News Detail

Unparalleled Opportunities at ACI

5/1/2023

When I attended my first ACI Concrete Convention 38 years ago, I would have never guessed that I would be writing this memo in Concrete International as the 100th ACI President. The journey started at the 1985 Spring Convention in Denver, CO, USA, where I presented at the “Research in Progress” Session on “Compaction Concrete Utilizing Phosphogypsum” during my final semester as a PhD student. For those who have been in this business for a while, Bryant Mather was in the audience and asked me a question about ettringite formation. I have removed from my memory how I felt in that moment, but I guess the story has a happy ending because since then, I have missed only two conventions.

To say it is a privilege and an honor to be elected ACI President is obviously an understatement. To say that I had never expected it is a simple truth. Facing the reality of today, I feel energized and committed to helping our organization, our industry, and ultimately society—and fully realize the responsibilities I bear.

A critical issue for the Institute is new member recruitment and retention. So to hopefully inspire younger colleagues,
I will briefly trace some of my early history at ACI to demonstrate the unparalleled opportunities that ACI offers for professional growth and networking. But just as important, ACI provides inspiration for us to contribute our strengths and dreams for the greater good. Volunteering our time and expertise is the cornerstone of the Institute.

I started my technical committee service in 1985 as an associate member of ACI Committee 549 (at that time Ferrocement) and then ACI Committee 544, Fiber Reinforced Concrete. My first voting membership started in 1987 with ACI Committee 325, Concrete Pavements. My contribution to this group was primarily related to the use of by-products as construction materials and roller-compacted concrete as a construction technology (both topics closely related to my PhD dissertation).

A turning point in my professional career occurred in the late ‘80s-early ‘90s. As a young Assistant Professor at Penn State, I received two awards from the National Science Foundation to spend about 18 months in Japan, first hosted by industry (Mitsui Construction Co.) and later by academia (Tokyo University of Science), to conduct research in the area of composite (nonmetallic) reinforcement (also known as fiber-reinforced polymer [FRP]) for applications in existing and new concrete structures. These two visiting appointments, rather unusual for the time and my rank, allowed me to delve into, while in the geographical and intellectual cradle of this research niche, the opportunities and challenges of FRP systems for civil engineering. Uses included both repair systems of existing structures with FRP laminates as an externally bonded skin for strengthening and stiffening, and internal reinforcement of structures as FRP reinforcing bars or prestressing tendons (to address the dramatic societal costs resulting from steel corrosion).

Back to ACI, it was from Japan that I wrote a letter (airmailed!) to Sam Henry, the ACI Managing Director of Engineering at the time, for permission to convene a meeting at the 1991 Spring Convention in Boston, MA, USA, to form a new technical committee on this subject matter. Permission was granted and from there began the “official” history of FRP in ACI and, by reflection, in the U.S. concrete industry. The creation of what was and still is ACI Committee 440 (for over a decade the largest committee of the Institute and a very, if not the most, productive one) was good for ACI and the industry. I gained firsthand experience with the consensus process necessary to create technical documents and standards.

To keep up with ACI 440’s productivity in new and untried technologies, ACI invented a new publication series called “Emerging Technology Series” with a distinctive green-and-white cover to distinguish it from the traditional blue-and-white, official colors of the Institute’s documents. Based on today’s marketplace perspective, the industry that these efforts generated has estimated business volumes in North America of over 100 million USD for FRP repair and 50 million USD for FRP reinforcing bars/tendons. It is likely that the latter figure will double shortly.

In closing, I will continue writing about my ACI journey and cover some specific plans for my presidency in the next memo. I want to close this one by mentioning the inspirational goal as President. It is clear and straightforward: “To Make Concrete Better for Society and Its Industry,” and this means that we all, as professionals and as an organization, must take sustainability seriously.

Antonio Nanni

ACI President

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