PCI announces 2017 Educator Awards

Chicago — Dr. Lawrence F. Kahn, professor emeritus in the school of civil and environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was named Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute’s (PCI’s) Distinguished Educator for 2017. Marc Maguire, assistant professor at Utah State University (USU), was chosen as PCI’s Educator of the Year. Awards will be presented during the Fall 2017 PCI Committee Days and Membership Conference in Rosemont, Ill., during the Member Luncheon on Friday, October 6, 2017.

The Distinguished Educator Award was developed by PCI’s Student Education Committee and recognizes distinguished engineering, architecture, and/or construction technology educators who have made significant and sustained educational contributions to the precast/prestressed concrete industry.

Kahn joined Georgia Tech in 1976 and retired in 2015; yet he continues to teach Prestressed Concrete as well as conducting research plus teaching in the International Program. Before coming to Georgia Tech, he was a structural engineer for the U. S. Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory for four years and for Bechtel Corporation for one year. His academic degrees are from Stanford, University of Illinois, and University of Michigan.

Kahn was heavily involved in experimental research dealing with, performance of high-strength concrete prestressed highway bridges and bridge components, development of high-strength lightweight concrete for pretensioned bridge girders, development of corrosion resistant prestressing strands and durable concrete for marine piles, earthquake resistance and strengthening of poorly detailed reinforced concrete and unreinforced brick masonry buildings, and repair and rehabilitation of structural concrete and masonry.

Kahn is active in the American Concrete Institute where he serves on the Technical Activities Committee, on Committees 562 (Repair Code) of which he is the immediate past chair, 546 (Repair), and 364 (Rehabilitation). He is a fellow of ACI, ASCE and The Masonry Society, a member of ICRI, and of the Structural Engineers Association of Georgia. His continued commitment to his students and his commitment to PCI and precast concrete structures industry make Dr. Kahn the ideal recipient of PCI’s 2017 Distinguished Educator Award.

The Educator of the Year Award recognizes engineering, architecture, and/or construction technology educators who have made significant contributions to the precast/prestressed concrete industry in their early careers in academia. Marc Maguire assistant professor at Utah State University (USU) since 2013 has demonstrated sustained activity within PCI since he officially joined at that time. Maguire has served on three committees at PCI, the Journal Advisory Committee, Precast Wall Panels, and the Bridge committees.

Maguire was first introduced to PCI as a graduate student of Dr. George Morcous and Dr. Maher Tadros at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and originally funded through the Daniel P. Jenny Fellowship program for his Master’s Degree. Maguire has lead a middle school program called Concrete for Kids in which students were introduced to mixing and testing concrete. Also, he is involved in an outreach program called Engineering State that seeks to expose high school seniors to engineering through summer workshops.

Maguire was the USU Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Research Advisor of the Year and Graduate Mentor of the year in 2015 and 2016, respectively. He is currently working with the Portland Cement Association on thermal and structural efficiency of concrete sandwich panels.