P. Benson Shing

Professor and Vice-Chair, Structural Engineering

Earthquake engineering, structural dynamics, inelastic behavior of concrete and masonry structures, bridge structures, finite element modeling of concrete and masonry structures, structural testing, structural control, pseudynamic and fast hybrid test techniques.

Professor Shing is an expert on the behavior of masonry and concrete structures under earthquake loads. He was the principal investigator in a major research equipment development project sponsored by the National Science Foundation as part of the George E. Brown Jr., Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) program to develop and implement a fast hybrid test system that combines model-based simulation with physical testing. Shing has studied the performance of reinforced concrete bridge piers during the 1995 Kobe earthquake. The 6.8 temblor killed more than 5,000 people in Japan and caused more than $200 billion in damage. Shing has also worked on the design and performance evaluation of bridge structures constructed of high-performance concrete and fiber-reinforced polymers for the Federal Highway Administration and the Colorado Department of Transportation. Shing has served in a variety of capacities in professional engineering societies. Shing, who currently serves as editor of The Masonry Society Journal, has publishing 125 refereed journal articles and conference papers and reports since 1985. He is a leading world expert on the design and testing of earthquake resistant structures, and he has published papers on everything from theoretical and experimental investigations of the behavior of masonry and concrete structures under static and earthquake loads, to bracing systems designed to dampen the effects of earthquakes on high-rise buildings. His current research involves the development of computer models to evaluate the resistance of masonry and concrete structures during earthquakes, and improved earthquake-resistant designs for concrete bridge structures.

Capsule Bio:
P. Benson Shing received a Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1983, and continued as a research engineer and lecturer at Berkeley for a year and a half. Shing joined the faculty at the University of Colorado's Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering in 1985, rising from assistant to associate professor in 1990, and full professor in 1995. He was a visiting professor at Politecnico di Milano and the University of Trenton, both in Italy, for five months in 1993. He has won a variety of awards during his career, including the American Society of Civil Engineer's Arthur M. Wellington Prize in 1997, and the Alan H. Yorkdale Award from the American Society of Testing and Materials in 1991 and 1993. He was a keynote speaker at the 1996 Italian National Conference on Masonry Mechanics, and won the Outstanding Conference Paper Award at North American Masonry Conferences in 1990, 1993, and 1999.

Institute Affiliation:
Charles Lee Powell Structural Research Laboratories »