Dr‎.‎ Wai‎-Fah Chen is a research professor of civil engineering at the University of Hawaii‎.‎ He earned his BS in civil engineering from the National Cheng‎-Kung University‎,‎ Taiwan‎,‎ in 1959‎,‎ MS in structural engineering from Lehigh University in 1963‎,‎ and PhD in solid mechanics from Brown University in 1966‎.‎ His interests include constitutive modeling of engineering materials‎,‎ soil and concrete plasticity‎,‎ structural connections‎,‎ and structural stability‎,‎ and he has received several national engineering awards‎.‎ In 1995‎,‎ he was elected to the U‎.‎S‎.‎ National Academy of Engineering‎.‎ Dr‎.‎ Chen has authored and coauthored more than 20 engineering books and 500 technical papers‎.‎ He is editor‎-in‎-chief for the Civil Engineering Handbook‎,‎ the Handbook of Structural Engineering‎,‎ the Earthquake Engineering Handbook‎,‎ and the Handbook of International Bridge Engineering ‎(‎CRC Press‎)‎‎.‎ Dr‎.‎ Lian Duan is a senior bridge engineer and structural steel committee chair with the California Department of Transportatio‎.‎‎.‎‎.‎