The second edition of the ROSE School Prize has been awarded to Vitelmo Bertero, on the basis of a unanimous decision of the Selection Committee, with the following motivation: over his long and distinguished career, Vitelmo Bertero has emphasized the need to understand structural performance under seismic attack, and to learn lessons from structural damage and failure in earthquakes. He led a whole new field of research emphasizing the importance of energy demand and capacity in seismic performance. Professor Emeritus of the University of California at Berkeley, he has received more than 70 awards and honours for his teaching and publications on earthquake-resistant design of structures, and has authored more than 360 papers and reports on this subject. He retired from teaching in 1991, after having supervised 70-80 graduate students, many of whom became renowned figures in the field of earthquake engineering, seismic risk, structural analysis. His lifelong efforts to contribute to an improvement in earthquake resistant design knowledge in seismic regions around the world is demonstrated by the fact that he has Honorary Professor titles at eight Latin American universities, being Doctor Honoris Causa in two of them. His contribution to the practicing community is equally noteworthy, and he has over the years collaborated with many design firms and practicing engineers. Recently, Bertero edited the book Earthquake Engineering: From Engineering Seismology to Performance-Based Engineering, combining a collective experience exceeding 500 years of teaching, research, and practice. In closing, as Joseph Penzien recently put it, "he is now recognised worldwide among his peers as a legend in the broad field of earthquake engineering", and thus the Selection Committee considers that he is the perfect recipient of the 2010 Edition of the ROSE Prize.
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