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Department/Program(s):
    Position: Faculty
    Title: Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor of Engineering. Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Director, Program in Architecture and Engineering.
    Area(s):
    • Mechanics, Materials & Structures
    Research Area(s):
    Design and rehabilitation of bridges; thin shell concrete structures; tall buildings; concrete dams; history and aesthetics of structures; transformation of American society by engineers

    Office: E323 Engineering Quad E-Wing
    Phone: 609-258-4606
    David Billington


    Education

    BSE, Princeton University, 1950
    Fulbright Fellowship, Belgium, 1950-1952
    Honorary degree, Union College (Humane letters), 1990
    Honorary degree, Grinnell College (Science), 1991
    Honorary degree, Notre Dame University (Engineering) 1997

    Research Interests

    David Billington's research includes design and rehabilitation of bridges, thin shell concrete structures, tall buildings, and concrete dams; detailed studies of the major structural engineers such as Robert Maillart, Felix Candela, Eugene Freyssinet, Gustav Eiffel, Othmar Ammann, Anton Tedesko, Fazler Khan, Heinz Isler, and Christian Menn; and the  history and aesthetics of structures and the transformation of American society by engineering.  Curating exhibitions in the Princeton University Art Museum, Politics and Engineering of Large-Scale Dams.

    Courses

    CEE102 Engineering in the Modern World
    CEE262 Structures and the Urban Environment
    CEE263 Rivers and the Regional Environment
    CEE540 Thin Shell Concrete Structures

    Updated: May 12, 2009


    Recent Publications


    1. Power, Speed and Form--Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century (with David P. Billington, Jr.), Princeton University Press, 2006, 294 pages.
    2. Big Dams of the New Deal Era--A Confluence of Engineering and Politics (with Donald C. Jackson), University of Oklahoma Press, 2006, 416 pages.
    3. Engineering Innovation at Bonneville Dam (with Abbie Liel), Technology and Culture, July 2008, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 727-751.
    4. Felix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist (with Maria E. Moreyra Garlock), Yale University Press, Princeton University Art Museum, 2008, 207 pages.
    5. Bayonne Bridge: The Work of Othmar Ammann, Masterbuilder (with Ashley Thrall), Journal of Bridge Engineering: ASCE, November/December 2008, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 635-643.