About

Benjamin Schafer is the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, where he also serves as the Director of the Ralph O’Connor Sustainable Energy Institute (ROSEI). His professorial appointment is in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Schafer’s research focuses on enabling engineers to reliably design resilient civil structures that use minimal material, with a particular emphasis on stability considerations for steel structures. He developed the Direct Strength Method of design, an internationally approved technique for predicting the strength of cold-formed steel building components, and led the first full-scale seismic tests on a cold-formed steel framed building. His work has also contributed to the development of novel solutions for steel wind turbine towers. Schafer’s research has been funded by various federal agencies, industry associations, and companies, and he is dedicated to translating research into codes and standards to improve the reliability and efficiency of structures. He actively participates in standards committees for organizations such as the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Institute of Steel Construction, and serves as a Consulting Principal for Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. Schafer has received numerous awards, including the AISC Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ellifritt Award from the Metal Building Manufacturers Association, and the Lynn S. Beedle Award from the Structural Stability Research Council. He holds a BSE in civil engineering from the University of Iowa and MS and PhD degrees in structural engineering from Cornell University.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Structural engineering
• Mathematics
• Computer Security
• Metallurgy
• Operations management
• Materials science
• Medical emergency
• Medicine
• Risk analysis (engineering)
• Physics
• Operations research

Selected publications

• Numerical investigation of the strength and design of cold-formed steel built-up columns

  Journal of Constructional Steel Research · 2022 · 54 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Structural engineering
  • Engineering
  DOI

• Multi-hazard hospital evacuation planning during disease outbreaks using agent-based modeling

  International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · 2021 · 37 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Computer Security
  • Computer Science
  DOI

• Numerical modeling of stress-strain relationships for advanced high strength steels

  Journal of Constructional Steel Research · 2021 · 25 citations

  • Structural engineering
  • Engineering
  • Materials science
  PublisherDOI

• Tests and design of built-up section columns

  Journal of Constructional Steel Research · 2021 · 72 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Structural engineering
  • Engineering
  DOI

• The mechanics of built-up cold-formed steel members

  Thin-Walled Structures · 2020 · 107 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Structural engineering
  • Computer Science

  The paper presents methods of analysis of built-up sections in which the discrete locations of fasteners is accounted for explicitly, rather than by smearing their effect using continuous shear flexibility as in current approaches. By considering fasteners at discrete points, it is possible to analyse the effects of placing additional fasteners at the ends (end fastener groups), to account directly for actual support conditions and to determine the optimum locations of fasteners. The paper first outlines the linear analysis of beams in flexure and introduces the notion of the effective flexural rigidity to account for partial composite actions. Closed form solutions are provided for five load and end support cases to demonstrate the application of the analysis. Next, the paper describes the linear analysis of built-up sections in torsion, considering first uniform torsion followed by non-uniform torsion. Closed form solutions are obtained for the effective torsion rigidity (GJeff) of built-up sections featuring closed loops. A framework is also presented for determining the effective torsion rigidity (EIw,eff) of open built-up sections in non-uniform torsion. The paper concludes with the analysis of built-up sections subject to flexural buckling. A general variational buckling equation is derived followed by an energy-type method for calculating buckling loads for common end support conditions, including columns supported on flexible end tracks. Closed form solutions are presented for up to seven rows of fasteners longitudinally. While by nature approximate, the solutions are shown to be highly accurate. Comparisons are made between the presented closed form solutions and buckling load predictions obtained using current design provisions.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Uncertainty Quantification and Model Validation in Thin-Walled Structures: A Probabilistic Paradigm for Advancing Analysis-Based Design

  NSF · $147k · 2012–2017

• GOALI/Collaborative Research: Enabling Advanced Wind Turbine Tower Manufacturing with Reliability-Based Design

  NSF · $200k · 2013–2017

• Collaborative Research: Reconfiguring Steel Structures: Energy Dissipation and Buckling Mitigation Through the Use of Steel Foams

  NSF · $129k · 2010–2013

• GOALI/Collaborative Research: Optimization of Infrastructure-Scale Thin-Walled Tube Towers including Uncertainty

  NSF · $449k · 2019–2025

• GOALI/Collaborative Research: Advancing System Reliability with Application to Light-Framed Structures

  NSF · $87k · 2013–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Shahabeddin Torabian

  Johns Hopkins University

  41 shared

• Kara D. Peterman

  University of Massachusetts Amherst

  21 shared

• Cheng Yu

  18 shared

• Cristopher D. Moen

  18 shared

• Matthew R. Eatherton

  18 shared

• Stephen G. Buonopane

  Bucknell University

  15 shared

• Teoman Peköz

  Cornell University

  15 shared

• Luiz Carlos Marcos Vieira

  Simpson Strong-Tie (United States)

  15 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering

  Cornell University

  1997

Awards & honors

• AISC Lifetime Achievement Award (2026)
• Metal Building Manufacturers Association's Ellifritt Award
• SSRC Lynn S. Beedle Award
• Norman Medal
• Shortridge Hardesty Award

Similar researchers at Johns Hopkins University

• Richard Huganirh-210
• Steven L. Salzbergh-191
• Arturo Casadevallh-152
• Peter Campochiaroh-139
• Alan Yuilleh-134