Chinese scholar appointed president of international bridge association

Ti Gong

Ge Yaojun, a 60-year-old professor from Shanghai-based Tongji University, was elected president of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). 

He is the first Chinese scholar to take the position in the nearly 90 year history of the organization.

His presidency, from 2019 to 2022, was elected by 63 permanent committee members of the organization, from over 20 countries and regions at the 40th IABSE Symposium.

Ge is an expert in bridge engineering and wind engineering and won the association's Outstanding Structure Award in 2008 for presiding over the construction of the Shanghai Lupu Bridge.

IABSE is a scientific and technical association comprising members in 100 countries and regions. Founded in 1929, the organization, with its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, deals with all aspects of structural engineering, such as planning, design, construction, operation, monitoring and inspection, maintenance, rehabilitation and preservation, as well as the demolition and dismantling of structures. 

The aim of the association is to exchange knowledge and to advance the practice of structural engineering worldwide in the service of the profession and society.

Experts from Tongji University have been active in the world exchange platform.

In 1979, then Tongji president Li Guohao set up the Chinese National Group of the association, taking up the positions of president of the national group and the first Chinese member of the association's permanent committee, the highest body of the organization.

Li was recommended by the association as one of the world's top 10 experts in structural engineering in 1981, and won the International Award of Merit in Structural Engineering in 1987.

Xiang Haifan, another expert from Tongji, was elected to become the first Chinese vice president of the IABSE, followed by Ge in 2009 and their colleague Sun Limin in 2017.