Gary J. Klein

CEEAA Distinguished Alumni Award, 2012

For significant and lasting impact on research and practice in the fields of failure investigations and structural assessments, and for outstanding contributions conveying knowledge from these investigations to the structural engineering community.

Biography

Gary J. Klein is Senior Principal and Executive Vice President of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. in Northbrook, Illinois. For more than 30 years, Klein has studied and delivered solutions for buildings and bridges suffering from deterioration, distress or failure. He has investigated several major collapses, including the 1981 collapse of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel skywalks and the 1996 collapse of the KB Bridge in the Republic of Palau.  He has also researched behavior of precast spandrel beams and volume change of precast buildings.

Klein is a fellow of the American Concrete Institute and an active member of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute. Since 1995, Klein has been a member of the American Concrete Institute building code committee, ACI 318, and several other ACI committees.

Klein is a Licensed Structural Engineer in Illinois and a Licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois and several other states. He has received numerous awards, including a 1987 CEEAA Young Alumnus Award from the University of Illinois, and has authored more than two dozen papers related to his structural investigation practice and research work.