The American Society of Civil Engineers recently recognized the accoinplishnients of Franklin Y. Cheng, PhD., P.E., Hon.M.ASCE by electing him to Honorary Membership. The Induction Ceremony will take place at the black lie gala banquet, held in conjunction with the Society 137th Annual Civil Engineering Conference, on November 3 at the Buena Vista Palace in Orlando, Florida.Dr. Cheng was honored for his significant contributions to earthquake structural engineering on optimization, control, and structural dynamics, for his distinguished leadership and service in the international engineering community and as a well-respected educator, consultant, author, editor, and member of numerous professional committees and delegations.His cutting edge research helped recognize the vital importance of the possibilities of automatic computing in the future of civil engineering. He was one of the pioneers in allying computing expertise to the design of large and complex structures against dynamic loads. His research expanded over the years to include the important topics of structural optimization and the design of smart structures; In fact, he is one of the foremost experts in the world on the application of structural dynamics and optimization to the design of structures.Due to the high caliber and breadth of his research expertise, Dr. Cheng has been regularly invited to serve on the review panels for the National Science Foundation, hence setting the direction of future structural research. In addition, he has been instrumental in helping the National Science Foundation develop collaborative research programs with Europe, China, Japan and Korea.Major industrial corporations and government agencies have sought Dr. Cheng’s consultancy. He has consulted with Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc.; Los Alarnos National Laboratory; Buchmuellor, Whitworth and Faust, Inc.; Kjaima Corporation; Arnold and O’Sheridan Engineers; Martin & Huang International, Inc.; and Ames, Torkelson and Nugent Architects and Engineers.

        An important educator, Dr. Cheng joined the University of Missouri-Rolla as Assistant Professor in 1966. In 1987 the Board of Curators of the University appointed him Curator's Professor, the highest professorial position in the system comprising four campuses. He has been Curator Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering since 2000. He received four honorary professorships from China and chaired seven of his 24 National Science Foundation (NSF) delegations to various countries for research cooperation. His led as director of international earthquake engineering symposia and contributed numerous state-of-the-art short courses. He has warranted grants from several funding agencies including 35 from NSF.As a leader in the field, he has served as either chairman or member of 37 professional societies and committees - among them 12 are of ASCE. He was the first chair of the Technical Administrative Committee on Analysis and Computation and initiated Emerging Computing Technology Committee and Structural Control Committee. He also initiated and chaired the Stability Under Seismic Loading Task Group of the Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC).Dr. Cheng is the author of more than 280 publications, including two textbooks on Matrix Analysis of Structural Dynamics and Dynamic Structural Analysis and as well as two forthcoming books on Smart Structures and Structural Optimization. He has received numerous awards, including two times of the ASCE State-of-the-Art of Civil Engineering Award.

        Honorary Membership is the highest award the Society may confer, second only to the title ofASCE President. Honorary Members on this prestigious and highly selective list have attained acknowledged eminence in a branch of engineering or its related arts and sciences. There are now 565 individuals who have been elected to this distinguished grade of membership since 1853.