Horea Mircea Ioan SANDI, Hon. Prof. PhD HC C Eng.
(1932 – 2020)
An eminent authority on seismology
and earthquake engineering research
Horea Mircea Ioan Sandi, the most prominent Romanian researcher in Earthquake Engineering, died on December 4, 2020, a few weeks before his 89 th birthday.
More than 40 well recognized professors and researchers worldwide sent condolences to his family. From these, I highlight that of Professor Haresh Shah who wrote: “Prof. Sandi was a giant in the field of Earthquake Engineering and was respected and admired by his colleagues around the world. He was a great engineer, researcher and fantastic human being. I know also that he loved music, arts and literature. A truly “Renaissance” individual.”
Dr. Horea Sandi had received the Order “Star of Romania” in the rank of “Knight” – a highly significant honor of the Romanian State. This fact gave him the right to be buried with Military Funeral Honors, with the coffin covered with the Romanian flag during the ceremony. The Bucharest Garrison instituted on this occasion a Guard of Honor of about 30 soldiers. Upon the arrival at the cemetery, the Guard of Honor presented its honor and a trumpet sang the „Funeral March”.
At the end of the religious service there were four short tributes, given by the President of the Romanian Academy of Technical Sciences, Acad. Mihai Mihaita, by the Rector of the Technical University of Civil Engineering, Prof. Radu Vacareanu, by Dr. Emil Sever Georgescu, as President of Scientific Council of URBAN-INCERC, and by myself, Prof. Ion Vlad, on behalf of the Romanian National Center for Earthquake Engineering and Vibrations.
Horea Sandi’s contributions to engineering seismology and earthquake engineering were wide-ranging and spanned almost 60 years.
The global scientific community in these fields owes him a great debt and will miss him greatly. He is survived by his distinguished wife Ana Maria, and his daughter Ioana.
May his soul rest in peace,
Prof. Ion Vlad
***
Horea Sandi was born in Sibiu (Romania) on January 20, 1932. He graduated from the high school “Gheorghe Lazar” in Sibiu, in 1950. Thereafter, he studied at the Institute of Civil Engineering (now Technical University) in Bucharest during 1950-1955 and at the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Bucharest during 1950-1954. He received his PhD from the Institute of Civil Engineering with the doctoral thesis “Contributions to the Theory of Structural Design” in 1966. Between 1968-1969 he was a Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University in Hannover. He started his professional activity in 1955.
His main professional activities during the next 43 years (1958-2001) took place at INCERC (Building Research Institute) in Bucharest, where he developed research on structural dynamics, structural safety and actions on structures, earthquake engineering and engineering seismology. Starting with 1978 he was the head of the Division of Earthquake Engineering and in 1993 became the chairman of the Scientific Council of the Institute.
After 2001, he conducted research at the Institute of Geodynamics of the Romanian Academy on characterization of ground motion and on seismic conditions of Romania. Since 2006, he was honorary researcher at that institute.
During his career he received several distinctions and awards: “Medalia Muncii” (Labour Medal), 1966; “Steaua Romaniei” (Star of Romania) in knight category, 2000; prize of Romanian Academy for the contribution to the Monograph of the 1977 Earthquake in Romania; Diploma & medal for Opera Omnia of AICPS (Association of Structural Engineers) (2004); reverent INCERC (Building Research Institute) distinction at the age of 75 (2007); memorial medal at the 130-th anniversary of the establishment of the Polytechnic Society in Romania (2011).
He has been a full member of ASTR (Academy of Technical Sciences of Romania) since 1999, vice chairman of its Division of Civil Engineering since 1999 and chairman of the same since 2007. He was nominated honorary professor at the Technical University of Civil Engineering in Bucharest in 2004 and doctor honoris causa of the Technical University in 2007. His publication list includes 3 books as a single author, 9 co-authored books and more than 220 articles and papers (more than half in English, French etc.). Among them, more than 50 papers were presented at World or European Conferences on Earthquake Engineering.
Prof. Ion Vlad, Dr. Emil Sever Georgescu
…citeste articolul integral in Revista Constructiilor nr. 177 – ianuarie-februarie 2021, pag. 65
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