{"id":146245,"date":"2021-08-11T08:10:43","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T18:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=146245"},"modified":"2021-08-11T11:51:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T21:51:41","slug":"yee-engineering-endowed-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/08\/11\/yee-engineering-endowed-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200b\u200b$2<abbr title=\"Million\">M<\/abbr> in gifts fund College of Engineering endowed chair, honor Hawai\u02bbi engineer"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 3<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_80895\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1Ynk0HeNDXg?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"The Alfred Yee Endowed Chair for Sustainability &amp; Resilience\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>A pair of anonymous $1 million gifts from the same donor to the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eng.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Engineering<\/a> establishes the college\u2019s first endowed chair in honor of world-renowned <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> engineer <strong>Alfred A. Yee<\/strong>. Yee helped design some of Honolulu\u2019s most complex structures, from Alfred Preis\u2019s floating Arizona Memorial to Ossipoff\u2019s Diamond Head Apartments, the first precast, prestressed concrete tower in the country.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_146247\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-146247\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee-endowed-chair-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"person standing\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-146247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee-endowed-chair-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee-endowed-chair-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee-endowed-chair.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-146247\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alfred Yee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> President <strong>David Lassner<\/strong> said, &ldquo;We deeply appreciate this remarkable acknowledgment and expression of support from the community for the critical role the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and our College of Engineering play every day in advancing the sustainability of our islands and the world beyond. There is no greater challenge to our future, and solutions will take all of us working together as exemplified by this gift.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Housed in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cee.hawaii.edu\/\">Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering<\/a>, the <abbr title=\"Doctor\">Dr<\/abbr>. Alfred A. Yee Chair of Sustainability and Resilience will provide ongoing funding to recruit and retain outstanding faculty with expertise in sustainability and resilience, fueling competitive research, engineering-sector resiliency solutions and teaching in these critical areas.<\/p>\n<p>College of Engineering Dean <strong>Brennon Morioka<\/strong> said, &ldquo;This is an amazing opportunity for the college and our faculty to continue to step up as a state and international leader in sustainability and resiliency in response to climate change and its impacts like sea-level rise. We are forever grateful for this financial support, which we view as a vote of confidence by our local community that the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> can and should lead on many fronts related to the challenges our state faces.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>More on Alfred A. Yee<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"group of people standing in front of bridge\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-146251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/manoa-engineering-alfred-yee.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Alfred Alphonse Yee (1925&#8211;2017) was one of the most influential and innovative structural engineers in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>\u2019s history. He was the president of Applied Technology Corporation in Honolulu and director of Precast Design Consultants <abbr>Pte<\/abbr>. <abbr title=\"Limited\">Ltd<\/abbr>. in Singapore. During his stellar career, he gained a following as a prolific innovator, holding more than a dozen patents, and served as an adjunct professor in the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.<\/p>\n<p>In recognition of his work in concrete technology and proven unique concepts for both land and sea structures, particularly in the field of precast design and construction, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology conferred upon him an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree in 1976. That same year, Yee was made a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (<abbr title=\"United States of America\">USA<\/abbr>). Yee\u2019s work is currently <a href=\"https:\/\/uhsoashengallery.com\/Alfred-A-Yee\">cataloged and on display at the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa School of Architecture\u2019s Haigo &#38; Irene Shen Architecture Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>His pioneering civil engineering breakthroughs continue to be applied worldwide, and led to numerous awards and recognitions. In 1997, he received the Precast\/Prestressed Concrete Institute&#8217;s Medal of Honor for his contributions to the precast\/prestressed concrete construction industry, especially for his innovative design of concrete high rise buildings along the Pacific Rim, which have survived some of the highest intensity earthquakes in the world. In 1995, the State of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Legislature presented Yee with an official proclamation honoring him for the invention of the <abbr>NMB<\/abbr> Splice Sleeve and recognizing the successful role this connection device played in reinforcing precast concrete structures to withstand the devastating earthquake in Kobe, Japan, that same year.<\/p>\n<p>In remembering Yee, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> structural engineering Professor <strong>Ian Robertson<\/strong> said, &ldquo;I don\u2019t recall when I first heard a presentation by Al Yee, but I know that I will never forget the content of the presentation. He told stories of developing prestressed concrete barges when steel supplies were low, and how some of these barges are still in operation today. His ongoing passion was to use this technology again to support Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion stations to provide renewable energy for Pacific Island nations.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Robertson continued, &ldquo;Creative minds abound, but very few of them have good enough ideas, or enough motivation and stamina to see them through to implementation. Al Yee was one of the few who could take an idea through development, testing, code adoption and into practice. He was an inspiration to me and many others in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and around the world. <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> was incredibly lucky to have one of these true innovators active in our community.&rdquo;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alfred Yee helped design some of Honolulu\u2019s most complex structures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1477,179,182,598,73,319],"class_list":["post-146245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-civil-environmental-construction-engineering","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-engineering","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-foundation","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146245"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146259,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146245\/revisions\/146259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}