Carl Allin Cornell (September 19, 1938 – December 14, 2007) was an American

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

researcher Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

, and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

who made important contributions to

reliability theory Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes the ability of equipment to function without failure. Reliability is defined as the probability that a product, system, or service will perform its intended funct ...

and earthquake engineering and, along with Luis Esteva, developed the field of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis by publishing the seminal document of the field in 1968.

Biography

Cornell was born in Mobridge, South Dakota in 1938. He received his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in architecture in 1960 and

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and Ph.D. in civil engineering in 1961 and 1964 respectively, all from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. He held a professorship at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

from 1964 to 1983, and in 1983 became a research professor at Stanford. He was awarded the Moisseiff Award (1977), two Norman Medals (1983 and 2003), and the Freudenthal Medal (1988), all from the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

(ASCE). He also received the Harry Fielding Reid Medal of the

Seismological Society of America The Seismological Society of America (SSA) is an international Learned society, scientific society devoted to the advancement of seismology and the understanding of earthquakes for the benefit of society. Founded in 1906, the society has members ...

, their highest honor (2001) and their William B. Joyner Memorial Lecture award (2005), as well as the

Earthquake Engineering Research Institute The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is a leading technical society in dissemination of earthquake risk and earthquake engineering research both in the U.S. and globally. EERI members include researchers, geologists, geotechnical ...

's highest honor, the Housner Medal, in 2003. He was a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

(2002) and member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

(1981). His wife was Elisabeth Pate-Cornell, formerly chair of Stanford's Department of Management Science and Engineering, and one of his five children is

Eric Allin Cornell Eric Allin Cornell (born December 19, 1961) is an American physicist who, along with Carl E. Wieman, was able to synthesize the first Bose–Einstein condensate in 1995. For their efforts, Cornell, Wieman, and Wolfgang Ketterle shared the Nobel ...

, Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is best known for his 1968 seminal paper "Engineering Seismic Risk Analysis" that started the field of probabilistic seismic hazard analysis; his work in

reliability Reliability, reliable, or unreliable may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Computing * Data reliability (disambiguation), a property of some disk arrays in computer storage * Reliability (computer networking), a category used to des ...

especially on second moment methods and reliability-based code calibration, and his development of the probabilistic framework for performance-based earthquake engineering that became the unifying equation of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center. His 1971 book, ''Probability, Statistics, and Decision for Civil Engineers'' (coauthored with Jack Benjamin), exposed an entire generation of civil and structural engineering students to the field of probabilistic modeling and

decision analysis Decision analysis (DA) is the Academic discipline, discipline comprising the philosophy, methodology, and professional practice necessary to address important Decision making, decisions in a formal manner. Decision analysis includes many procedures ...

, and remains in use for classroom curriculum to this day. At the quadrennial International Conference on Applications of Statistics and Probability in Civil Engineering, the International Civil Engineering Risk and Reliability Association (CERRA) awards the C. Allin Cornell Award to one individual. In 2009, the award was renamed from the CERRA Award to the C. Allin Cornell Award in honor of its first recipient, and was awarded under its new name in 2011. Cornell received the award in 1987. He died aged 69 at

Stanford University Medical Center Stanford University Medical Center is a teaching hospital which includes Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children's Health. It serves as a private hospital for the Stanford University School of Medicine. In 2022–23, it was ranked by the U ...

he had been struggling with cancer for two years.

Students

References

External links

* at the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cornell, C. Allin Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Stanford University School of Engineering faculty 1938 births 2007 deaths Earthquake engineering People from Mobridge, South Dakota Fellows of the American Geophysical Union People from Portola Valley, California

Biography

Students

See also

References

External links