federation internationale du beton (fib)
International federation for structural concrete
Case Postale 88, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Phone +41 21 693 2747 * Fax +41 21 693 6245
fib@epfl.ch * www.fib-international.org


For immediate release

Press contact:  Laura Thommen-Vidale, Editor
Email:  laura.thommen-vidale@epfl.ch
Tel.:  +41 21 693 2747
Fax:  +41 21 693 6245
Press area: www.fib-international.org/press

Lausanne, 28 June 2006
ref. PR06005

2006 Freyssinet Medals awarded in Naples

Awarded every four years at the occasion of an fib Congress, the Freyssinet Medal is the highest distinction awarded by fib and is "given in recognition of outstanding technical contributions in the field of structural concrete". The 2006 medals were awarded on 5 June to Heinz Isler and Michel Virlogeux by fib President Giuseppe Mancini, at the recent fib Congress in Naples, Italy.

Born in 1926, Heinz Isler started his own engineering firm soon after earning a degree in civil engineering from the ETH Zurich in 1950. He specialised in the development of experimental methods and modelling techniques to design and create shell structures with "free" geometry; at the first congress of the International Association for Shell Structures (IASS) in 1959 he presented his methods in a short paper entitled "New shapes for shells". In the decades that followed he used his methods to design and build numerous concrete shell structures, including parking structures, industrial facilities, garden centres, petrol stations and an open-air theatre. Over the years Heinz Isler built over 1400 shell structures and was generally involved in all phases of their design and construction, including the definition of the geometrical shape, model testing, structural dimensioning, construction methods, site supervision, and inspection and monitoring of the shells' performance during service life. In 1983 he received an honorary doctoral degree from the ETH Zurich and in the same year was nominated professor at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. He continued to build shell structures and worked as a consultant until the year 2000. Prof. Isler was unfortunately unable to attend the awards ceremony in Naples; the Freyssinet medal was therefore accepted on his behalf by Peter Ritz, National Delegate in fib for Switzerland.

Born in 1946, Michel Virlogeux obtained his doctorate in engineering from the University Pierre et Marie Curie in 1973. After working as a civil servant in Tunisia, he joined SETRA, the technical office of France's highway administration, where he eventually became Head of Division for Large Concrete Bridges and, in 1987, Head of Division for Large Bridges (including steel bridges). In this position he designed many bridges, including the well-known Normandy Bridge (at that time the world's longest cable-stayed bridge). From 1977 to 1994 he was a part-time professor in structural analysis at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussˇes and became an independent consultant in 1995. In that capacity he developed the conceptual design of the Avignon viaducts for the French Railways and was later a consultant during their construction. He participated in the development of the Millau viaduct project and later also acted as consultant during the construction phase. In addition to designing numerous bridges in France, he has worked extensively on the international level, including consulting work in Japan, China and Chile, and the development of the continuous, completely suspended deck of the Rion-Antirion Bridge in Greece. He was President of FIP in 1996 to 1998 and then became the first president of fib, serving from 1998-2000. Michel Virlogeux has been distinguished with many awards, including the IABSE Prize (1983), the Award of Excellence of the Engineering News Record (1995), the Gold Medal of the Institution of Structural Engineers (1997), the Fritz Leonhardt award (1999), the Gustav Magnel Gold Medal (1999), the ACI Turner Medal (2003), the IABSE International Award of Merit (2003), the Bridge Design Award of the American Bridge Engineering Association (2003) the Hills Millenium Award of the Institution of Engineering Designers (2005) and Gold Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers (2005).

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Note: On request, the text of this press release can be provided in French or German