2008 Honorary Members

Robert Epifano

Robert Epifano is Chairman of Epic Management, Inc., in Piscataway, NJ, a contracting firm he founded in 1971, which has since become one of the largest general contracting and construction management firms in New Jersey. 

An ACI Fellow, Epifano is a member and former Chair of the ACI Construction Liaison Committee (CLC); the ACI Financial Advisory Committee (FAC); the ACI Fellows Nomination Committee; and ACI Committee 302, Construction of Concrete Floors. He is a past member of the ACI Board of Direction; the ACI Reinforced Concrete Research Council (discharged); the ACI Membership Committee; the ACI Convention Committee; and ACI Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code. He is a Past President and Director of the ACI New Jersey Chapter. Epifano received the Roger H. Corbetta Concrete Constructor Award in 2000. He studied civil engineering at Villanova University, Villanova, PA.

James O. Jirsa

James O. Jirsa is the Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Austin, TX, and has been on the faculty since 1972. He served as Director of the Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory and as Chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering. Prior to joining UT, he was a member of the civil engineering faculty at Rice University and the University of Nebraska.

Jirsa is an ACI Past President and served on the ACI Board of Direction. He is Chair of ACI Committee 318F, New Materials, Products, and Ideas. He is a member of ACI Committees 318, Structural Concrete Building Code, and 369, Seismic Repair and Rehabilitation. He is Past Chair of the ACI International Partnerships Committee; the ACI Technical Activities Committee (TAC); ACI Committee 408, Bond and Development of Reinforcement; and Joint ACI-ASCE Committees 352, Joints and Connections in Monolithic Concrete Structures, and 421, Design of Reinforced Concrete Slabs. He is a past member of the ACI International Committee. He received the ACI Wason Medal in 1977, the Raymond C. Reese Structural Research Award in 1977 and 1979, the ACI Alfred E.Lindau Award in 1986, the ACI Delmar L. Bloem Award in 1990, the ACI Arthur J. Boase Award in 1993, and the ACI Joe W. Kelly Award in 1997. He is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

His research interests include the behavior and design of reinforced concrete structures, including the anchorage and development of reinforcement, detailing, durability, and rehabilitation of structures in seismic zones.

He received a BS in civil engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, in 1960, and his MS and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, in 1962 and 1963, respectively.

Selmo Chapira Kuperman

Selmo Chapira Kuperman began his career in 1970 at the Technological Research Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. He then joined Themag, a consulting engineering company, working mainly with dams and tunnels. Overseas, he worked at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering, Lisbon, Portugal; Taylor Woodrow Research Laboratories, London, UK; and the University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, where he was a Visiting Professor.

An ACI member for almost 30 years, he serves on the ACI International Committee; the ACI International Partnerships Committee; and ACI Committees 207, Mass Concrete; 223, Shrinkage-Compensating Concrete; 318WA, Workshop Attendees; and 506, Shotcreting. He is a liaison member for ACI and the Brazilian Concrete Association (now IBRACON).

A board and committee member of IBRACON, he served as President from 1997 to 1999. Awards received include the IBRACON Honorary Membership in 2001; the Ary Torres Award in 2002, as outstanding concrete technology engineer of the year; and the Eladio Petrucci Award from the Brazilian Standards Association and the Brazilian Portland Cement Association in 1983. He is also a member of ASTM International, where he serves on several technical committees, and is a member of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (ASDSO). Kuperman has authored or coauthored nearly 100 technical papers and books.

His research interests include roller-compacted concrete, alkali-aggregate reactions, instrumentation, and dam safety.

He received his BS, MS, and PhD in engineering from the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, 1978, and 1989, respectively, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic School at that university since 1990.

Harold R. Sandberg

Harold R. Sandberg is Chairman Emeritus of Alfred Benesch & Company, where he began working in 1947. For the last 60 years, he has held many positions ranging from Associate Engineer to President to Chairman.

Sandberg serves on the ACI Scholarship Council; ACI Committees 336, Footings, Mats, and Drilled Piers; 342, Evaluation of Concrete Bridges and Bridge Elements; 345, Concrete Bridge Construction, Maintenance, and Repair; 348, Structural Safety; and Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 343, Concrete Bridge Design. He is Past Chair of ACI Committees 336, Footings, Mats, and Drilled Piers; 342, Evaluation of Concrete Bridges and Bridge Elements; Joint ACI-ASCE Committee 343, Concrete Bridge Design; and the ACI Responsibility in Concrete Construction Committee. Sandberg is a past member of the ACI Board of Direction; the ACI Technical Activities Committee (TAC); the TAC High Performance Concrete Committee (discharged); and ACI Committees 116, Terminology and Notation (discharged), and 341, Earthquake-Resistant Concrete Bridges. He is a member and Past President (1974) of the ACI Illinois Chapter. He received the ACI Delmar L. Bloem Award in 1997, the ACI Illinois Chapter Henry Crown Award in 2005, and the ACI Alfred E. Lindau Award in 2006. He has authored or coauthored numerous papers and presented them at ACI conventions. Sandberg is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

His research interests include structural redundancy and durability.

Sandberg received his BS and MS in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, in 1942 and 1947 (after serving in the U.S. Navy), respectively. He is a licensed Structural Engineer in Illinois and a licensed Professional Engineer in Illinois, Colorado, Kentucky, and Missouri.