President's Corner

As you may be aware, Alan G. Davenport died July 19 in London, Ontario, Canada at 76.  This issue of "The Wind Engineer" is dedicated to Alan's contributions and his legacy.

In many scientific disciplines, the most significant advances are a result of the actions, contributions, and motivation provided by a handful of great leaders. In some instances, these leaders actually come to define their fields. 

Wind engineering is certainly a discipline that has benefited tremendously from the vision and leadership of such individuals. Some of us have been privileged enough to work with these leaders and, in many instances, we can credit many of our own accomplishments to what we learned from them, including me, and I am sure, my predecessors at AAWE. 

But, as many of you know, these engineers influenced people considerably beyond their immediate domains as well. Though their humility, magnanimity, technical abilities, and humor, they earned the trust and admiration of their peers. Alan Davenport was, of course, exemplary in this respect; he was a leader among leaders.

Alan's contributions to the theory and practice of wind engineering are well-known and documented for posterity, but not only in journals and conference proceedings. We see Alan's influence in the spectacular buildings and bridges whose form and design he influenced. We see it in the programs that have been built around the world by his academic progeny. And of course, we see it through the legacy he leaves at the University of Western Ontario and the Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory that bears his name. While his projects are too numerous to mention, large structures on which he consulted include the World Trade Center in New York, the Sears (now Willis) Tower in Chicago, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong, and the Normandy Bridge in France.

We mourn the loss of Alan Davenport, but we celebrate his contributions and the future path he has helped us define. He has trained us, inspired us and challenged us to carry the torch forward - and we will.

Perhaps all of this can be summed up succinctly in John Quincy Adams statement: "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." In Alan's case, I don't think there is a question.

Sincerely,
Nicholas P. Jones
President, AAWE
[410] 516 4050
npjones@jhu.edu