IABMAS Honorary Membership for Eugen Brühwiler

At the IABMAS Conference on June 26^th 2024 in Copenhagen, Professor Eugen Brühwiler from EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland has been awarded the IABMAS Honorary Membership, as third overall and the first European.

The International Association for Bridge Maintenance and Safety (IABMAS) is the world’s premier association in engineering of existing bridges. The Honorary Membership is IABMAS’ highest recognition and a lifetime achievement award for outstanding contributions to bridge engineering and service to IABMAS.

This award is recognition of impact of Eugen Brühwiler’s work on academia, structural engineering education and the construction industry all around the world, including:

• (1) novel methods (such as monitoring) for modern engineering of existing structures and
• (2) groundbreaking contributions to the development of new strengthening technology using Ultra-High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Composites (UHPFRC), making Switzerland a pioneer country.

Thanks to his strong dedication and involvement to technology transfer, the scientific and technological contributions have enabled the preservation of numerous existing structures, especially bridges. This has led to significant economic and environmental savings as well as preservation of cultural values, while following the goal of extending the service duration of existing structures to their maximum. This corresponds to the principles of sustainability.

Moreover, as a professor at EPFL from 1995 to 2023, he developed and taught one of the world's first curricula on the engineering of existing structures. This teaching has introduced the vision that modern engineering of existing structures requires a specific approach and advanced engineering methods. His teaching achievements were recognized with teaching awards at EPFL.

Professor Brühwiler would like to thank the IABMAS Award Committee for this high recognition of his academic and professional work. He is also thankful to all former employees, doctoral students, numerous academic and professional colleagues for their highly valued support and contributions.

After retirement from EPFL, Professor Brühwiler now works as a consulting engineer in the areas of engineering of existing structures, in particular heritage structures, and the design and construction using UHPFRC. He also enjoys staying at foreign universities as an academic guest.