Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of History            

Chairman, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering                                       

Duke University

Durham, North Carolina 27708-0287

Tel: (919) 660-5203; fax: (919) 660-5219; e-mail: petroski@duke.edu

Home phone and fax: (919) 489-9416

Personal:

Born February 6, 1942, New York, New York

Married Catherine Ann Groom, July 15, 1966; two children

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: M.S., 1964; Ph.D., 1968

Manhattan College: B.M.E., 1963

P.E., State of Texas: Registration No. 37325

Duke University (1980- ): Chairman, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1991- ; Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering, 1993- ; Professor of History (secondary appointment), 1995- ; Professor of Civil Engineering, 1987-93; Director of Graduate Studies, 1981-86, Associate Professor, 1980-87; (sabbatical year 1987-88 spent as Fellow at National Humanities Center)

Argonne National Laboratory (1975-80): Mechanical Engineer and Group Leader, Fracture Mechanics Group, Reactor Analysis and Safety Division

University of Texas at Austin (1968-74): Assistant Professor of Engineering Mechanics, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1963-68): Teaching Fellow, Assistant, and Instructor, Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

HONORS AND AWARDS (other than named or endowed lectureships)

Eminent Speaker, Institution of Engineers, Australia, Structural College, 1998

Tetelman Fellow, Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University, 1998

Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, Trinity College (Hartford, Conn.), 1997

National Academy of Engineering, inducted 1997

Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1996

Orthogonal Medal, Graphic Communications Faculty, North Carolina State University, 1996

Alumni Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994

Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1993

Outstanding Graduate, School of Engineering Centennial Award, Manhattan College, 1992

Sigma Xi National Lecturer, 1991-93

Ralph Coats Roe Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1991

Guggenheim Fellow, 1990-91

Honorary Doctor of Science degree, Clarkson University, 1990

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow, 1987-88

National Humanities Center Fellow, 1987-88

Illinois Arts Council Literary Award, 1976

Sigma Xi (Illinois Chapter) Graduate Student Paper Award, 1968

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Teaching Fellowship, 1963-64

RECENT RESEARCH SUPPORT (other than fellowships listed above)

National Science Foundation, 1989-85, 1997-

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, 1998

Lord Foundation of North Carolina, 1995-96

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 1992-95

Petroski has been interviewed often, especially in conjunction with the publication of his books, on television, including the Today show and the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, and on radio, including NPR's All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation. He has been profiled in U.S. News and World Report, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Smithsonian, Engineering Times, Publishers Weekly and elsewhere. His books have been widely reviewed (in the The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, Times Literary Supplement, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, etc., as well as in technical and professional journals). Lists are available.

PUBLICATIONS, LECTURES, ETC.

Books:

The Book on the Bookshelf. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, to appear September 1999.

Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. Paperback edition, 1999; translated into Chinese, Korean.

Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996. Paperback edition, 1998; translated into Finnish, Korean.

Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. Paperback edition, 1996. Named among the best books of the year by Choice magazine, 1996.

Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Paperback edition, 1994; to be translated into Japanese. Named by the Association of American Publishers the best book published in 1994 in the category of general engineering.

The Evolution of Useful Things. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Paperback edition, 1994; British edition, 1993; translated into Chinese, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean.

The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. Paperback edition, 1992; British edition, 1990; translated into Chinese, German, Japanese.

Beyond Engineering: Essays and Other Attempts to Figure without Equations. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986. Out of print.

To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. British edition, 1986; paperback edition, 1992; translated into Japanese; Korean.

Other publications:

About 70 technical articles in refereed journals; a like number of articles in trade journals, magazines, and elsewhere; op-ed essays in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and elsewhere; popular essays in The New Yorker, Scientific American, and elsewhere; the engineering column in American Scientist (over 50 bi-monthly columns published since 1991); book reviews in Science, Nature, New Scientist, and elsewhere; a 50-minute television documentary, "To Engineer Is Human" (BBC Horizon series, 1987); etc. Lists available.

Lectures:

About one- to two-dozen invited lectures per year, including keynote addresses, banquet speeches, and lectures to general audiences. Lists available.