W. M. Murray Lecture

William M. Murray Lecture was initiated in 1952 as the Society’s prestige lecture.

It is presented each year as a continuing honor to Dr. William MacGregor Murray, first president and long-time secretary-treasurer, for his many contributions to SEM.

Award Guidelines      Award Nomination Form

For pioneering contributions to optical stress analysis methods and composite materials stress analysis and fabrication, including micro air vehicle design.

Zdeněk Bažant
Born and educated in Prague (Ph.D. 1963), Bažant joined Northwestern in 1969, where he has been W.P. Murphy Professor since 1990 and simultaneously McCormick Institute Professor since 2002, and Director of Center for Concrete and Geomaterials (1981-87). He was inducted to NAS, NAE, Am. Acad. of Arts & Sci., Royal Soc. London, the national academies of Austria, Japan, Italy, Spain, Canada, Czech Rep., Greece, India, Lombardy and Turin, and Academia Europaea. Honorary Member of: ASCE, ASME, ACI, RILEM. Received Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art I. Class from Pres. of Austria; 7 honorary doctorates (Prague, Karlsruhe, Colorado, Milan, Lyon, Vienna, Ohio State); ASME Medal, ASME Timoshenko, Nadai and Warner Medals; ASCE von Kármán, Freudenthal, Newmark, Biot, Mindlin, TY Lin and Croes Medals, SES Prager Medal; Guggenheim Fellow; Outstanding Res. Award from Am. Soc. for Composites; RILEM L’Hermite Medal; Exner Medal (Austria); Torroja Medal (Madrid); etc. He authored nine books, on Scaling of Struct. Strength, Creep in Concrete Str., Inelastic Analysis, Fracture and Size Effect, Stability of Structures, Concrete at High Temp., Creep & Hygrothermal Effects, Probab. Mech. of Quasibrittle Str., and Quasibrittle Fracture Mechanics. H-index: 145, 88,000 cit. (Google). In 2019 Stanford U. weighted citation survey (see PLoS), he was ranked no.1 in CE and no.2 in Engrg. worldwide. In 2015, ASCE established ZP Bažant Medal for Failure and Damage Prevention.