The American Concrete Institute (ACI) recently introduced its 2014-2015 president, vice president, and four board members during the ACI Spring 2014 Convention in Reno, Nev.
William Rushing has been elected president of the Institute. Rushing, FACI, is a vice president with Waldemar S. Nelson & Co., New Orleans, La. He chairs the ACI Strategic Plan Drafting Task and the Task Group on Managing Translations of ACI Products and Services. He is a Past Chair of the ACI Financial Advisory Committee and the ETC Product Development Committee and a member of the Task Group on Communication Platforms for Delivery of Services and Products, and ACI Committees 314, Simplified Design of Concrete Buildings; 351, Foundations for Equipment and Machinery; 376, Concrete Structures for Refrigerated Liquefied Gas Containment; E702, Designing Concrete Structures; and S801, Student Activities. He also serves on the ACI Foundation and is a Director for Creative Association Management (CAM). In addition, he serves on Subcommittees 314-B, Preliminary Design and Economic Impact; 314-D, Design Aids; 314 Task Group to Update IPS-1; 351-D, Design Provisions for Heavy Industrial Concrete Structures Including Turbine Pedestals; and 376-B, Materials.
Rushing previously served on the ACI Board of Direction and is a past chair of the convention committee and the ETC product development committee and a past member of the educational activities committee. He received the Henry L. Kennedy Award in 2011 “in recognition of his outstanding service to the Institute and his leadership of many educational and administrative committees.” He received the Chapter Activities Award in 2003.
A member of the ACI Louisiana Chapter, Rushing previously served on the chapter’s Board of Direction and was its President in 1998. He chaired the Chapter Awards Committee for several years. Rushing served as Vice Chair of the ACI Fall 1996 Convention and Co-Chair of the ACI Fall 2009 Convention in New Orleans. He received the ACI Louisiana Chapter Activity Award in 2004 and the Chapter Distinguished Member Award in 2010.
He received his BS in civil engineering from Louisiana State University (LSU), Baton Rouge, La., in 1981. He is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Arizona. Rushing is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Structural Engineers Institute. He has been recently elected to the LSU Civil and Environmental Engineering Hall of Distinction.
Michael Schneider has been elected vice president of the Institute. Schneider, FACI, is the senior Vvce president and chief people officer at Baker Concrete Construction. He has been with Baker Concrete in Monroe, Ohio, for over 35 years. He started at Baker as a project manager in 1978 and helped open Baker’s Houston, Texas, office in 1982. During his career, he has been involved in a multitude of projects ranging from high-rise offices to automotive plants to mainline concrete paving.
He is the current Chair of the Strategic Development Council (SDC) and the ACI Foundation. He has been active in the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC) for the past 15 years and served as President during 2005 and 2006. During 2001 and 2002, he was a member of the Board of Directors for the National Center of Construction Education and Research (NCCER). He served as Chair of the National Steering Committee for the Construction Industry Management Program (CIM) from 2010-2012. Schneider has served as Co-Chair of the Contractor Task Group for the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association’s P2P Task Force, and Board Member and Past Chair for the Concrete Promotion Council of Southwest Ohio. In 2005, Concrete Construction magazine named him as one of the ten most influential people in the concrete industry. He was also the 2012 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Spirit of Construction Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.
Schneider was named a Fellow of ACI in 2006, received the Roger H. Corbetta Concrete Constructor Award in 2011, served on the ACI Board of Directors in 2008-2010, and is currently a member of the Concrete Research Council, Construction Award Committee, Convention Committee, Construction Liaison Committee, ETC Product Development Committee, Financial Advisory Committee, and ACI Committees 117, Tolerances; 132, Responsibility in Concrete Construction; and S801, Student Activities.
He received his BS in personnel management from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, and his BS in construction management from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Alejandro Durán-Herrera, FACI, is a Professor and Head of the Concrete Technology Department at the Facultad de Ingeniería Civil of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), Monterrey, Mexico. He has taught undergraduate-level courses on concrete technology and research methodology since 1998. Since 2007, he has taught courses on advanced concrete technology, hydraulic binders, and research methodology at the graduate level in the MSc program on construction materials and in the PhD program on construction materials and structural engineering offered at UANL. In 2005, he organized the first Raymundo Rivera Villarreal International Symposium on Durability of Concrete and was the editor of the proceedings.
