C. Allin Cornell

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C. (Carl) Allin Cornell (born September 19, 1938 in Mobridge , South Dakota , † December 14, 2007 ) was an American civil engineer.

Cornell studied architecture (bachelor's degree 1960) and civil engineering at Stanford University with a master's degree in 1961 and a doctorate in 1964. He was then from 1966 to 1983 professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from 1983 professor at Stanford University. At times he was head of the civil and environmental engineering department.

He was a pioneer of the probabilistic safety analysis of buildings for earthquake risks with an essay from 1968, i.e. the quantitative statements about the earthquake hazard of buildings. Cornell also wrote a textbook on the application of probability theory in civil engineering, a previously neglected area in civil engineering. He advised the US Geological Survey on its earthquake hazard maps. He was also an expert on earthquake, wave and wind exposure of offshore oil platforms.

He received the Norman Medal in 1983 and 2003, the Alfred M. Freudenthal Medal in 1988 , the Moisseiff Award in 1977, the Harry Fielding Reid Medal of the Seismological Society of America in 2001 and the George W. Housner Medal of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute in 2003. Starting in 2011, the International Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association (CERRA) will award a prize named after Cornell. He was a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the National Academy of Engineering .

He was married to Stanford Management Professor Elisabeth Paté-Cornell, with whom he had two children. He had three children from a previous marriage, including Nobel laureate in physics, Eric Allin Cornell .

Fonts (selection)

  • Engineering Seismic Risk Analysis, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Volume 58, 1968, pp. 1583-1606
  • with Jack R. Benjamin : Probability, Statistics, and Decision for Civil Engineers, McGraw Hill 1970, Dover 2014

literature

  • RB Corotis, RK McGuire, GB Baecher: Eminent Structural Engineer: Dr C. Allin Cornell (1938-2007), Structural Engineering International, 2009, pp. 220-221

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cornell, C. Allin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cornell, Carl Allin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American civil engineer
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Mobridge
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 2007