George W. Housner

George W. Housner ( born December 9, 1910 in Saginaw, Michigan, † November 10, 2008 in Pasadena ( California)) was an American civil engineer. He was considered an expert on earthquake - resistant construction and was a professor at Caltech.

Housner studied civil engineering at the University of Michigan ( BA ), among others, Stephen P. Timoshenko, and at Caltech, where in 1934 he received his master's degree. He then spent five years working as a civil engineer before he returned to Caltech and received his doctorate in 1941 at Romeo Martel (An investigation of the effect of earthquakes on buildings ). 1945 until his retirement in 1981 he was a professor at Caltech (from 1974 as Brown Professor of Engineering ).

Housner advised on the construction of some of the earliest skyscrapers in Los Angeles, and even in 1986 at the Metro Rail.

He became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1972, he was a Fellow of the National Academy of Engineering. In 1974 he received the Von Karman Medal, the 1982 Nathan M. Newmark Medal and the 1988 National Medal of Science.

The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute awards in his honor the Housner Medal.

Writings

• With Donald E. Hudson, Applied Mechanics, 2 volumes, Van Nostrand 1949, 1950