Engineering professor named editor-in-chief of architectural engineering journal
5/28/2019
By Jennifer Matthews
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ali Memari, professor of civil and architectural engineering, Bernard and Henrietta Hankin Chair in Residential Building Construction, and director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center at Penn State, was recently named the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Architectural Engineering (JAE), produced by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
His new role will begin Oct. 1.
The JAE is a multidisciplinary journal for research-based engineering and technical information related to building engineering design, according to its website. The journal covers a broad range of topics and disciplines, including building systems; structural, mechanical and electrical engineering; acoustics; and environmental quality, lighting and sustainability.
As editor-in-chief, Memari said his main goals will be to help enhance the publication’s reputation and position it to be recognized as the preferred journal to find articles on the most recent innovations, advancements, and emerging topics and issues related to all types of buildings.
“The making of buildings in general is a multidisciplinary process,” Memari said. “I will be working with a distinguished team of associate editors to attract contributions from both academia and industry authors to make the journal a forum for knowledge sharing and technology transfer. I would like to see that the publications in the journal will have real impact on the high-performance building design and construction industry.”
Memari will serve as the editor-in-chief for a three-year period with an option to renew. Prior to being elected as the editor-in-chief, Memari served as the editor for the journal’s Special Collection on Housing and Residential Building Construction section. He created the section in 2014 as an opportunity to publish papers focused in the area of housing and residential building construction.
“The motivation was to encourage scholarly contributions related to this very important building sector,” Memari said. “As the Bernard and Henrietta Hankin Chair of Residential Building Construction, I felt a responsibility to bring more academic and scholarly recognition to the residential construction sector, and a focused journal publication medium was a good way to reach this goal.”
The new section has attracted a total of 90 paper submissions thus far and has helped the JAE increase its overall number of published papers.
“I think the experience I gained in this process will certainly help as I work with editors to continue strengthening JAE over the next few years,” Memari said.
Memari joined the Penn State faculty in 1998. His research interests include the evaluation of residential and commercial building systems, building science and energy efficiency, full-scale testing of different types of building envelope systems, and the study of building structural and nonstructural components and systems under natural hazard and environmental load effects. More recently, he also has been involved in studies related to the passive house design approach and 3D printing of concrete structures.
ASCE represents more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the nation’s oldest engineering society. The organization stands at the forefront of a profession that plans, designs, constructs and operates society’s economic and social engine — the built environment — while protecting and restoring the natural environment.
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Ali Memari is professor of civil and architectural engineering, Bernard and Henrietta Hankin Chair in Residential Building Construction, and director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center at Penn State. IMAGE: PENN STATE
