Catherine E. French, FACI, is College of Science and Engineering Distinguished Professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, where she has been a member of the faculty for more than 30 years.
She is a past member of the ACI Board of Direction and numerous other ACI committees, including the Publications Committee, Honors and Awards Committee, Fellows Nomination Committee, Membership Committee, and Joint ACI-ASCE Committees 352, Joints and Connections in Monolithic Concrete Structures; 408, Bond and Development of Steel Reinforcement; 423, Prestressed Concrete; and 445, Shear and Torsion. In 1993, she served as Secretary of the Minnesota Chapter – ACI Convention Planning Committee. She currently serves on the ACI Technical Activities Committee and has been a member of ACI Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code, since 1995. She chaired ACI Subcommittee 318-B, Bond and Development (renamed Anchorage and Reinforcement), from 2004 to 2014.
French’s research addresses the behavior of reinforced and prestressed concrete structural systems, field monitoring of bridges, numerical and experimental investigations of structural systems including the effects of earthquakes, evaluation and repair of damaged structures, and development and application of new materials. She is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and a Fellow of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI). French is a recipient of numerous awards, including the 2010 ACI 318 Leadership and Service Award, 2004 ACI Henry L. Kennedy Award, 2000 ACI Foundation Concrete Research Council Arthur J. Boase Award and the 2015 ACI Joe W. Kelly Award.
She received her BCE from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, in 1979, and her MS and PhD in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, in 1980 and 1984, respectively.
R. Douglas Hooton
“for contributions to ACI and the concrete industry in the areas of concrete materials, concrete durability, and sustainability of concrete construction particularly through research, teaching, and development of standards and code”
R. Douglas Hooton, FACI, is a Professor and NSERC/Cement Association of Canada Senior Industrial Research Chair in Concrete Durability and Sustainability in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. His research has focused on the durability performance of cementitious materials in concrete as well as on performance testing and specifications. His durability research has encompassed most forms of concrete degradation, including sulfate resistance, acid resistance, alkali-aggregate reaction, corrosion, and freezing and thawing, as well as deicer salt scaling.
Hooton is Chair of ACI Committee 233, Ground Slag in Concrete, and Co-Chair of ACI Subcommittee 130-A, Sustainability of Materials, as well as Secretary of ACI Committee 201, Durability of Concrete. He is a member of numerous ACI committees, including 130, Sustainability of Concrete; 221, Aggregates; 225, Hydraulic Cements; 232, Fly Ash in Concrete; 236, Material Science of Concrete; 240, Pozzolans; 329, Performance Criteria for Ready Mixed Concrete; 365, Service Life Prediction; S801, Student Competitions; Faculty Network; and Innovation Task Group 10, Alternative Cementitious Materials. He also serves on ACI Subcommittee 318-A, General, Concrete, and Construction.
Hooton was a co-recipient of the ACI Wason Medal for the Most Meritorious Paper in 2015, and he received the ACI Foundation Robert E. Philleo Award in 2013 and the ACI Arthur R. Anderson Medal in 2011.
He is a Fellow of ASTM International, the American Ceramic Society, the Engineering Institute of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He is a member of several Canadian Standards Association (CSA), ASTM, and RILEM technical committees. He is Chair of the RILEM Educational Activities Committee; Vice-Chair of CSA Committee A3001, Hydraulic Cements; and Vice-Chair of ASTM Committee 01, Hydraulic Cements.
Hooton is a licensed professional engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada.
Kenneth C. Hover
“for outstanding leadership, vision, and dedication as ACI President, and life-long contributions to the institute’s administrative, technical, and educational goals in the advancement of concrete knowledge”
Kenneth C. Hover is Professor of civil and environmental engineering (CEE) at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, where his teaching and research focus on concrete materials, design, and construction. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Combat Engineers, and was Project Engineer and Project Manager for Dugan and Meyers Construction Co., Cincinnati, OH, working on buildings, interstate bridges, and water treatment plants. Joining THP Structural Engineers in Cincinnati, he became a Partner and Manager engaged in the design and repair of buildings and industrial facilities.
Hover’s PhD studies at Cornell were funded by the Exxon Fellowship, designed to bring experienced professionals to engineering programs at U.S. universities. He teaches reinforced and prestressed concrete design, concrete materials, and construction management. In addition to his technical courses, Hover lectures on management skills, leadership, and professional ethics. His research interests include freezing-and-thawing durability, mixture proportions and ingredients, behavior and testing of fresh concrete, and the impact of construction operations and construction environment on concrete quality. He is a Fellow and Past President of ACI, Past President of the Greater Miami Valley Chapter – ACI, and a member of ACI Committees 301, Specifications for Structural Concrete; 305, Hot Weather Concreting; 306, Cold Weather Concreting; and ACI Subcommittee 318-A, General, Concrete, and Construction.
He holds the Outstanding Educator Award from the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and has received ACI’s Kelly, Philleo, Anderson, and Structural Research Awards and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Materials Division Best Basic Research Paper Award. He holds the top teaching awards in CEE (Chi Epsilon Award), the College of Engineering (Tau Beta Pi Award), and Cornell University (The Stephen A. Weiss Presidential Fellowship), plus the Senior Class of 2015 Award as one of the top 1% of Professors at the University. In 2006, he was named one of the “Ten Most Influential People in the Concrete Construction Industry.” Hover received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, and his PhD in structural engineering from Cornell University. He is a licensed professional engineer in Ohio and New York.