Matthew Eatherton, an assistant professor with Virginia Tech’s Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will be using a five-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award to research how steel plates with carefully designed geometric patterns - or voids - cut into them can better withstand everyday loads and extreme events (high winds, blast or shock from an earthquake) than the standard solid steel plates currently used. The research work builds on an earlier AISC award, the Milek Faculty Fellowship grant. Eatherton received the fellowship for the years 2012 – 2015, supporting his research on buckling-resistant steel plate shear walls.
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