Henry Petroski is an American engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 specializing in failure analysis

Failure analysis

Failure analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the cause of a failure. It is an important discipline in many branches of manufacturing industry, such as the electronics industry, where it is a vital tool used in the development of new products and for the improvement...

. A professor both of civil engineering

Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...

 and history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 at Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

, he is also a prolific author. Petroski has written over a dozen books – beginning with To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (1985) and including a number of titles detailing the industrial design

Industrial design

Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...

 history of common, everyday objects, such as pencil

Pencil

A pencil is a writing implement or art medium usually constructed of a narrow, solid pigment core inside a protective casing. The case prevents the core from breaking, and also from marking the user’s hand during use....

s, paper clip

Paper Clip

"Paper Clip" is a 1995 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the second episode broadcast in the show's third season. Paper Clip concludes the story regarding the agents' possession of a digital tape containing government secrets on extraterrestrials.- Plot :Continuing from the previous...

s, and silverware

Silver (household)

Household silver or silverware includes dishware, cutlery and other household items made of sterling, Britannia or Sheffield plate silver. The term is often extended to items made of stainless steel...

. He is a frequent lecturer and a columnist for the magazines American Scientist

American Scientist

American Scientist is the bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi. Each issue includes four to five feature articles written by scientists and engineers. These authors review research in all fields of science...

and Prism. His most recently published book is The Engineer's Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession.

Life and education

Petroski was born in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, and was raised in Park Slope

Park Slope, Brooklyn

Park Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...

 and Cambria Heights, Queens

Cambria Heights, Queens

Cambria Heights is a middle-class neighborhood in the southeastern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Springfield Boulevard and Francis Lewis Boulevard to the west, the Elmont, Nassau County border on the east, Queens Village to the north, St. Albans to the west, and...

. In 1963, he received his bachelor's degree from Manhattan College

Manhattan College

Manhattan College is a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in the Lasallian tradition in New York City, United States. Despite the college's name, it is no longer located in Manhattan but in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, roughly 10 miles north of Midtown. Manhattan College offers...

. He graduated with his Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 in 1968.

Career

Before beginning his work at Duke in 1980, Petroski worked at the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

 from 1968–74 and for the Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory is the first science and engineering research national laboratory in the United States, receiving this designation on July 1, 1946. It is the largest national laboratory by size and scope in the Midwest...

 from 1975-80. Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University.

In 2004, Petroski was appointed to the United States Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board  and was reappointed in 2008.

Petroski has received honorary degrees from Clarkson University

Clarkson University

-The Clarkson School:The Clarkson School, a special division of Clarkson University, was founded in 1978 as a unique educational opportunity. The School offers students an early entrance opportunity into college, replacing the typical senior year of high school with a year of college...

, Trinity College

Trinity College (Connecticut)

Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...

, Valparaiso University

Valparaiso University

Valparaiso University, known colloquially as Valpo, is a regionally accredited private university located in the city of Valparaiso in the U.S. state of Indiana. Founded in 1859, it consists of five undergraduate colleges, a graduate school, a nursing school and a law school...

 and Manhattan College. He is a registered professional engineer

Professional Engineer

Regulation of the engineering profession is established by various jurisdictions of the world to protect the safety, well-being and other interests of the general public, and to define the licensure process through which an engineer becomes authorized to provide professional services to the...

 in Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

 and the National Academy of Engineering.

Books

• To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (1985), ISBN 978-0679734161
• Beyond Engineering: Essays and Other Attempts to Figure without Equations (1986), ISBN 978-0312077853
• The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (1990), ISBN 978-0679734154
• The Evolution of Useful Things (1992), ISBN 978-0679740391
• Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering (1994), ISBN 978-0521466493
• Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and The Spanning of America (1995), ISBN 978-0679760214
• Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing (1996), ISBN 978-0674463684
• Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering (1997), ISBN 978-0375700248
• The Book on the Bookshelf (1999), ISBN 978-0375706394
• Paperboy: Confessions of a Future engineer (2002), ISBN 978-0375718984
• Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design (2003), ISBN 978-1400032938
• Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering (2004), ISBN 978-1400032945
• Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design. (2006), ISBN 978-0691136424
• The Toothpick: Technology and Culture. (2007), ISBN 978-0307279439
• The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems. (2010), ISBN 978-0307272454
• The Engineer's Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession. (2011), ISBN 978-1107015067

