Welcome to IABSE Congress Ghent 2021!

 Theme and Topics 

The IABSE Congress Ghent 2021 was a big international conference on structural engineering that brought together scientists, students, designers, contractors, owners, and specialists from international organisations from all over the world. The Congress was a significant event for promoting industry discussion, exchanging cutting-edge knowledge, and networking. The objective of IABSE, as a technical society, is to enhance structural engineering practise while taking into account technical, economic, environmental, aesthetic, and social aspects.

The Congress was an online event that was broadcasted utilising the OnAIR platform, which provided a comprehensive setting for merging online presentations, breakout sessions, networking, one-on-one meetings, and interaction.

The theme of the Congress is Structural Engineering for Future Societal Needs.

 Anticipated sub-themes are amongst others:

Structural safety and reliability with respect to climate change
Circularity, re-use and sustainability of structures

Emission free building of structures 

Special sub-themes are:

Enhancing resilience of civil infrastructure to hurricane and thunderstorm hazards under changing climate
Structural bearings and anti-seismic devices: innovation, standards and testing requirements
Towards extending the service life of existing concrete infrastructure through advanced assessment methods
Concepts and methods for the performance assessment of existing structures.

Also more traditional sub-themes may be addressed, if the abstract and paper refer to the main congress theme, e.g.

All types of bridges
Large span structures
Light-weight structures
High-rise buildings
All structural materials
Structural health monitoring
Design for earthquakes
Case studies
Failures and forensic engineering
Strengthening and retrofitting
Dynamics of structures
Innovative structures
Fatigue and fracture
Structural analysis and optimisation
Parametric design
Structural behaviour under fire conditions
Soil-structure Interaction
Exceptional loads on structures
Safety, reliability and risk
Architecture of structures
Additive manufacturing

 Keynote Speakers

Jacqueline Cramer, Utrecht University (NL)

Title: The transition to sustainable concrete in the Netherlands through network governance

 Michael J. Cook, Buro Happold (UK) and Imperial College (UK)

Title: Urgent steps to achieve a net-zero carbon construction industry: lessons from the IABSE (UK) Henderson Colloquium 2020 

Junho Song, Seoul National University (S. Korea)
Title: Risk intelligence of structural systems: concepts and recent developments

Luc Hellemans, Lantis (BE)
Title: Oosterweel – from an underground and even underwater road infrastructure plan to an urban transformation project

About The Organisers

The Belgian and Dutch Groups of IABSE together with Ghent Universtiy are organising the IABSE Congress Ghent 2021. The Organising Committee (OC) is chaired by Hans de Backer and includes 10 dedicated members.

Organising Committee

Hans De Backer (Chair)
Bert Hesselink (Vice-Chair)
Ane de Boer
Bart De Pauw
Alain Dumortier
Bernard Espion
Pierre Mengeot
Bert Snijder
Sven Somers
Aad van der Horst
Gilles Van Staen

 Scientific Committee 

Bert Snijder, The Netherlands, (Chair)
Bart De Pauw, Belgium, (Vice-Chair)
Ane de Boer, The Netherlands

Vincent de Ville de Goyet, Belgium

Pierre Mengeot, Belgium

Sander van Alphen, The Netherlands
Philippe Van Bogaert, Belgium