The ROSE Prize 2010

Recipient of the Award’s Second Edition (2010) VITELMO V. BERTERO
The second edition of the ROSE School Prize has been awarded to Vitelmo Bertero, on the basis of a unanimous decision of the Selection Committee, with the following motivation: over his long and distinguished career, Vitelmo Bertero has emphasized the need to understand structural performance under seismic attack, and to learn lessons from structural damage and failure in earthquakes. He led a whole new field of research emphasizing the importance of energy demand and capacity in seismic performance. Professor Emeritus of the University of California at Berkeley, he has received more than 70 awards and honours for his teaching and publications on earthquake-resistant design of structures, and has authored more than 360 papers and reports on this subject. He retired from teaching in 1991, after having supervised 70-80 graduate students, many of whom became renowned figures in the field of earthquake engineering, seismic risk, structural analysis. His lifelong efforts to contribute to an improvement in earthquake resistant design knowledge in seismic regions around the world is demonstrated by the fact that he has Honorary Professor titles at eight Latin American universities, being Doctor Honoris Causa in two of them. His contribution to the practicing community is equally noteworthy, and he has over the years collaborated with many design firms and practicing engineers. Recently, Bertero edited the book Earthquake Engineering: From Engineering Seismology to Performance-Based Engineering, combining a collective experience exceeding 500 years of teaching, research, and practice. In closing, as Joseph Penzien recently put it, “he is now recognised worldwide among his peers as a legend in the broad field of earthquake engineering”, and thus the Selection Committee considers that he is the perfect recipient of the 2010 Edition of the ROSE Prize.

Biography
Vitelmo V. Bertero is Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering and a Research Engineer at the Earthquake Engineering Research Center (EERC) and the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center of the University of California at Berkeley, CA, where he has been on the faculty for 44 years. A native of Argentina, Bertero received his degree in civil engineering from the Facultad de Ciencias Matemáticas, Físico-Químicas y Naturales, Rosario, Argentina, where he served on the faculty before moving to the United States. He received an MS and a PhD in science in 1955 and 1957, respectively, from MIT. An ACI member since 1955 and a Fellow since 1975, Bertero received the ASCE Raymond C. Reese Research Prize in 1976 and 1986, the ACI Structural Research Award in 1987, the ASCE Moisseiff Award in 1987, the Arthur R. Anderson Award in 1990. Other notable honours include the Berkeley Citation in 1991, the Nathan M. Newmark Medal in 1991, the First International Gold Medal Eduardo Torroja from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Spain in 1991, the EERI George W. Housner Award in 1995, and many other awards. He is also an Elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering, an Honorary Member of the Structural Engineering Association of California, the Instituto de Ciencias de la Construcción Eduardo Torroja, and the Structural Engineering Association of Argentina. He serves as Honorary President of the Ibero-Americana Society of Seismic Engineering, and is a life member of the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology.

Second Edition of the ROSE School Prize awarded on May 21st 2010
The second edition of the ROSE School Prize is a sculpture by Sergio Alberti.