Marquette professor wins Milek Fellowship with ‘Goldilocks’ solution to an earthquake engineering problem

By TIFFANY NESBITT

Special to The Daily Reporter

After three attempts in four years, Andrew Sen has bagged one of the most prestigious fellowships in structural engineering.

Sen, a Marquette University professor, won the American Institute of Steel Construction‘s Milek Fellowship for 2026 with a plan to develop cost-effective moderate-ductility steel building systems for use outside major earthquake zones. The award comes with $300,000 in funding to be distributed equally over four years.

Sen, who has a doctorate in civil engineering, crafted his latest proposal after considering what advancements in steel systems would make a significant impact on structural engineering. His participation in AISC committee meetings that discussed building designs responsive to seismic activity helped Sen realize there was a market gap in cost-friendlier moderate-ductility systems.

“You hear these kind of issues come up over and over again. As a researcher, I think, ‘Well, okay, here’s a prime opportunity to try to solve one of those problems,’” said Sen, an assistant professor at Marquette’s civil, construction and environmental engineering department.

He said there are currently two main design approaches for steel building systems: one with high ductility for major earthquake zones, like much of the West Coast, and another system that’s strong but brittle, which is used in the rest of the country.   

Sen’s fellowship aims to come up with another option. With the assistance of graduate students, he will be developing a moderate-ductility eccentrically braced frame, or EBF, that’s resilient to seismic activity but less expensive than what’s on the market.

Sen described his project as earthquake engineering’s solution to the “Goldilocks problem,” which is finding a steel system design that is “just right.” His project is titled, “Balancing safety and efficiency in moderate-ductility braced frames.”

As part of the project, his team also intends to make modifications to the existing ordinary concentrically braced frame, or OCBF.

Christopher Raebel, vice president of engineering and research at AISC, lauded Sen as a rising star in the structural engineering field. The professor’s proposal “opens new doors to efficient, cost-effective and sustainable solutions for new and improved structural steel seismic force-resisting systems,” said Raebel, who has a civil engineering doctorate from Marquette.

The AISC is the perfect partner for this research work, Sen said, because the nonprofit institute has a considerable knowledge base and a direct pipeline from research to practice.

He will be honored at the NASCC: The Steel Conference on April 22 in Atlanta.

Sen will be conducting his study at Marquette’s Engineering Materials and Structural Testing Laboratory with the help of a doctoral candidate and master’s students, whose studies will receive funding from the Milek Fellowship.

In this way, the program is supporting graduate students specializing in structural engineering and structural mechanics to enhance their skills and contribute to the development of the U.S. structural steel construction industry. Sen is currently recruiting his team members.

AISC introduced the Milek Fellowship in 2004 as the Faculty Fellowship Award. Seven years later, the institute renamed it for William A. Milek Jr., former AISC vice president of engineering and research, to recognize his contributions to the group and the structural steel industry.