The Ohio State University

Abstract: 

On April 16, 2007 an assault left two students dead in a Virginia Tech dormitory and 30 more dead in Norris Hall.  Of the 32 casualties, eleven were engineering students and three were engineering faculty members.  Norris Hall was also the home of the Engineering Dean's Office.  The following days and months presented many challenges, including providing solace to the families of the killed and injured, counseling the many who were traumatized by the event, restoring the teaching and research missions following an unprecedented upheaval, reopening Norris Hall for use by the Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and relocating the Engineering Deans Office to new quarters in Torgersen Hall.  The speaker will review these events and present five lessons learned in the month following the tragedy.

Author Bio: 

Richard C. Benson is Dean of Engineering at Virginia Tech.  Previously, at Penn State, he served as Head of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering (98-05) and Head of Mechanical Engineering (95-98).  At the University of Rochester he served as Chair of Mechanical Engineering (92-95) and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering and Applied Science (89-92).  He spent three years with the Xerox Corporation as a technical specialist and project manager (77-80).  Benson's research at the University of Rochester was focused on the mechanics of highly flexible structures.  Kodak, Hewlett Packard, Bausch & Lomb and Xerox were among the research sponsors.  Benson has twice been honored by the ASME, receiving the Henry Hess Award in 1984 and being named a Fellow in 1998.  In July 2010 he will begin a three year term as a member of the ASME Board of Governors.

This seminar will be held in E001 Scott Laboratory.