Recent Articles

• "Engineering: Scientific Status," in Modern Scientific Evidence, 2002, vol. 3, part 3, pp. 14–54.
• "The Origins, Founding, and Early Years of the American Society of Civil Engineers: A Case Study in Successful Failure Analysis," in American Civil Engineering History: The Pioneering Years, B. G. Dennis, Jr., et al., editors, Proceedings of the Fourth National Congress on Civil Engineering History and Heritage , ASCE Annual Meeting, November 2–6, 2002, pp. 57–66.
• The Importance of Engineering History," International Engineering History and Heritage: Improving Bridges to ASCE's 150th Anniversary, Jerry R. Rogers and Augustine J. Fredrich, editors. History Congress proceedings, American Society of Civil Engineers, Houston, Texas, October 2001, pp. 1-7.
• "Reference Guide on Engineering Practice and Methods," in Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, 2nd edition, Washington, D.C.: Federal Judicial Center, 2000. pp. 577–624.
• "The Britannia Tubular Bridge: A Paradigm of Failure-Driven Design," reprinted in Structural and Civil Engineering Design, William Addis, ed. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 1999, pp. 313–324.
• "Polishing the Gem: A First-Year Design Project," Journal of Engineering Education, October 1998, pp. 445–449.
• "Drink Me, How Americans came to have cup holders in their cars", Slate Magazine, Posted Monday, March 15, 2004, at 11:36 AM ET.
• "Stick Figure, The marketing genius who brought us the toothpick", Slate Magazine, Posted Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007, at 4:28 PM ET.
• "Infrastructure," American Scientist, September–October 2009, pp. 370–374.
• "Bridging the Gap," New York Times Magazine, June 14, 2009, pp. 11–12.
• "Want to Engineer Real Change? Don’t Ask a Scientist," Washington Post, Outlook Section, January 25, 2009, p. B4.
• "Calder as Artist-Engineer: Vectors, Velocities," in Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926–1933, ed. Joan Simon and Brigitte Leal (New York, Paris, and New Haven: Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, and Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 178–183.
• "The Importance of Civil Engineering History," Proceedings, International Civil Engineering History Symposium, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Toronto, June 2–4, 2005, pp. 3–8.
• "The Evolution of Useful Things: Success through Failure," Proceedings of the Design History Society Conference on Design and Evolution, Delft, The Netherlands, August 3-September 2, 2006. In CD format.
• "An American Perspective on Telford," The 250th Anniversary of the Birth of Thomas Telford: Collected Papers from a Commemorative Conference Held on 2 July 2007, Royal Society of Edinburgh, pp. 44–46.
• "Foot in Mouth: The Toothpick’s Surprising Debt to the Shoe," Huntington Frontiers, Spring/Summer 2007, pp. 22–24.
• "What’s in a Nametag?" American Scientist, July–August 2007, pp. 304–308.
• "The Paradox of Failure," Los Angeles Times, August 4, 2007, p. A17.
• "Success and Failure: Two Faces of Design," The Bent of Tau Beta Pi
  Tau Beta Pi
  The Tau Beta Pi Association is the oldest engineering honor society in the United States and the second oldest collegiate honor society in America. It honors engineering students who have shown a history of academic achievement as well as a commitment to personal and professional integrity...
  
  , Fall 2007, pp. 27–30.
• "Picky, Picky, Picky," Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2007, p. A23.
• "The Glorious Toothpick," The American, November/December 2007, pp. 76–80.

Awards and honors

• Norman Augustine Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Communications, American Association of Engineering Societies (2009)
• Honorary Member, Association of Polish-American Engineers, Polonia Technica
  Polonia technica
  Polonia Technica, Inc., also known as Association of Polish-American Engineersis a non-profit organization, established in 1941 in New York City,by a group of Polish engineers, who, after the outbreak of the World War II, found...
  
   (2008)
• Charles S. Barrett Silver Medal, American Society for Materials International, Rocky Mountain Chapter (2008)
• Member, American Philosophical Society (2006; inducted 2008)
• Distinguished Member, American Society of Civil Engineers (2008)
• Pratt School of Engineering Alumni Council Distinguished Service Award (2007)
• Washington Award (2006)
• Tau Beta Pi, Member (2003)
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow (2003)
• Honorary Doctor of Pedagogy Degree, Manhattan College (2003)
• Honorary Member, The Moles (2002)
• Fellow, The Institution of Engineers of Ireland (2000)
• Honorary Doctor of Science degree, Valparaiso University (1999)
• Eminent Speaker, Institution of Engineers, Australia, Structural College (1998)
• Tetelman Fellow, Jonathan Edwards College, Yale University (1998)
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, Trinity College (Hartford, Conn.) (1997)
• Member, National Academy of Engineering (inducted 1997)
• Orthogonal Medal, Graphic Communications Faculty, North Carolina State University (1996)
• Fellow, American Society of Civil Engineers (1996)
• Alumni Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1994)
• Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award, American Society of Civil Engineers (1993)
• Outstanding Graduate, School of Engineering Centennial Award, Manhattan College (1992)
• National Lecturer, Sigma Xi
  Sigma Xi
  Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society is a non-profit honor society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential...
  
   (1991–93)
• Ralph Coats Roe Medal, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1991)
• Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1990–91)
• Honorary Doctor of Science degree, Clarkson University (1990)
• Fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities (1987–88)
• Fellow, National Humanities Center (1987–88)
• Illinois Arts Council Literary Award (1976)
• Sigma Xi (Illinois Chapter) Graduate Student Paper Award, (1968)
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Teaching Fellowship (1963–64)

External links

• Civil Engineering Faculty Website at Duke University
• Prism Magazine Article
• Success Through Failure book
• Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Biography
• Learning from bridge failure: Collapses such as the I-35W in Minneapolis give engineers the best clues about what not to do. Let's hope the lessons are remembered. by Henry Petroski. LA Times, op-ed, August 4, 2007.