People

coming from research work. His research activities span from plate buckling prob- lems, plastic resistance of cross-sections including torsion actions, low-cycle fa- tigue resistance of steel frames subjected to seismic actions, rotation capacity of beam-column joints, innovative dissipa- tive devices in seismic resistant steel frames, numerical modelling of steel concrete composite bridges, etc. As design engineer he has been invol- ved in the design of residential, office and industrial buildings, composite Ioannis Vayas reaches 60 bridges, towers, masts and other structu- res. He has employed all his experience from the research and engineering work in a number of books published in Greek, German and English. In Greek he pub- lished 8 books on steel and steel-concrete composite structures, including the ap- plication of Eurocode 3 and Eurocode 4. Three of these books were translated to German and published by Ernst & Sohn. They were well received, because they were equally appropriate for students and practising engineers mainly due to a large number of well selected numerical Prof. Ioannis Vayas examples. His last book (in co-author- ship with A. Iliopoulos) on Design of Prof. Dr.-Ing Dr. h.c. Ioannis Vayas, pro- Steel-Concrete Composite Bridges to fessor for steel structures at the National Eurocodes that was published this year Technical University of Athens, Greece, by Taylor & Francis, represents a culmi- celebrated his 60th birthday on 26 Octo- nation of publishing activities of Prof. ber 2013. Vayas. The book brings very complete He was born in Athens and after com- information on the design issues of pleting his high school education at the steel-concrete composite bridges with a German School of Athens in 1971 he lot of detailed information on all rele- studied civil engineering at the National vant topics have so far not been availa- Technical University of Athens, where ble in one publication. he graduated in 1976. After graduation In 1997 the Technical University of he moved to Germany, where he spent Cluj-Napoca, Romania, awarded him an his first two years as research fellow at honorary doctorate for establishing a the Institute of Foundation Engineering model cooperation between the two uni- and Soil Mechanics of the Technical Uni- versities. versity of Braunschweig. Then, luckily, he Those who have had the privilege to discovered the world of steel structures meet Prof. Vayas and work with him in and has remained faithful to it till nowa- European research projects, in CEN/TC days. From 1978 to 1981 he worked at 250/SC3 (Eurocode 3 Committee) or at the Institute of Steel Structures of the the conferences know that he has a Technical University of Braunschweig, strong personality but at the same time a where in 1981 he defended his doctoral kind character. He has made a lot of thesis on plate buckling problems under friends all around Europe and when he supervision of Prof. Joachim Scheer. was involved in an unfortunate dispute After serving military service in 1981- about the authorship of one of the text 1983, he established his own design office books (published in Greek by one of his and worked as design engineer, until in academic colleagues), very prominent Eu- 1987 he joined the National Technical ropean academics without any hesitation University of Athens as teacher. He be- took his side and helped to solve the case. came full professor in 2003 and Director This is the opportunity that on behalf of the Institute of Steel Structures in 2011. of all his friends and all those who ap- Prof. Vayas is an outstanding resear- preciate Prof. Ioannis Vayas we wish cher and an excellent engineer. He has him good health, and although the aca- always been able to combine these two demic life in Greece has seen much bet- fields in the best possible way. As resear- ter times, we wish him new excitements cher he is always looking for problems and challenges in his academic and pro- that are relevant for the engineering fessional life. practice and as engineer he successfully applies new ideas and the knowledge Prof. Darko Beg

302 Steel Construction 6 (2013), No. 4