Rationale for the Hall of Fame

The ASCE OTC Committee has been at the forefront of recognizing the value the civil engineering technical papers deliver to the engineering community and industry in general. In 2004, the committee started presenting awards for the "OTC Best Paper of the Year," sponsored by ASCE. The plaques were given to the authors during the conference at a small ceremony held during the ASCE OTC Committee meeting. This recognition program will continue each year at OTC.

In 2005 the committee decided to elevate and expand this recognition to include papers from throughout the history of OTC, thus creating a separate "Hall of Fame." Over 10,000 papers in several disciplines have been presented so far at OTC conferences. The committee focused on the very early papers that have withstood the test of time, proving their value through widespread use, permeating codes, standards, guidelines and engineering software. A special sub-committee was charged with developing strict guidelines for nomination and selection of these initial papers for recognition. Calls for nomination were made, and nine papers were voted on and selected for award and induction in the Hall of Fame.