect the various topics that relate to Urs Meier’s contributions to the use of FRPs in civil engineering applications. They are an excellent representation of the depth and breadth of Urs Meier’s interests. We are delighted to present this special issue of the Journal of Composites for Construction to honor Professor Urs Meier for his remarkable achievements and exemplary dedication to this field. His accomplishments, leadership, and impact have been outstanding. This community has been extremely fortunate to benefit from both his technical and personal contributions. On behalf of all our colleagues, we offer our thanks and extend our very best wishes to this extraordinary researcher, teacher, engineer, and individual.