Durán-Herrera serves on several ACI certification, educational, and board committees. He is Treasurer and Educational Activities Director for the ACI Northeast Mexico Chapter. He has received the ACI Young Member Award for Professional Achievement and the Chapter Activities Award.
His research interests include high-volume fly ash, self-consolidating concrete, durability, and internal curing of concrete. For his academic and research activities, Durán-Herrera has been recognized by the Federal Secretary of Education of Mexico as a Professor with the desirable profile PROMEP, and as a National Researcher by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) since 2005. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, his MSc in environmental engineering, and his PhD in materials engineering from UANL in 1994, 1998, and 2003, respectively.
ACI's newest directors are Alejandro Durán-Herrera, Augusto Holmberg, Colonel Fred Meyer and Michael Sprinkel.
Holmberg is the general manager of the Instituto del Cemento y del Hormigón de Chile (ICH), Santiago, Chile. Since 2004, he has been an adjunct assistant professor in the Structural Engineering Department of the Universidad Católica de Chile, where he teaches design of concrete buildings. He was a member of the Board of the Asociación Chilena de Sismología e Ingeniería Antisísmcia (ACHISINA) from 1999 to 2011 and a member of the Board of the Instituto de la Construcción in Chile from 2011. As a structural engineer, he has been involved in the structural design of a number of reinforced concrete buildings.
Holmberg has been participating in the activities of ACI since 1996. He is a member of the International Advisory Committee; Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 550, Precast Concrete Structures; and ACI Subcommittees 318-S, Spanish Translation Task Group, and 318-WA, International Workshop—Structural Concrete in the Americas.
Holmberg received his degree in civil engineering from Universidad de Chile.
Meyer, FACI, is the deputy head of the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the United States Military Academy (USMA), West Point, N.Y. He has been a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for over 29 years and has been a member of the USMA faculty since 2002. He teaches courses in basic mechanics, structural steel design, reinforced concrete design, structural system design, and construction management, and has advised numerous cadet independent study projects. He has served as a senior mentor and seminar presenter in the ExCEEd (Excellence in Civil Engineering Education) Teaching Workshop since 2000.
Meyer chairs the ACI Committee on Teaching Methods and Educational Materials, and serves on the Student and Young Professional Activities Committee; the Faculty Network; the International Project Awards Committee; the International Advisory Committee; ACI Committees 213, Lightweight Aggregate and Concrete, and 239, Ultra-High Performance Concrete; and ACI Subcommittee 318-A, General, Concrete and Construction.
He has conducted extensive research in the areas of lightweight concrete and high-strength concrete and has published numerous papers on the topics. His current research involves the development of energy efficient and sustainable housing solutions for soldiers in a deployed environment and for disaster relief applications. He is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Society for Engineering Education, and is an ABET program evaluator.
Meyer received his BS from USMA in 1984, and his MS and PhD in civil engineering from Georgia Tech, Atlanta, Ga., in 1993 and 2002, respectively.
Sprinkel, FACI, is associate director at the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research, Charlottesville, Va, where he has served in various research positions since 1972. He has directed the Materials Research Program since 1992. He has published more than 100 papers on polymer and hydraulic cement concrete with emphasis on the protection, repair, and rehabilitation of concrete structures.
Named a Fellow of ACI in 1995, Sprinkel serves on the Concrete Research Council, the Knowledge Center Task Group, the NACE Task Group, the Technical Committee Manual Task Group, and ACI Committees 546, Repair of Concrete; and 548, Polymers and Adhesives for Concrete; and 563, Specifications for Repair of Structural Concrete in Buildings. He previously served on the Technical Activities Committee (TAC), and is past Chair of the TAC Construction Standards Committee, and ACI Committees 345, Concrete Bridge Construction, Maintenance, and Repair, and 503, Adhesives. He received the ACI Foundation Robert E. Philleo Award for outstanding lifetime contributions in concrete materials.
Sprinkel is past chairman of Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee AFN00, Concrete; Member Emeritus of Committee AFN20, Properties of Concrete; past Chair of TRB committees AFN20 and AHD40, Polymer Overlays, Adhesives, and Sealers; and has served on other TRB committees. He is a Fellow of ASCE. He also has participated on the technical committees of ASBI, ASTM, ICRI, PCI, and PTI. Sprinkel received his BS and ME in civil engineering from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., in 1972 and 1975, respectively. He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia.
