Newswise — Charles H. Thornton, co-chairman of the Thornton-Tomasetti Group, Inc., will be a featured speaker at Clarkson University's 111th Commencement on Sunday, May 9.
Thornton will address the nearly 600 Clarkson students who will be granted bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees that day.
He will also receive an honorary degree from Clarkson for his innovative corporate leadership in engineering design and building projects that have improved living conditions around the world and for his extraordinary humanitarian service, exemplified in work with the American Civil Engineers (ACE) Mentor program and the Salvadori Center, which educates middle school students in mathematics and science.
The Thornton-Tomasetti Group, Inc. is a 500-person organization providing engineering and architectural services, failure analysis, hazard mitigation, and disaster response services.
During his 43 years with the firm, Thornton has been involved in the design and construction of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects in the U.S. and overseas, ranging from hospitals, arenas and high-rise buildings, to airports, transportation facilities and special projects. Representative projects include: Chicago Stadium (Bulls and Blackhawks arena); Terminal No. 1 at JFK Airport; the 95-story Petronas Twin Towers of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the world's tallest buildings; and the 50-story Chifley Tower in Sydney, Australia.
A recognized expert in the area of collapse and structural failure analysis, Thornton has led, for example, engineering investigations into the collapse of the Hartford Coliseum Space Truss Roof (1978) and the collapse of the New York State Thruway Schoharie Bridge (1987), and participated in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Building Performance Assessment Team to investigate the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City (1996).
He holds a bachelor of science from Manhattan College, and master's and doctoral degrees from New York University. His distinguished professional honors include election to the National Academy of Engineering (1997); honorary membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers (1999); the Engineering News-Record's Award of Excellence (2001); the Hoover Medal for 2002; and being named a Franklin Institute Laureate in 2003 when he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering.
Thornton is on the visiting faculty at Catholic University and Manhattan College and has taught at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, and Princeton University. He is chairman and founder of the ACE Mentor Program, a non-profit organization that, each year, offers guidance and training to inner city high schools students in architecture, construction and engineering in 57 cities across the U.S. In addition, he is chairman of the Salvadori Center that each year educates over 2000 New York City Middle School students in mathematics and science using architectural and engineering principles. In October 2003, Thornton was elected to membership in Lambda Alpha International.
Clarkson University, located in Potsdam, New York, is an independent technological university with a reputation for developing innovative leaders in technology-based fields. Its academically rigorous, collaborative culture involves 2,700 undergraduates and 350 graduate students in hands-on team projects, multidisciplinary research, and real-world challenges. Many faculty members achieve international recognition for their scholarship and research, and teaching is a priority at every level. For more information, visit http://www.clarkson.edu.
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