2014 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD WINNER

The Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute has named Robert Madsen, P.E., Senior Project Engineer at Devco Engineering, Inc. in Corvallis, Oregon as the recipient of its 2014 Distinguished Service Award. The award, which recognizes the significant contributions of an individual who has volunteered time, talent and resources to the cold-formed steel industry, was presented May 20 during the 2014 CFSEI Annual Expo and Meeting at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.

“Rob Madsen is considered one of the premier structural engineers in the cold-formed steel design arena, and we are proud to recognize him with our highest award for individual achievement,” said Maribeth Rizzuto, LEED-AP-BD&C, Managing Director of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute. “He has made extensive contributions to the design of cold-formed steel structures, and has also developed a widely used, wellrespected family of software programs that is used by engineers worldwide. These programs include AISIWIN™ and LGBEAMER™.”

Madsen is chairman of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) Committee on Framing Standards (COFS) Lateral Design Subcommittee, which is leading an industrywide effort to develop a new standard—AISI S400, North American Standard for the Seismic Design of Cold-Formed Steel Structural Systems. The standard will provide a platform for the growth of new cold-formed steel seismic force-resisting systems.

He was the design engineer for the two structures tested during the CFS-NEES project conducted during the summer of 2013, which was the final phase of a three-year National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded research project to increase the seismic safety of buildings that use cold-formed steel light-frame construction for their primary support. The structure—which was designed using the most advanced computational models developed by the researchers—performed better than expected on the shake tables at the University at Buffalo. The full-scale testing provided the first look at the full system effect for cold-formed steel light-frame buildings.

An original member of the Cold-Formed Steel Engineers Institute, Madsen is Chairman of the Technical Review Committee, a position he has held since 2006. In that capacity, Madsen and his team are charged with reviewing the content for all of CFSEI’s Technical Notes, which provide technical information to engineers and designers for the safe and efficient design of cold-formed steel structures.