Dr. Shih-Ho (Simon) Chao is the ACPA Tom Wheelan Endowed Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA. He is also the University of Texas Arlington Distinguished Teaching Professor and the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teacher. He received his B.S. degree in Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering from National Taiwan University, and his M.S. degree in Structural Engineering from the National Chung-Hsing University. He worked for the government as a civil engineer before going to the U.S. for his graduate studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he received his Ph.D. degree in Structural and Materials Engineering, in December 2005. Dr. Chao worked as a post-doctoral research fellow and lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan until July 2007. He then joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Arlington as an assistant professor in 2007, earned the title of Associate Professor with tenure in 2012, and became a full professor in 2017.
Professor Chao is co-author of two books, namely, Prestressed Concrete Analysis and Design: Fundamentals (2022), and Performance-Based Plastic Design—Earthquake Resistant Steel Structures (2008). He has more than 110 technical publications. He is a member of several technical committees of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI); he is also member of Task Committee 9 – Seismic Systems of the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), and Subcommittee on Fiber-Reinforced Concrete of the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). He also served as associate editor of the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering.
His research studies include prestressed concrete, high-performance fiber (tensile strain-hardening) concrete, ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC), earthquake engineering, seismic behavior of structural systems, performance-based plastic design (PBPD) for earthquake resistant structures, and large-to full-scale experimental testing of reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, and steel members/frames (especially the special truss moment frame (STMF), the staggered truss framing (STF) system, and eccentrically braced frame (EBF).
