Prof. Keh-Chyuan Tsai Elected International Member of U.S. National Academy of Engineering
The U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announced its latest elected members on February 9, 2022. In recognition of his international leadership and contributions to earthquake engineering research and design of steel structures, Professor Tsai, Keh-Chyuan (蔡克銓) of the Department of Civil Engineering at National Taiwan University was elected as one of the NAE’s newest international members. The NTU community is elated to share this honor with Dr. Tsai and congratulates him for his remarkable achievements.
Being elected as a member of the NAE is one of the highest honors in the field of engineering. NAE members are recognized for their outstanding contributions to research, practice and education in engineering. This year the NAE added 111 members and 22 international members to its overall membership, which currently stands at 2,388 members and 310 international members.
After learning of his election to the NAE, Professor Tsai attributed this honor to the support of his family and the tremendous hard work of his students and colleagues. He described himself as an “ordinary” teacher who has been fortunate and proud to have worked with an extraordinary group of students and researchers. Dr. Tsai hopes that this recognition by the NAE adequately reflects his team’s exceptional research capability and the fruits of all their efforts - that everyone involved would also feel the pride and be motivated to continue to improve their work.
Dr. Tsai received his Ph.D. degree in 1988 from University of California at Berkeley under the supervision of Late Prof. Egor Pavlovich Popov. In 1989, he joined the faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering at NTU and started his research career focusing on seismic design and analysis of steel structures. He was the Division Head (1995 to 2003) and Director (2003 to 2010) of the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE). In these positions, he facilitated the development and growth of NCREE’s capacity for innovative research and led the center’s earthquake hazard mitigation research and outreach.
Dr. Tsai is an internationally recognized researcher on design, testing, and analysis of seismic building structures. His notable achievements include receiving an invitation by the SAC Joint Venture to write the state-of-the-art paper on the welded moment connections following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, and leading the development of the PISA3D software program, which is a general purpose nonlinear structural analysis program widely used in research, education, and practice of structural engineering in Taiwan. He has also developed several metallic energy dissipating elements, including various types of buckling restrained braces. These seismic-protective technologies have been transferred and applied in more than two hundred building construction projects in Taiwan and New Zealand. Over his career, Prof. Tsai has supervised more than 120 Masters and Doctoral students from NTU, and hosted and mentored more than 30 graduate students and postdocs from overseas. He is currently a distinguished professor at NTU, a consultant for NCREE, a mentor to countless NTU graduate students, and a collaborator with NCREE colleagues and other international researchers.
Dr. Tsai has received numerous recognitions for his foundational research, including the Special Achievement Award from AISC, International Excellent Award from the James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation, Academic Award from the Taiwan Ministry of Education, Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship, two Sci-tech Awards from the Executive Yuan, Distinguished Research Awards from the Ministry of Science and Technology, TECO Award from the TECO Technology Foundation, Chair Professor from the TSUNG Cho-Chang Education Foundation, a Full Member of the Russian International Academy of Engineering, Ho King-Dwai Award from the Tung Ho Steel Foundation, Science and Technology Award from the CTCI Foundation, and numerous journal paper awards including the ASCE Moisseiff Award.
NAE’s official announcement:
https://www.nae.edu/270224/National-Academy-of-Engineering-Elects-111-Members-and-22-International-Members