The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) recently announced their election of 67 new members to be inducted into their academy at an award ceremony in October 2015.  Included in this year’s group of inductees is Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. (SGH) Senior Principal Ronald Hamburger. 

Membership in the Academy is the highest honor bestowed upon an engineer. According to the NAE’s website, “members have distinguished themselves in business and academic management, in technical positions, as university faculty, and as leaders in government and private engineering organizations.”

Hamburger's distinguished career has made him an internationally recognized expert in performance-based structural, earthquake, and blast engineering. He has also played a lead role in the development of national structural engineering standards and building code provisions. Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Hamburger served as an investigator in the collapse of New York’s twin World Trade Center towers on behalf of the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In 2014, Hamburger was awarded the Walter P. Moore Jr. Award by the Structural Engineering Institute for his lifetime of contributions to the development of building codes and standards, and in 2013 the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California presented him with the H.J. Brunnier Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in Structural Engineering.

“There is no doubt that Ron’s lifetime contributions to structural engineering practice, particularly in earthquake engineering, have led to this honor.  Ron is well deserving of this award. We at SGH are tremendously proud of Ron,” said SGH CEO Glenn Bell.